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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
June  13,  1901. 
TlieTBath  and  West. 
We  may  say  th3  season  of  agricultural  shows  has  fairly  opened. 
There  are  several  big  and  important  fixtures  which  run  the  Royal  very 
close,  and  we  should  give  the  place  of  honour  to  the  Bath  and  West 
and  Southern  Counties.  The  West  of  England  appears  capable  of  a 
very  liberal  interpretation.  We  have  seen  the  show  at  St.  Albans  and 
Cardiff,  and  this  year  at  Croydon.  Where  does  the  West  begin  or  end  ? 
[The  Society,  which  originated  at  Bath,  now  embraces  the  West  and 
Southern  counties. — Ed.]  It  strikes  us  forcibly  that  if  the  Roval 
is  to  be  a  permanency,  the  Bath,  if  it  continues  to  be  peripatetic, 
will  distinctly  score.  There  is  no  doubt  in  our  mind  that  the  show 
should  come  to  the  people,  and  we  think  that  by  moving  about  as 
it  does  it  ta  s  fresh  sources,  awakens  fresh  enterprise,  and  in  other 
words  keeps  the  ball  a-rolling.  We  should  fancy  Croydon  a  capital 
locality  for  a  show — good  train  service,  thickly  populated  neigh¬ 
bourhood,  and  the  site  itself  was  everything  that  could  be  wished. 
A  popular  holiday  falling  during  the  exhibition  must  have  brought 
grist  to  the  mill.  So  otten  a  holiday  comes  and  finds  us  without 
a  definite  plan  as  to  its  disposal,  we  gladly  welcome  rational 
amusement  at  a  reasonable  figure.  When  the  show  is  really  in 
the  West  the  butter-making  competitions  are  always  strong  ;  cheese 
and  cider,  too,  are  special  features.  All  round  in  the  live  stock 
exhibits  there  is  an  increase,  and  cattle  of  a'l  classes  mustered 
strong.  Oh,  dear  !  we  ought  to  have  mentioned  the  horses  first, 
but  just  now  milk  and  butter  seem  to  be  occupying  our  b;st 
attention.  This  is  the  first  time  we  have  seen  classes  for  army 
remounts.  Evidently  there  is  a  feeling  that  in  our  next  big  war  we 
should  have  plenty  of  gees  at  hand,  without  having  to  scour  the 
civilised  world  for  them.  We  are  not  surprised  at  the  numerous 
entries  of  Jerseys,  round  and  about  London  they  are  always  to  be 
found.  The  Sussex  breed,  too,  were  at  home,  as  it  were,  and  showed 
up  well.  The  sheep  were  all  of  the  south-west  country  class  ;  early 
maturity  and  shapely  joints.  Poultry,  useful  rather  than  fancy,  and 
a  class  for  fowls  to  be  killed  and  dressed  on  the  ground,  a  good, 
practical  lesson  ;  forty  pens  of  chickens  to  be  killed  seems  to  us  a 
big  entry.  The  pretty  dairy,  with  its  thatched  roof  and  artistic 
decorations,  is  always  a  place  of  interest  to  visitors,  and  the  deft 
dairymaids  in  their  neat  costumes.  There  is  a  distinct  improvement 
all  round  in  the  butter  making.  If,  as  Mr.  Hanbury  hints,  there  is 
soon  to  be  a  butter  standard,  as  well  as  one  for  milk,  our  dairymaids 
must  be  on  the  alert.  We  rather  fear  even  yet  there  are  more  foolish 
than  wise  in  their  ranks,  the  foolish  ones  who  will  not  learn  the  best 
methods,  and  are  so  content  to  work  by  rule  of  thumb.  As  in  other 
things,  we  place  our  hopes  on  the  rising  generation.  The  young  tree 
is  easily  bent,  and  if  bad  habits  are  not  formed  we  can  but  hope  that 
our  coming  dairymaids  will  all  be  classed  with  the  wise. 
There  are  certain  men  who  may  be  called  pioneers.  They  stand 
out  from  the  ruck,  they  are  rather  extraordinary  than  ordinary 
agriculturists.  Such  a  one  was  Colonel  Victor  Milward.  We  regret 
to  say  was,  but  a  morning  paper  tells  of  his  sudden  death.  He  held 
a  brief  for  the  Beetroot,  and  we  believe  the  pamphlet  that  he  had 
just  issued  on  the  sugar  Beetroot  cultivation  was  almost  his  la  t  work. 
He  was  sanguine  enough  to  believe  (and  his  belief  is  founded  on  a  series 
of  careful  experiments)  that  the  Beet  in  this  country  is  nearly,  if  not 
quite,  equal  to  that  grown  by  the  Germans,  the  percentage  of  sugar 
has  so  greatly  increased.  Whether  we  want  a  stimulus  in  the  shape 
of  another  £d.  on  imported  sugar  remains  still  to  be  seen.  Sugar 
we  must  and  will  have,  and  it  may  be  an  increased  tax  will  be  but  a 
blessing  in  dissuise,  and  mate  us  turn  our  attention  to  something  a 
little  more  profitable  than  corn  growing.  Here  we  are  in  June  with 
flour  down  Id.  per  stone,  just  the  time  of  yrar,  if  ever,  that  Wheat 
should  get  a  bit  dearer.  These  are  things  that  no  man  can  understand. 
Some  time  ago  we  tried  to  give  some  idea  of  the  capital  system  of 
agricultural  teaching  carried  out  in  the  schools  and  colleges  of  the 
Dominion  of  Canada.  So  much  is  done  for  the  rural  child  that 
has  been  neglected  here,  the  Nature  studies  as  beiDg  particularly 
useful,  and  calculated  to  help  to  keep  the  working  boy  in  love  with  the 
country  and  its  pursuits.  Here  and  there  are  to  be  found  a  few  school¬ 
masters  ahead  of  the  times,  who  try  (often  under  great  discouragement) 
to  foster  in  their  children  some  love  for  Nature  and  some  understanding 
of  her  methods  ;  but  it  is  only  this  week  that  we  see  any  move  has 
been  made  to  train  the  teachers  themselves.  The  Harper  Adams 
Agricultural  College,  Newport,  Salop,  has  arranged  for  a  course  of 
“  Nature  Study  ”  for  teachers  in  the  villages.  A  fortnight  of  the 
summer  holidays  is  to  be  devoted  to  lectures  and  demonstrations,  given 
by  members  of  the  College  staff.  We  quote  from  the  “  Agricultural 
Gazette  ”  of  May  27th,  “  The  work  will  be  done  partly  in  college  and 
partly  out  of  doors,  in  the  gardens,  farmyard,  and  fields.  It  is  not 
intended  to  teach  agriculture  as  such,  but  to  give  teachers  a  course  of 
lessons  upon  those  subjects  of  everyday  life  which  will  be  suitable  for 
the  children  of  an  elementary  school.”  We  only  hope  in  time  there 
will  be  more  to  follow.  Better  late  than  never  ;  if  something  had 
been  done  years  ago  it  might  have  hindered  this  undue  migration  to 
the  towns.  Once  they  have  been  to  the  towns,  the  lads  and  young 
men  are  very  ill  fitted  for  taking  up  again  with  farm  work.  The 
course  will  be  from  July  25th  to  August  8th.  Particulars  relating  to 
fees  and  so  forth  may  be  obtained  from  Principal  P.  Hedworth  Foulkes 
at  the  College. 
Work  on  %  Home  Farm. 
We  have  had  a  very  light  rain  during  the  week ;  its  effect  was  very 
fleeting,  and  matters  are  going  very  badly  with  spring  oorn.  Barley 
and  Oats  are  not  sufficiently  well  rooted  this  season  to  stand  drought, 
and  a  continuation  of  it  will  soon  spell  disaster.  The  crops  have  made 
very  little  growth  during  the  last  fortnight,  and  there  has  been  ample 
opportunity  to  ohop  out  all  the  Thistles.  These  latter  are  not  quite  so 
plentiful  as  usual,  or,  as  farmers  say,  “  it  is  not  a  Thistle  year.”  Why 
is  it  not  ?  Has  not  the  plough  something  to  do  with  it  ? 
Potatoes  have  come  up  quickly  and  well,  and  both  horse  and  hand 
hoes  are  busy  amongst  them.  Yesterday  we  noticed  several  ploughs 
occupied  in  moulding  up  the  Potatoes  in  a  large  field.  The  occupier 
knows  what  he  is  doing,  and  in  a  day  or  two  horse  hoes  will  partially 
level  the  furrows  ready  for  the  final  hilling.  This  horse  labour,  though 
costly,  saves  much  hand  labour,  which  cannot  be  had  at  any  price.  Up- 
to-Dates  are  still  the  mainstay  of  most  growers,  and  they  hava  come  up 
very  regularly  ;  but  they  are  rather  eclipsed  this  year  by  a  new  German 
variety  named  Professor  Maerker,  which  looks  magnificent.  British 
Lions  also  look  well,  as  they  should  do;  but  we  fear  their  popularity 
will  not  be  lasting.  The  top-dressing  is  being  applied  now  in  the  form 
of  sulphate  of  ammonia,  and  the  sowing  has  to  be  done  carefully  to 
avoid  scalding  the  haulm.  We  wonder  whether  much  spraying  will  be 
done  this  year.  The  results  were  not  very  striking  last  season,  but  we 
think  growers  will  be  unwise  to  give  it  up  on  account  of  a  partial 
failure. 
All  pastures  have  gone  off  in  appearance,  more  perhaps  than  in 
reality,  for  although  the  meat  is  not  so  plentiful  it  is  more  concentrated, 
and  better  food  for  the  animals.  Farmers  with  a  big  Mangold  heap  left 
will  be  prizing  it  more  every  day. 
Ewes  have  been  clipped,  and  seem  relieved  to  be  without  their  wool 
this  hot  weather.  The  wool  is  very  good  and  clean,  but  almost  unsale¬ 
able.  A  few  farmers  have  several  years’  wool  by  them,  some  of  which 
might  have  been  sold  at  17s.  per  14  lbs.;  the  price  now  is  7s.  These 
are  not  farmers,  but  speculators.  The  wonder  is  that  they  will  do  it, 
for  they  never  gain  by  it.  These  people  are  not  so  common  as  they 
were,  for  few  can  now  afford  such  expensive  luxuries. 
The  Improvement  of  Cereals.  —  Sir  W.  C.  Macdonald  of 
Montreal,  at  the  instance  of  Professor  Robertson,  has  given  10,000  dole. 
(£2000)  as  prizes  for  young  people  on  Canadian  farms  who  produoe 
from  seed-plots  of  a  quarter  of  an  aore  the  finest  ears  of  Wheat  and 
Oats  yearly,  and  the  best  produce  in  three  years.  In  this  way  700 
young  men  and  women  in  the  provinces  of  the  Dominion  are  studying 
scientific  farming  by  “selection  of  the  fittest.”  The  worthy  Yorkshire- 
man,  a  good  farmer,  too,  who  said  oracularly  fifty  years  ago  that  “  steam 
was  in  its  infancy,  but  agriculture  had  reached  perfection,”  was  a 
little  premature,  perhaps  !  We  may  learn  something  yet  even  from  our 
own  Colonies. 
Vegetation  and  Environment. — Darwinism  is  not  a  mere 
metaphysical  theory.  Selection  of  the  fittest  involves  practical 
application  of  the  highest  import.  In  Canada  the  authorities  of  the 
Dominion  are  applying  it  in  the  most  hopeful  way  to  the  improvement 
of  agriculture.  First,  they  have  proved  by  exhaustive  experiments 
that  no  kind  of  seed,  however  excellent,  suits  all  localities.  Sixty-five 
varieties  of  Oats,  for  examp'e,  were  tried  at  experimental  farms  in  ten 
provinces,  when  it  appeared  that  the  most  productive  in  Ottawa  stood 
lowest  on  the  list  in  Manitoba.  Thus  arises  the  first  selection  of  the 
variety  that  suits  the  locality.  But  from  apparently  the  same  seed 
sprang  plants  far  more  vigorous  and  fertile  than  others,  and  here 
comes  in  the  seoond  selection— that  of  the  best  individual  growth.  As 
a  consequence,  Professor  RobertsoD,  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  and 
Dairying,  reported  to  the  Select  Stauding  Committee  on  Agriculture 
that  “  the  only  sure  way  of  improving  the  grain  of  a  locality,  and  of 
increasing  the  productiveness  of  varieties  suited  to  it,  is  by  a  selection 
of  the  seed  from  the  crops  and  plants  that  have  succeeded  best  there, 
or  under  similar  conditions,  and  by  doing  that  year  after  year 
successively.” 
