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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
September  20,  1900. 
Agricultural  Improvement. 
Such  was  the  heading  under  which  a  number  of  agricultural 
subjects  were  discussed  by  the  British  Association  during  its  meeting 
at  Bradford.  In  the  multitude  of  counsellors  there  is  wisdom,  says 
King  Solomon,  and  though  such  meetings  pass  away,  leaving  often 
little  hut  windy  records  behind  them,  yet  the  farming  world  should 
be  glad  of  the  interest  in  its  doings  which  is  thus  shown  by  such  a 
distinguished  body. 
Dr.  W.  Saunders,  director  of  Canadian  Experimental  Farms,  read 
a  paper  on  “Results  of  Experimental  Work  in  Agriculture  in  Canada 
under  Government  Organisation.”  Canadian  agriculture  was  at  such  a 
low  ebb  in  1884  tnat  the  House  of  Commons  appointed  a  select 
committee  to  inquire  into  the  best  means  of  encouraging  and  of 
developing  the  agricultural  industries  of  the  Dominion.  Under  the 
recommunda'ions  of  this  committee  an  Act-  was  passed  by  the 
Parliament  of  Canada  in  1886  authorising  the  Government  to  establish 
a  central  experimental  farm  and  four  branch  experimental  farms  in 
different  parts  of  the  Dominion,  and  by  1888  these  farms  were 
established  and  in  working  order.  The  experience  gained  during  the 
twelve  years  tl  at  these  farms  have  been  in  operation  shows  that  great 
benedt  has  resulted  from  them,  that  Canadian  farming  has  been  great  y 
stimulated  and  improved,  and  as  one  great  result  the  exports  of 
agricultural  produce  have  enormously  increased. 
A  creat  feature  in  the  recent  history  of  Canadian  farming  is  the 
institution  and  extension  of  many  of  our  English  methods.  Having 
cropped  and  recropped  his  virgin  soil  until  there  was,  metaphorically, 
nothing  left  but  skin  and  bone,  the  Canadian  farmer  found  it  quite 
impossible  auy  longer  to  farm  at  a  profit  in  the  old  way;  the  laud 
must  receive  new  stores  of  fertility,  or  again  have  a  rest  from  cropping. 
The  depression  resulted  in  the  experimental  stations  above  mentioned, 
and  they  have  done  much  to  inaugurate  English  systems  of  faimiug. 
As  exhaustion  of  the  fertility  of  the  soil  was  the  chief  evil  from 
which  they  were  suffering,  so  we  see  that  Canadian  farmers  have 
largely  turned  their  attention  to  the  use  of  suitable  fertilisers,  and 
valuable  information  has  been  afforded  them  by  the  Government  as  a 
result  of  searching  investigations  carried  on  at  the  exf^erimental 
stations. 
Yard  manure  was  med  both  fresh  made  and  well  decayed,  and  it 
was  found  that  the  latter,  though  it  had  lost  half  its  original  weight  in 
process  of  decomposition,  and  should  have  been  in  a  more  favourable 
condition  as  a  plant  lood,  was  weight  for  weight  only  of  equal  crop- 
producing  power  to  fresh  manure.  Both  were  used  on  exhausted 
soil,  and  one  requiring  large  supplies  of  nittog  n  ;  so  as  the  old  manure 
appear'd  to  have  lost  half  its  fertility,  we  must  suppose  that  it  had 
lost  half  its  nitrogen. 
The  use  of  artificials  was  attended  by  disappointment,  the  results 
were  not  at  all  commensurate  with  the  amount  of  plant  food  which 
the  various  mixtures  contained.  As  the  proportion  of  vegetable 
matter  in  the  soil  had  been  very  much  reduced  by  constant  cropping 
the  land  contained  little  or  no  humus,  and  so  its  capacity  for  holding 
moisture  had  bei-n  lessened  to  the  great  detriment  of  us  crop-producing 
power,  and  as  the  artihcials  contained  no  humus  they  were  unsuccesslul 
when  used  alone. 
The  growing  of  green  Clover  for  ploughing  in  has  been  found  very 
beneficial  to  Canadian  land.  Over  large  di'tricts  both  in  Eistern 
Canada  and  on  the  coast  of  British  Columbia  Clover  is  gro  n  amongst 
the  cereal  crops  just  as  we  grow  it  for  the  next  season's  grazing,  but 
in  Canada  it  is  grown  as  a  catch  crop  in  the  fall  after  the  cereal  has 
been  harvested.  Clover  grows  there  under  such  circumstances  so 
rapidly  that  a  dense  mat  of  growth  is  produced  by  the  autumn,  and  if 
this  be  plough!  d  in  a  considerable  addition  is  made  to  the  available 
nitrogen  as  well  as  to  the  supply  of  humus. 
This  system  of  farming  sounds  very  nice.  Growing  a  corn  crop  in 
summer  and  a  rtcuperative  crop  in  autumn  wouM  mean  a  corn  crop 
every  year.  Is  this  to  be  the  way  that  Great  Britain  is  to  feed  itself 
in  the  future  ?  We  fear  not.  How  is  the  land  to  be  kept  clean  ? 
The  hoe  cannot  be  used  after  the  Clover  has  been  sown,  so  weeds 
would  pe I  force  flourish  until  the  autumn  pi  tughing,  and  there  could 
be  no  effectuil  cleaning  process  in  winter.  The  price  of  Clover,  too. 
What  of  that  ?  We  often  have  to  pay  12s.  to  14s.  per  acre  for  good 
seed.  Would  not  this  be  too  high  a  price  to  pay  for  Clover  to  plough 
in  during  autumn  ?  We  should  like  to  know  the  price  of  scund 
Clover  seed  in  Canada.  Dr.  S  unders  does  not  tell  us  whether 
Canadian  farmers  sow  red  or  white  lor  this  purpose. 
Experiments  in  early  and  lale  sowings  of  grain  crops  have  resulted 
very  much  as  we  should  have  expected.  Six  sowings  were  made  at 
weekly  intervals,  the  first  being  put  in  the  ground  at  the  very  earliest 
practicable  lime.  The  results  showed  most  conclusively  in  'avour  of 
ihe  second  sowings,  which  meant  practically  the  earliest  which  was 
put  in  under  favourable  conditions.  A  very  rapid  falling  off  was 
shown  in  the  later  sowing-",  as  much  as  45  and  50  per  cent,  in  the  last 
of  all.  Barley  sowing  time  here  is  an  anxious  and  busv  one,  but  what 
must  it  be  compared  to  the  spring  sowing  time  in  Canada,  where  we 
are  shown  that  to  produce  the  best  results  all  should  be  put  in  during 
the  course  of  about  one  week  ? 
Very  great  importance  is  rightly  attached  to  selert'on  of  good 
varieties  of  seed  corn  in  Canada.  When  seme  varieties  continue  year 
by  year  to  produce  double  the  crop  of  others  it  is  surprising  to  find 
the  latter  still  in  cultivation,  but  if  a  collection  of  old-fashioned  cenals 
were  required  at  the  present  time  we  do  not  doubt  that  el  i-fashioned 
armers  could  still  be  found  in  Eiuland  growing  and  able  to  i-upply 
seed  of  Wheat  and  Bariev  that  had  been  grown  by  them  and  their 
fore-elders  fur  half  a  century  or  more.  There  is  too  much  of  the 
spirit  of  what  was  good  enough  for  them  is  good  enough  for  me. 
A  paper  was  read  by  Professor  Hall  of  Wye  on  growing  Sugar 
Beet  in  England.  As  the  experts  present  were  strongly  of  the  s-ame 
opinion  as  English  farmers — viz.,  that  Beet  growing  here  is  not  worth 
atrial — it  is  not  worth  discu.“sing  here;  but  as  Professor  Somerville 
remarked,  “  The  very  fact  that  it  is  impossible  to  grow  Bf-et  profitably 
in  this  country  ought  to  make  us  satisfied  with  the  present  p  "sition. 
If  Germany,  France,  and  Austria  are  content  to  go  on  putting  their 
hinds  in  their  pockets  in  order  to  make  sugar  cheap  for  us,  it  is  an 
enormous  advantage  to  the  nation,  though  the  refining  interest  may 
suffer. 
A  discussion  on  the  agricultural  labourer  only  went  to  pnve  that 
his  condition  has  been  much  ameliorated,  but  no  one  explained  how 
larmers  are  going  to  pay  tne  enhanced  wages. 
Work  on  tl|e  Home  Farm. 
Splendid  autumn  weather  almost  makes  us  wish  we  had  another 
harvest  to  get  in,  labour  difficulties  notwithstanding.  There  is  plenty 
of  room  in  the  yard  for  a  few  more  stacks,  but  we  must  wait  another 
year  and  hope  next  season  may  be  more  productive.  We  are  just 
finishing  the  thatching,  and  it  is  a  satisfaction  wh-n  all  is  thus  made 
safe  from  storm  and  tempest.  ,  We  may  be  thankful,  much  as  we  find 
fault  with  our  variable  climate,  that  we  are  not  subject  to  such  storms 
as  that  which  has  just  visited  Texas. 
The  whole  of  the  teams  are  busily  employed  in  the  fallows.  The 
Wheat  and  Oat  stubbles  were  fairly  clean  this  year,  so  there  is  not  much 
working  required,  and  one  small  crop  of  twitch  is  likely  to  be  all  the 
produce  of  it.  What  there  is,  however,  must  be  worked  to  the  surface, 
and  either  carted  off,*  burnt,  or,  if  sufficiently  withered,  left  to  be 
ploughed  in  later.  We  have  seen  the  smoke  of  twitch  burning  in  several 
directions  lately.  We  prefer  carting  off  when  it  can  be  managed,  tor 
the  burning  of  twitch  is  not  considered  to  be  economic  farming,  but 
team  labour  is  valuable  at  this  period,  and  it  is  j'ist  the  question 
whether  a  pair  of  horses  can  be  better  employed  than  in  carting  off 
stubble  and  twitch.  There  is  something  pleasant  about  the  smell  of 
burning  twitch — somewhat  of  mother  earth,  perchance. 
There  is  a  growing  opinion  amongst  men  whose  opinions  are  worth 
hearing  that  the  Pota'o  disease  is  likely  to  make  a  very  permanent 
mark  on  the  crop  of  1900.  There  is  the  greatest  unanimity  amongst 
growers  as  to  the  seriousness  of  the  attack,  and  also  as  to  the  failure  of 
the  copper  solution  to  ward  it  off.  At  any  rate,  as  regards  the  haulm 
the  sprayed  plots  are  quite  as  bad  as  the  unsprayed. 
Diseased  tubers  may  be  found  pt  every  root,  and  one  very  large 
grower  on  low-lying  land  has  been  offering  his  crop  en  bloc  at  £10  per 
acre.  On  August  let  he  would  probably  have  refused  £25.  Up-to- 
Date  seems  to  have  suffered  as  much  as  any  this  time. 
Farmers  are  coming  to  the  conclusion  the  Turnips  are  a  very  great 
crop ;  at  any  rate,  those  who  have  been  tramping  the  fields  after 
parnidges  think  so,  and  sheep  are  rapidly  rising  in  price.  The 
agricultural  returns  of  live  stock  show  a  loss  of  600,000  in  the  country’s 
flocks  as  compared  with  last  year.  We  notice  one  daily  journal  puts 
this  loss  down  to  the  storms  in  February.  We  think — nay,  we  are  sure 
— that  it  is  entirely  owing  to  the  failure  of  last  season’s  Turnips,  and 
we  are  glad  to  find  the  shortage  no  greater  than  it  is  Tne  crop  of 
lambs  was  a  small  one,  and  was  also  owing  to  the  shortness  of  keep. 
Threshing  machines  are  not  very  busy  as  yet.  So  far  the  yield  is 
disappointing,  especially  of  Barley.  The  amount  of  tail  corn  is  out  of 
proportion  to  the  bes',  and  the  latter  is  but  thin  in  body.  Wo  fear  the 
great  brewers  will  again  turn  their  attention  to  foreign  qualities. 
