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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
May  30,  1901. 
yours.  Treated  with  tenderest  consideration  from  their  birth,  fed  on 
the  daintiest  and  most  nutritious  food,  partaking  during  the  winter  in 
the  sport  of  kings,  and  allowed  in  summer  a  sort  of  existence  equalled 
only  in  that  state  in  the  fair  Lotus  land,  where  it  is  always  afternoon. 
If  Herring  had  been  told  that  there  would  come  a  time  when  the 
correct  thing  was  not  to  take  off  the  shoes  and  turn  out  to  grass 
during  the  summer  months,  he  would  have  laughed  a  scornful  laugh, 
and  probably  used  strong  language.  What  so  good  for  strained 
sinews  and  summer  humours  as  the'  cool  green  fields  ?  In  what 
other  way  would  a  hunter  be  made  so  fit  for  next  November? 
Nowadays  the  field  has  given  phceto  an  airy  loose  box  with  plenty  of 
green  food  supplied.  The  poetry  is  gone,  and  nothing  but  unadorned 
prose  remains.  By  this  present  system  there  is  less  danger  of 
accident,  and  the  preparation  for  the  winter  campaign  is  less  arduous ; 
but  of  course  more  work  is  entailed  during  the  summer,  and  a  man 
is  bound  to  have  a  very  complete  equipment  in  the  way  of  premises. 
A  friend  who  is  a  very  horsey  man  is  in  the  habit  of  running  up 
continually  to  towD,  and  attends  horse  auctions  with  great  regularity. 
He  buys  omnibus,  cab,  and  carriage  horses — some  awful  looking 
screws,  most  of  them  only  suffering  irom  “  ’ammer,  ’ammer,  ’ammer 
on  the  ’ard  ’igbway.”  Having  a  grass  farm  these  horses  get  the 
chance  of  a  summer  run,  which  is  really  often  all  the  medicine  they 
require,  and  folk  would  be  astonished  what  a  tidy  bit  of  money  may 
be  made  in  this  way.  Our  friend  possesses  two  great  gifts,  a  sound 
judgment  and  patience.  Some  of  the  horses  improve  so  much  as  to 
be  fit  for  the  single  brougham  or  the  dogcart ;  others  find  their  way 
to  the  various  tradespeople  who  carry  to  our  doors  the  goods  we  need 
daily ;  others  again  are  put  to  work  on  the  larm,  and  it  is  very 
seldom  one  is  totally  useless.  We  give  these  hints  gratis  to  any  of 
our  horsey  readers,  and  would  suggest  that  if  thev  live  near  London, 
indeed  any  town  of  much  importance,  they  might  spend  some  time 
worse  than  in  attending  a  horse  auction. 
It  is  marvellous  what  this  fresh  spring  grass  does  to  stock.  Look 
at  the  milk  part  first,  and  the  first  grass  butter  is  a  revelation.  We 
are  all  of  us  beginning  to  think  of  a  cream  cheese  ;  indeed  a  man  told 
us  yesterday  he  cared  nothing  for  “  berry  pie  till  he  had  a  bit  of  cream 
cheese  with  it.”  We  often  wonder,  when  butter  sinks  to  such  a  low 
ebb  in  the  early  summer,  that  more  of  the  farmers  do  not  put  a  few 
cream  cheeses  on  the  market;  or,  if  not  cream  cheeses,  some  of  the 
soft  varieties  which  the  delt-handed  travelling  dairy  teachers  turn  out. 
The  hard  cheese  of  the  winter  does  not  appeal  to  us  now  ;  we  want 
something  daintier  to  eat  with  our  salads  and  Tomatoes.  We  were 
once  very  much  amused  by  being  asked  at  dinner  whether  we  would 
take  “  shop  ”  or  “  madam,”  the  latter  being  the  delicious  home-made 
cream. 
Poets  have  sung  of  the  young  lambs  and  the  calves  out  in  the 
green  pastures,  and  spoken  of  their  gambols  as  the  poetry  of  motion ; 
and  the  sight  never  palls.  What  is  there  more  delightful  than  a 
ramble  in  the  fields  these  quiet,  calm  evenings,  when  everything  is 
looking  at  its  very  best  ?  11  we  had  to  pick  out  the  young  animals 
we  admire  most,  it  would  be  the  foal;  but  the  young  of  all  animals 
has  a  wonderful  charm,  seen  at  large,  and  under  such  favourable 
conditions. 
We  who  have  not  very  deep  ground  are  beginning  to  long  for  a 
good  shower.  Eleven  days  of  bright  sunshine  and  high  winds  has 
done  a  good  deal  towards  drying  the  land,  and  there  is  so  much  stock 
to  be  provided  for.  There  is  another  class  of  stock  on  the  farm  that 
do  doubly  well  when  turned  out  to  grass  ;  but  the  grass  must  be 
fresh,  that  is,  fresh  to  them.  We  refer  to  the  ubiquitous  fowl.  None 
but  those  who  have  tried  the  experiment  know  what  good  it  does 
fowls  to  take  them  clear  away  from  the  homestead  to  fresh  fields  and 
pastures  new.  In  fowls  that  are  laying  it  is  useless  to  hope  for  great 
increase  of  eggs  the  first  few  days;  they  must  be  allowed  to  settle 
down  first,  and  then  you  will  reap  your  reward,  not  only  in  a  fuller 
egg  basket,  but  also  in  the  better  and  healthier  state  of  your  flock. 
To  anyone  with  a  nice  taste  the  difference  in  flavour  of  the  grass  egg 
is  detected  at  once,  and  there  is  another  point,  the  birds  will  require 
less  hand  food.  There  is  a  danger  at  first  that  a  fowl,  by  excessive 
grass  eating,  may  get  crop-bound.  That  can  soon  be  ascertained,  and 
a  small  dose  of  the  useful  Epsom  salts  will  put  that  matter  to  rights. 
As  for  young  chickens,  those  taken  out  to  the  field,  provided  they  are 
all  right  at  the  time  of  exodus,  will  never  die  of  anything  but  an 
accident. 
Many  people  now  take  their  fowls  out  in  portable  houses  to  distant 
fields,  and  thus  are  enabled  to  bring  up  more  poultry  than  they 
would  possibly  do  were  all  kept  at  home.  There  are  two  arguments 
against  this  course,  and  rather  potent.  There  is  the  trustworthiness 
of  the  biped  man  and  the  quadruped  fox.  To  the  honour  of  our  race 
we  do  not  often  hear'  of  fowl  thefts  ;  but,  alas  !  what  can  we  say  of 
Master  Reynard  ?  Pie  regards  neither  time  nor  place,  and  will  always 
kiil  far  more  than  he  can  consume  ;  in  fact  the  way  home  is  generally 
littered  with  corpses.  We  have,  to  our  sorrow,  counted  as  many  as 
twenty  poor  maimed  bodies  within  as  many  yards.  The  master,  when 
he  thinks  of  his  winter  sport,  may  forgive  ;  the  mistress,  never ! 
A  worn  out  waggon  with  a  rough  thatched  roof  will  make  a  capital 
roost ;  if  the  thatch  be  thick  the  place  will  keep  cooler  during  the 
hot  weather.  The  galvanised  iron  buildings  get  to  feel  like  ovens, 
and  no  self-respecting  fowl  prefers  to  be  roasted  more  than  once,  and 
that  time  in  proper  attire  and  in  company  with  a  bit  of  bacon. 
Remember,  there  is  one  thing  that  will  be  lacking  in  the  field,  and 
that  is  grit.  We  are  more  and  more  convinced  that  grit  is  as  necessary 
as  food.  It  really  only  is  a  question  of  a  few  minutes,  for  we  know  no 
establishment  where  at  least  a  little  broken  crockery  may  not  be  found, 
and  a  hammer  or  flat-iron  will  soon  reduce  it  to  proper  proportions. 
That  it  is  needed  may.  soon  be  proved  by  the  way  it  disappears  when 
laid  down  in  the  fowl  quarters.  Water,  too,  must  not  be  forgotten. 
Most  grass  fields  have  natural  watering  places.  When  the  water  is 
supplied  by  a  pump,  not  a  trough,  great  care  must  be  taken.  We, 
under  these  circumstances,  lost  several  fine  fowls,  till  the  idea  occurred 
to  us  to  place  in  the  trough  big  stones  ;  by  so  doing  we  saved  many 
a  venturesome  fowl  from  a  watery  death.  An  old  puncheon  that  has 
seen  better  days  makes  a  good  water  vessel  if  sunk  in  the  ground  and 
partially  filled  with  stones  to  prevent  accidents. 
Work  on  He  Rome  Farm. 
We  have  had  a  splendid  week  of  typical  May  weather,  bright  sunny 
days  with  cool  nights  and  northerly  to  easterly  winds,  sometimes 
reminding  us  of  March.  Fortunately  we  have  had  no  frost,  and  the 
fruit  trees  must  have  had  a  favourable  season  for  setting  the  bloom, 
which  is  now  fading.  It  has  been  exceptionally  beautiful  this  year, 
the  amount  of  Plum  blossom  being  very  noticeable,  especially  as  it  has 
followed  suoh  an  abundant  crop. 
It  has  been  a  splendid  time  for  giving  the  land  a  last  dressing 
with  drags  and  harrows  preparatory  to  ploughing  for  the  root  orop. 
Everywhere,  that  is,  exoept  on  very  strong  land,  which  yet  requires 
much  more  rain.  A  strong  land  farmer  told  us  the  other  day  that 
he  had  never  been  so  badly  in  want  of  rain,  and  that  he  had  clods 
in  plenty  as  thick  as  his  body.  At  present  his  root  orop  is  more  than 
a  doubtful  one,  but  after  rain  in  sufficient  quantity  the  outlook  would 
be  as  fair  as  it  now  is  gloomy.  Farmers  backward  with  work  are 
now  given  a  splendid  chance  to  pick  up,  and  anywhere  that  there  is  a 
morsel  of  twitch  it  should  be  worked  to  the  top,  when  the  sun  and 
wind  will  soon  kill  it. 
Where  the  land  is  clean  and  in  fine  condition  we  see  no  use  in 
delaying  the  sowing  of  Swedes.  Certainly  Purple  Tops  of  the  Elephant 
and  Monarch  type  would  be  better  in  and  growing,  so  that  they  may 
be  well  matured  for  storing  before  Christmas.  Dear  as  Swede  seed  is, 
the  Purple  Tops  are  much  the  dearest,  which  shows  that  they  are  less 
hardy  than  others,  apart  from  their  susceptibility  to  frost  injury.  There 
is  a  great  run  on  Bronze  Tops  this  season,  Lord  Derby,  Favourite,  and 
Golden  Melon  being  all  excellent  types. 
Though  the  weather  has  been  favourable  for  getting  on  with  work  it 
has  not  been  very  good  for  the  horses,  and  we  hear  of  several  cases  of 
inflammation  from  chills  contracted  by  standing  in  the  east  wind  after 
being  overheated  in  the  sun.  Men  generally  take  a  sack  or  two  to  put 
on  the  horses’  backs  when  they  stop  for  lunch,  but  if  a  rug  were  provided 
for  each  horse,  and  the  farmer  insisted-  on  them  being  taken  with  the 
animals  on  all  occasions,  there  would  be  many  less  cases  of  loss  from 
lung  complaints.  Most  men  will  see  that  rugs  are  used  if  they  have 
them.  Castration  is  now  being  successfully  performed,  the  cool  tem¬ 
perature  being  excellent.  Care  must  be  taken,  however,  not  to  let  the 
colt 8  get  cold  by  too  sudden  exposure  to  the  east  wind  until  the  swelling 
has  quite  subsided.  Until  then  grass  or  Clover  may  be  brought  to  them 
in  the  loose  box. 
- - 
Meat  for  Young  Ducks.— -Ducklings  need  meat  or  animal  food 
in  some  form.  James  Rankin,  the  veteran  Mass,  duck  raiser,  feeds  one 
part  hard-boiled  eggs  and  three  parts  stale  bread  crumbs  the  first  three 
or  four  days.  After  that  he  gives  equal  parts  wheat  bran,  corn  meal, 
and  boiled  potatoes  with  a  little  beef  scrap.  A  large  duck  raiser  feeds 
equal  portions  of  wheat  middlings,  cornmeal,  crackers  or  bread  crumbs, 
with  green  food  for  the  first  week.  After  this  the  ration  is  made  of 
four  parts  cornmeal,  two  of  bran,  one  of  middlings,  one  of  beef  sorap, 
and  about  four  parts  green  food.  A  handful  of  sharp  sand  is  added  to 
each  quart  of  the  mixture. 
Golden  Wyandottes  for  Farmers.  —  Like  all  varieties  of 
Wyandottes,  the  golds  are  a  utility  breed  and  one  of  the  best  general 
purpose  varieties  in  existence.  The  young  chicks  are  bardy,  always 
plump  when  fed  enough,  and  ready  to  kill  at  any  time  after  weighing 
f  lb.  Unlike  the  Asiatic  breeds,  the  chicks  never  get  long  and  leggy. 
They  have  plenty  of  breast  meat,  short  legs,  and  a  small  head  and  comb, 
so  there  is  but  little  waste  in  dressing,  is  roasting  fowls  they  are 
unsurpassed,  and  the  most  desirable  market  weights  of  4  to  6  lb5,  are 
easily  attained.  The  pullets  mature  early  and  make  good  layers.  They 
excel  all  other  breeds  in  laying  during  the  fall  months.  The  eggs  are 
of  good  size  and  of  the  dark  brown  colour  so  greatly  in  demand  for  the 
Boston  market.  The  golden  Wyandottes  differ  only  in  colour  from  the 
silvers  in  that  they  have  golden-bay  markings  and  lacings  instead  of 
white. 
