44 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
January  10,  1901. 
Fatal  Snpineness. 
The  goose  of  the  golden  egg  is  an  old  fable,  but  fables  were  not 
written  without  a  strong  moral  purpose  underlying  their  pretty 
conceit.  They  teach  so  much  in  so  little  a  space,  and  they 
teach  it,  too,  in  a  way  that  even  a  dullard  cannot  fail  to  grasp 
the  meaning.  The  haste  to  be  rich  is  a  fatal  state.  You  cannot  have 
your  cake  and  eat  it,  at  d  yet  there  are  folks  all  the  world  over  who  are 
every  day  trying  to  do  the  impossible.  The  worst  of  it  is  that  the 
active  agents  are  not  the  only  or  by  any  means  the  chief  sufferers. 
If  people’s  folly  only  rebounded  on  their  own  heads  we  shoul  i  not 
have  much  to  say  ;  they  would  be  punished,  and  there  would  be  an 
end  of  the  matter.  But,  oh,  dear  !  it  is  the  third  ana  fourth  generations 
that  have  to  bear  the  brunt  of  the  suffering — the  innocent  victims 
for  whom  we  feel  the  pity. 
It  is  a  curious  thing  how  much  latent  barbarity  there  is  in  most  of 
us.  Education  may  and  does  do  much  to  civilise  and  tame,  but 
there  seems  to  be  a  spirit  of  destruction  in  the  best  of  us,  from 
the  pure  child  ol  Nature  to  the  Hooligan  of  the  slum.  It  is 
fearful  to  contemplate  the  havoc  such  ruffians  may  work;  not 
altogether  perhaps  out  of  sheer  badness,  but  from  a  curious  mental 
attitude,  compounded  of  ignorance  and  the  spirit  of  waste  and 
destruction.  How  is  it  that  a  rare  plant  or  bird  is  so  i-eldom  found  ? 
There  are  hands  (and  we  grieve  to  say  it),  hands  that  should  know 
better,  who  cannot  leave  a  rate  plant  alone,  but  must  “  collect,”  or 
see  a  strange  bird  without  the  itching  of  the  trigger  finger. 
Apropos  of  strange  birds,  we  have  just  been  reading  a  fantastic 
story  of  a  good  par.-on  who  “winged”  an  angel,  and  the  difficulties  he 
experienced  to  explain  away  this  rather  lightly  clad  unconventional 
guest  iu  his  quiet  parsonage.  We  only  wish  some  of  these  rabid 
collectors  might  be  haunted  by  the  spirits  of  their  poor  unwilling 
victims.  We  all  know  the  fate  of  the  American  buffalo,  an  animal 
yielding  meat  and  warm  clothing,  and  an  animal  rendered  practically 
extinct  through  the  sporting  (?)  instinct  of  man.  Never  more  will  the 
wild  plains  be  tenanted  by  that  splendid  beast  whose  bones  lie  bleaching 
in  the  wilderness,  and  the  coming  generation  will  only  know  of  him 
through  the  pages  of  the  old-fashioned  novelist — the  Mayne  Reid  and 
Fennimore  Cooper  of  our  pleasant  and  early  days.  G-ame  laws  for 
South  Africa  are  essential,  or  the  more  fav  ured  quarry  will  be  extinct 
as  the  dodo.  Sanctuary  they  need,  and  that  they  must  have  imme¬ 
diately  or  perish. 
We  mUht  multiply  instance  upon  instance  of  man’s  folly  and 
cruelty — present  gain,  without  thought  of  future  need.  Parched 
lands,  where  fertile  plains  once  existed;  treeless  wastes,  arid  and 
unprofitable,  and  which  have  to  be  brought  back  into  cultivation  at 
infinite  expense  and  labour.  Pestiferous  watercourses  carrying 
death,  laden  with  matter  most  valuable  for  the  land,  but  absolutely 
deadly  when  held  in  solution.  Think  of  the  work  involved  in 
purifying  the  sewage-laden  stream  ;  the  stinking  river,  where  no  fish 
can  live  and  no  herbage  clothes  the  banks. 
But  we  must  go  further  afield  if  we  wish  to  see  another 
exemplification  of  goose  killing.  We  have  been  accustomed  to  look  to 
the  States  of  North  America  as  being  almost  boundless  in  extent,  and 
providing  food  not  only  for  their  own  population,  but  having  enough 
and  to  spare  for  distant  people  ;  and  so  they  might  have,  but  for 
reckless  prodigality — we  might  say  wicked  prodigality,  for  wasted 
food  is  a  terrible  sight.  It  is  a  curious  thing  that  so  little  is  done  in 
the  way  of  prevention.  Why  people  wait  till  the  evil  is  extreme 
before  applying  the  remedy  is  a  question  that  is  beyond  us. 
Those  who  have  an  atlas  handy  should  turn  to  a  map  of  the  States, 
and,  tracing  the  Missouri  river,  notice  those  States  which  lie  west  of 
it.  Perhaps  few  know  that  these  States  are  ihe  grazing  grounds  of 
vast  herds  of  cattle,  which  have  hitherto  supplied  the  States  with 
beef,  and  had  a  surplus  to  spare.  “These  lands  belong  to  Govern¬ 
ment,  and  graziers  are  allowed  free  use  of  them,  thus  reducing  the 
cost  at  which  they  can  deliver  beef  in  the  markets  of  the  thickly 
populated  States.”  But  land  that  is  being  constantly  and  heavily 
graz°d  becomes  exhausted  as  much  as  unmanured  arable  land,  ami 
nothing  has  been  done,  eit  er  to  give  the  lands  a  rest  or  a  liitle 
additional  help.  “  Many  of  the  Western  States  that  at  one  time  were 
famous  for  their  stoc  ^-raising  industries  do  not  have  50  per  cent  of 
meat-bearing  animals  that  they  had  ten  years  ago.  These  districts 
belong  to  the  public  domains,  bat  on  account  of  the  hostility  of  the 
men  who  now  have  free  use  of  them,  it  is  impossible  to  get  authority  to 
control  them  as  we  think  best.  They  are  located  in  areas  where  there 
is  little  or  no  rain,  and  which  are  too  high  for  irrigation.  They  grow 
native  Grasses,  which  are  very  sweet  and  nutritious.  Constant 
grazing  on  them  has  destroyed  the  grass  over  vast  sections.  Sheep 
eat  very  close  to  the  roots,  and  the  grass  has  had  no  chance  to  reseed.” 
This  is  from  United  States  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  Mr.  Wilson. 
Now  it  appears  that  the  authorities  have  made  manv  experiments 
with  forage  seeds,  and  have  even  imported  seeds  from  Africa  for  this 
purpose  and  on  those  lands  where  they  have  had  a  chance  have 
succeeded  in  restoring  verdure  to  the  plain ;  but  the  majority  of  the 
graziers  will  permit  of  no  interference  with  their  continuous  use  of  the 
lands  ;  in  fact  they  will  not  allow  a  “  close  ”  time.  Surely  one  would 
think  the  Government  was  strong  enough  to  arrange  this  matter,  but 
it  does  not  seem  able  so  to  do,  and  it  appears  hopeless  to  appeal  to  the 
common  sense  of  these  cattle  owners.  They  may  be  all  right  for  the 
present,  as  a  diminished  supply  means  higher  prices.  Since  1890  there 
has  been  a  decrease  of  25  per  cent,  in  the  total  number  of  stock,  and 
who  can  tell  when  it  will  cease  with  depleted  worn  out  pastures  ? 
With  the  food-producing  areas  of  the  world  rapidly  diminishing, 
and  the  population  increasing,  there  will  be  a  difficulty  soon  somewhere. 
Statesmen  will  find  the  hungry  mob  awkward  to  satisfy,  and  unless 
irrigation  of  desert  tracts  gives  a  fresh  extension,  or  new  methods  of 
cultivation  are  resorted  to,  or  the  growth  of  the  population  checked, 
we  shall  soon  enter  upon  a  period  of  food  scarcity,  and  we  shall  take 
very  badly  to  that  after  all  these  years  of  liberal  supply,  for  whatever 
else  may  have  been  dear,  food,  good,  wholesome,  and  cheap,  has  been 
brought  to  our  very  doors.  Some  of  us  would  like  to  have  seen  it  a 
wee  bit  dearer,  but  after  all  the  majority  have  been  the  gainers,  and  a 
well-fed  people  are  generally  a  contented  people. 
Work  on  tfye  flome  Farm. 
We  have  ice  a  quarter  of  an  inch  thick  this  morning,  so  hope  that  at 
last  we  may  have  a  spell  of  frost.  That  we  should  is  most  desirable,  for 
the  wind  and  storm  of  last  week,  accompanied  by  deluges  of  rain,  have 
made  work  on  the  land  well  nigh  impossible.  Lying  fairly  high,  we  are 
not  flooded  as  farmers  so  unfortunately  are  in  many  parts,  but  the  land 
is  too  soft  for  ploughing,  and  carting  manure  would  be  horse-killing 
work. 
The  wet  autumn  has  much  increased  the  consumption  of  bedding  in 
the  open  yards,  and  they  are  getting  rather  full  of  manure,  so  a  frost 
sufficient  to  make  carting  easy  work  would  be  very  convenient  just  now, 
and  if  it  were  to  continue  for  a  longer  period  than  is  required  for  such 
work  we  should  not  grumble,  for  horses  have  been  very  hardly  worked 
and  would  do  with  a  little  rest.  Besides  this,  frost  would  do  good  in 
many  ways.  The  land  is  so  wet  and  sodden  that  a  good  freezing  is 
absolutely  necessary  to  bring  it  again  into  workable  condition.  Corn 
stacks,  too,  are  damp,  and  the  grain  out  of  condition.  A  good  frost 
with  drier  condition  of  the  atmosphere  would  soon  put  them  right. 
Sheep  are  still  doing  very  well.  Lair  is  not  so  good  as  it  was,  but 
we  have  seen  it  far  worse,  and  indeed  it  is  rather  surprising  considering 
the  weather.  Peihips  it  is  owing  to  the  animals  having  plenty  of 
room  to  fall  back  on.  The  plough  must  be  kept  off  Turnip  land  until 
it  is  dry  again,  for  nothing  is  so  fatal  to  a  Barley  crop  as  sowing  it  on 
laud  which  has  been  ploughed  wet. 
We  hear  rumours  of  considerable  sickness  amongst  horses,  partly 
owing  to  bad  stable  accommodation,  but  partly  as  a  “  vet.”  tells  us 
because  farmers  forget  that  the  horses  require  a  little  rest  sometimes. 
Some  farmers  have  much  ploughing  still  left  on  hand ;  one  told  us  he 
could  do  with  twenty  extra  horses  for  a  month.  A  suggestion  of 
steam  help  was  received  with  scorn.  Steam  cultivation  seems  to  be 
much  out  of  favour  in  some  districts. 
There  is  likely  to  be  a  boom  in  pigs  ;  dealers  are  buying  up  suckers 
three  or  four  months  in  advance,  to  be  delivered  at  eight  weeks  old  at 
£1  per  head. 
• -  <»♦»» - 
Training  Farms  for  Young  Englishmen. — One  of  the  great 
difficulties  which  young  Englishmen  have  to  face  in  leaving  England  for 
the  Colonies  is  lack  of  experience.  To  meet  this  want  the  Government 
of  New  Brunswick  have  established  a  training  farm,  at  which  educated 
young  men  may  receive  a  thorough  training  in  agriculture  with  an 
outlay  of  between  £30  and  £40.  This  sum  is  to  pay  for  breakages  in 
farm  machinery,  which  usually  suffers  more  or  less  in  the  hands  of  a 
beginner,  at  any  rate  during  the  first  year.  The  farm  is,  however, 
worked  so  as  to  be  self-supporting ;  it  consists  of  900  acres,  and  it  is  in 
charge  of  an  Englishman,  Mr.  A.  W.  Pratt,  a  graduate  of  Cambridge 
and  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  College  at  Cirencester.  It  is  inspected 
from  time  to  time  by  Government  officials,  who  see  that  nothing  is 
neglected  in  the  way  of  modern  improvements.  The  idea  is  so 
excellent  that  it  is  to  be  hoped  other  Colonies  will  follow  New  Bruns¬ 
wick’s  example.  Full  particulars  of  the  scheme  may  be  obtained  from 
the  Hon.  C.  A.  Duff  Miller,  the  Agent-General,  17,  Leather  Market, 
London. 
