JOURNAL  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER.  -December  27, 1900. 
as  the  sword — and  there  was  hardly  a  household  throughout  our  vast 
empire  that  had  not  relation  or  friend  engaged  in  the  deadly  strife. 
Our  Indian  dominion  was  in  the  throes  of  famine,  and  all  round  the 
outlook  was  gloomy. 
Well,  we  have  had  our  lesson ;  time  will  prove  whether  it  has 
been  conned  in  the  right  spirit  or  not.  The  farmer’s  year  never  seems 
very  bright  now.  Occasionally  there  are  gleams  of  light  on  the 
horizon,  but  alas  !  they  fade  too  soon.  We  always  seem  to  be  reaping 
disappointment.  We  have  a  tightness  of  supplies  here,  we  hope  for 
hardening  prices — down  sweeps  the  ubiqui'ous  foreigMh  and  fairly 
drives  us  out  of  our  own  markets.  This  happens  not  ontb  or  twice, 
but  again  and  again,  and  there  is  no  remetiy. 
The  farmer’s  difficulties  began  with  a  very  wet  February ;  the 
ground  became  perfectly  sodden,  and  the  expected  winds  of  March 
delayed  their  coming  or  only  blew  gentle  gales,  not  enough  to  insure 
a  good  dry  seed-bed — and  what  a  good  dry  seed-bed  means  only  an 
old  farmer  can  properly  tell.  Then  again,  the  early  part  of  the 
summer  proving  dry.  Barley  and  Oats  received  a  check  from  which 
they  were  never  able  to  recover.  A  little  of  the  superfluous  moisture 
of  March  would  have  been  most  welcome  in  May  or  June. 
Wheats  throughout  the  country  looked  well  in  winter — in  fact,  too 
well,  and  where  not  assisted  by  top-dressing  proved  de'ective  both  in 
grain  and  straw.  So  much  corn  finished  too  quickly,  and  consequently 
was  thin  and  poor.  A  dry  summer  generally  means  a  good  Wheat 
crop,  but  this  season  the  contrary  has  been  proved.  If  Wheat  has 
been  a  disappointing  crop  Clover  and  hay  were  both  well  girt,  though 
the  bulk  was  perhaps  hardly  as  great  as  usual.  The  young  seeds 
were  abnormal,  and  never  in  our  experience  have  we  seen  seeds  better 
set.  They  afforded  a  wonderful  “  bite  ”  for  stock  this  back  end. 
Early  planted  Potatoes  bad  a  fine  time  of  it,  the  weather  just 
coming  as  it  should  for  their  growth  ;  but  the  later  varieties,  which 
are  really  the  farmer’s  mainstay,  suffered  much  from  lack  of  moisture 
in  the  earlier  stages — weather  that  suited  the  hay  harvest  checking 
their  growth.  Then  came  the  drenching  rains  and  close  days  of 
August,  which  can  but  have  one  result  where  Potatoes  are  concerned. 
The  sprayed  crops  demonstrated  the  value  of  preventive  measures,  and 
we  opine  that  next  season  the  sprayer  will  have  full  work  in  Potato 
districts.  There  are  to  be  found  some  fair  crops,  one  or  two  very 
good  in  the  Dunbar  district,  but  the  majority  are  most  disappfinting. 
Up-to-Date  is  a  good  yield,  but  Up-to-I)ate  is  likely  to  be 
displaced  in  favour  of  a  new  variety  called  British  Lion.  What 
short  reigns  these  new  Potatoes  have  !  How  soon  they  are  superseded  ! 
These  new  variety  raisers  are  always  at  work  ;  and  how  different  must 
be  the  Potato  of  to-day  to  that  of  old  Sir  Walter.  By-the-by,  a 
young  Hindoo  farm  student,  the  owner  of  twenty  or  fifty  villages  (we 
are  not  sure  which)  is  going  home  to  cultivate  the  Potato  on  some  of 
his  alluvial  soil :  be  says  it  does  well  and  is  in  great  demand. 
The  crop  of  the  year  is  undoubtedly  the  Turnip,  and  we  shall  hear 
less  (for  a  time)  of  the  cost  of  the  crop  in  proportion  to  its  value. 
After  all,  what  a  thing  it  is  to  have  roots  enough  and  to  spare.  How 
it  lessens  the  master’s  anxiety  !  how  it  insures  the  comfort  of  sheep 
and  beasts  !  Not  only  are  they  plentiful,  but  of  such  excellent  quality ; 
and  although,  so  far,  the  season  has  been  mild,  we  are  glad  to  see  many 
farmers  providing  for  possible  severe  frosts  by  pieing.  Of  course  it  is 
an  expense,  but  it  pays,  even  if  the  weather  is  not  severe.  The  roots 
retain  their  nature  better  in  pies  than  in  the  open,  and  in  bare  and 
rabbit  infested  districts  they  are  safe  from  inroads.  It  is  hardly 
possible  to  estimate  what  damage  hares  and  rabbits  can  manage  to  do ; 
it  has  to  be  seen  to  be  believed. 
The  fall  of  lambs  was  not  a  great  one,  and  consequently  the  price 
of  sheep  has  risen.  Would  that  the  price  of  wool  would  follow  suit. 
The  beef  trade  through  the  country  is  better,  though  we  fear  some  of 
the  heavy  fat  Christmas  weights  may  be  a  dead  loss  wiih  this  moist 
open  weather,  that  is,  if  it  should  continue.  Twenty-four  hours  will 
sometimes  work  wonders,  and  this  is  the  season  when  frost  may  be 
expected. 
Foot  and  mouth  disease  in  several  parts  of  the  country  has  given 
us  a  scare,  but  owing  to  stringent  measures,  the  outbreaks  have 
been  quickly  checked.  Some  large  ram  breeders  must  have  lost 
heavily,  as  their  sheep  were  turned  back  at  the  port  of  embarkation. 
The  foreigner  would  not  take  the  risk  of  introducing  through  English 
rams  the  dreaded  disease.  However,  “  It’s  an  ill  wind  that  blows  no 
one  any  good,”  for  many  farmers  were  able  to  procure  the  best  blood 
at  comparatively  low  prices. 
There  was  a  bit  of  a  rush  for  army  remounts  early  in  the  season, 
and  the  country  got  rid  ,of  some  rubbishy  horse  flesh,  but  for  the 
breeders  and  sellers  of  really  tip-top  hunters  the  season  was  a  bad 
one.  All  the  buyers  were  hunting  the  Boer  rather  than  the  fox, 
and  we  heard  of  many  fiefos  where  the  ladies  predominated  at  the  rate 
of  about  forty  to  seven.  Ladies  are  not  valuable  horse  buyers,  nor  do 
they  need  weight  carriers.  However,  let  us  hope  the  warriors  are  back 
again  in  the  shires,  which  we  are  sure  they  will  prefer  to  the  African 
veldt. 
The  great  difficulty  the  farmer  has  had  to  face  this  year  is  still 
unsurmounted,  and  is  likely  to  be  a  source  of  trouble,  we  fear, 
into  the  new  century.  What  is  to  be  done  about  labour  ?  It  is 
all  very  well  to  talk  of  labour-saving  machines,  but  there,  are 
processes  that  no  machine  can  accomplish,  and  at  any  rate  the  greatest 
sceptic  will  allow  we  must  have  men  to  mind  the  machines.  It  has  got 
beyond  the  mere  question  of  wage,  for  the  wage  may  be  what  it  will, 
and  the  privileges  great,  yet  the  men  are  not  tempted  back  to  the 
land.  There  is  a  great  future  to  that  man  who  can  suggest  a 
practical  remedy — and  that  man  has  yet,  we  fancy,  to  be  born.  An 
old  man  was  speaking  to  us  the  other  day  as  to  the  future  of  his 
grandson.  On  being  asked  what  sort  of  place  the  lad  wanted,  he 
chuckled  and  said,  “  Them  sort  o’  places  where  they  lets  all  the  work 
out.”  Those  places  are  popular  and  the  candidates  many. 
We  are  pretty  sure  there  is  not  such  an  honest  love  of  work  as 
there  used  to  be.  Every  class  is  crying  out  for  more  holiday,  and 
often  those  who  need  least  get  mo-t.  Well,  the  farmer’s  life  is  full  of 
lights  and  shadows.  He  needs  a  great  measure  of  faith  and  patience. 
He  must  he  a  man  of  practical  experience  as  well  as  liberal  education  ; 
he  must  have  capital  and  judgment,  and  a  knowledge  of  home  and 
foreign  markets,  and  then,  when  all  is  said  and  done,  he  will  only 
just  manage  to  keep  his  head  above  water.  We  wonder  what  our  new 
Minister  of  Agriculture  will  do?  He  has  plenty  of  scope;  has  he 
the  power  and  inclination  ?  Our  dairy  interest  is  threatened.  We 
do  not  mean  the  butter  supply,  but  milk  is  being  imported  in  large 
and,  we  fear,  growing  quantities.  It  comes  to  our  ports  without  let  or 
hindrance,  presumably  rich  in  preservatives,  and  from  dairies  that 
are  under  no  sanitary  supervision.  The  English  milk  seller  is  watched 
and  surrounded  as  though  his  sole  aim  was  to  supply  tainted  milk. 
The  foreigner  sends  exactly  what  he  likes,  and  we,  or  rather  the 
authorities,  are  absolutely  inactive. 
We  all  have  been  much  agitated  lately  as  to  what  is  pure  beer, 
and  we  all  agree  we  had  rather  take  our  tonics  direct  from  our 
medical  man  than  take  it  as  the  brewer  lists  in  our  beer.  The  question 
of  “  pure  ”  beer  has  been  working  for  some  time,  and  we  only  hope 
something  drastic  will  be  the  outcome.  We  want  not  only  to  be 
free  from  arsenic,  but  also  we  want  to  know  what  we  are  drinking. 
We  can  take  or  leave  it  then  as  we  choose.  We  shall  have  more  to 
say  on  this  subject  m  the  future.  We  should  like  to  prophesy  a 
bright  future  for  the  English  farmer,  but  alas  !  the  outlook  will  not 
justify  any  such  hope.  We  can  but  do  our  best,  and  leave  the 
result.  It  is  just  possible  that  by  new  methods  our  sons  may  be 
able  to  succeed  where  we  have  failed,  and  prosperity  may  again  follow 
the  plough. 
Work  on  %  flome  Farm. 
Writing  on  the  eve  of  Christmas,  we  find  the  weather  conditions 
anything  but  Christmas  like.  Though  we  have  had  no  heavy  rainfall 
lately,  there  have  been  several  drizzly  days,  and  it  is  now  as  mild  and 
muggy  as  ever.  The  presence  of  water  in  the  cellar  shows  that  the  soil 
is  now  thoroughly  saturated,  and  the  water  supply  of  1901  must  be 
assured. 
A  dry  frosty  time  would  be  welcome  in  the  open  yards,  for  the 
cattle  are  using  quite  as  much  bedding  as  can  be  spared.  It  is  really 
surprising  how  little  really  good  straw  there  is  in  many  of  this  season’s 
stacks.  Barley  stacks  particularly.  As  a  farmer  remarked  to  us, 
“  Barley  straw  nowadays  seems  to  be  mostly  pulse.”  Covered  yards 
will  give  a  good  return  for  the  cost  by  economising  straw,  but  even 
covered  yards  require  a  fair  amount  of  bedding.  For  them  the  straw 
will  go  further  if  cut  up. 
The  chief  care  of  the  anxious  farmer  just  now  is  to  get  a  fair  day’s 
work  out  of  his  horses ;  the  days  are  so  short,  and  it  is  hardly  possible 
to  see  to  plough  before  eight,  and  it  is  dark  again  at  four.  The  single 
yoke  frotn  eight  until  two  does  not  enable  a  ploughman  to  complete  a 
very  large  piece  of  work,  and  by  the  time  he  has  got  home,  and  fed  his 
horses  and  himself,  darkness  will  be  setting  in 
Some  farmers  who  are  not  far  from  a  station  do  all  their  delivery  of 
grain  and  Potatoes,  in  the  afternoons  ;  the  men  plough  until  noon, 
return  home  to  dine  and  bait  the  horses,  and  are  then  able  to  deliver  a 
load  of  produce  to  rails  while  the  light  lasts,  though  they  may  have  to 
make  the  return  journey  in  darkness,  and  it  is  in  this  last  point  that  the 
saving  lies.  Perhaps  the  men  will  be  declining  to  drive  in  the  dark  ; 
they  may  do  so,  for  they  are  mighty  independent. 
We  have  not  heard  of  any  poisoning  by  beer  in  the  villages,  though 
the  licensed  houses  are  nearly  all  in  the  hands  of  the  large  brewers,  and 
strictly  tied,  except  for  bottled  ales,  the  occupier  generally  having 
special  permission  to  sell  Bass  in  bottles,  but  not  on  draught.  This 
shows  that  there  is  still  a  demand  for  really  good  beer.  Farmers  have 
almost  given  up  brewing  for  themselves.  Would  they  begin  again  if  they 
were  allowed  to  retail  beer  brewed  from  their  own  produce,  paying 
duty  of  course  This  would  be  one  way  of  providing  a  supply  of  pure 
malt  liquor. 
