46 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  Al\Tr>  COTTAGE  GARDENER 
July  10,  1902. 
horses  came  first,  and  although  we  should  omit  his  racing 
stud,  we  may  fairly  mention  the  Shires  and  Hackneys.  At 
every  great  sale  may  be  seen  representatives  from  Sand¬ 
ringham  on  the  look  out  for  anything  of  special  merit,  and 
as  a  consequence  the  stock  on  the  Home  Farm  was  kept  up 
well  to  the  mark.  Shorthorns  were  made  a  speciality,  and 
when,  as  King,  the  Windsor  farm  became  his,  his  sphere  of 
agricultural  usefulness  was  largely  increased.  Prince  George 
appears  to  be  following  in  his  father’s  footsteps,  and  we  can 
but  hope  that  he  will  go  to  Carlisle  with  a  mind  entirely  at 
ease  respectmg  the  health  of  his  noble  father. 
What  grumblers  we  are !  The  excessive  rainfall  did  not 
suit  us,  and  now  this  tropical  sunshine  is  equally  calling  forth 
censure.  The  fact  is,  the  ground  got  so  sodden,  and  then 
baked  hard,  that  small  plants  find  a  difficulty  to  exist.  It  is 
perfectly  marvellous  where  the  moisture  has  gone,  but  these 
high  winds  are  in  a  measure  responsible.  The  country  had 
indeed  put  on  Coronation  garments.  The  summer  must  be  a 
short  one  ;  it  began  so  late.  But  autumn  days  may  have 
much  in  store  for  us,  days  of  sweet  warmth  and  genial 
airs. 
We  often  see  that  excellent  paper  “  The  North  British 
Agriculturist,”  and  it  is  a  most  unusual  thing  if  there  is  not 
in  its  pages  much  to  edify  and  amuse.  There  is,  as  many 
readers  may  know,  a  National  Diploma  in  Agriculture  to  be 
gained  by  examination.  The  men  who  gain  this  distinction 
are  to  be  the  future  teachers,  and  the  report  this  year  says 
of  them  that,  though  their  knowledge  of  the  subjects  on 
which  they  were  examined  was  good,  yet,  when  it  came  to 
spelling,  grammar,  and  English  composition,  they  were 
found  to  be  sadly  wanting.  Well,  if  these  men  can  in  prac¬ 
tice  make  farming  pay,  we  should  care  very  little  whether 
they  could  spell  or  not.  The  balance  on  the  right  side  at 
the  end  of  the  year  is  of  more  account  than  English  composi¬ 
tion.  The  composition  farmers  know  most  of  in  these  latter 
times  has  been  that  which  they  have  made  with  their 
creditors.  Of  course,  there  is  a  prejudice  in  favour  of 
correct  spelling,  but  we  should  have  thought  that,  as  all  boys 
must  at  least  stop  at  school  till  they  are  fourteen,  that 
these  little  difficulties  had  been  overcome  years  ago.  Where, 
we  think,  these  diploma  gentlemen  fall  short,  is  in  practical 
knowledge.  We  should  like  to  set  them  on  a  strong  land 
farm,  or  blow-away  Norfolk  sand,  and  then  ask  them  to  make 
a  living  as  per  agricultural  handbook.  Things  work  out 
beautifully  on  paper,  but  paper  farmers  never  can  compete 
with  the  practical  man,  and  the  practical  man  is  not  made 
in  two  or  three  years.  Farming  is  a  life  study. 
Primrose  McConnell,  one  of  our  best  living  authorities  on 
farming,  said  in  a  speech  only  a  fortnight  ago  that  when  he 
left  college  he  had  all  the  degrees  in  agricultural  science 
that  could  be  got,  that  he  had  tons  of  agricultural  literature, 
and  that  he  would  willingly  sell  them  all  very  cheap^  for  all 
the  good  they  had  done  him  as  a  practical  farmer.  We  want 
more  practice  and  less  theory.  A  cookery  book  is  no  use 
to  a  cook  unless  she  will  work  out  to  a  successful  issue  the 
recipes  therein  contained,  and  all  the  handbooks  to  the  farm 
are  of  no  use  if  simply  learned  off  by  rote.  Any  intelligent 
child  can  do  that.  We  like  to  see  a  man  with  toil-hardened 
hands,  and  boots  that  might  crush  clods. 
Much  wisdom  may  often  oe  condensed  into  very  few 
words,  and  we  came  upon  two  instances  to-day  in  our  read¬ 
ing.  Professor  Wrightson,  of  Downton,  summed  up  under 
three  heads  the  essentials  for  successful  dairy  work.  First, 
cleanliness  ;  second,  cleanliness  ;  third  cleanliness.  The 
three  essentials  for  good  farming  are  :  first,  muck  ;  second, 
muck  ;  third,  more  muck.  We  have  heard  an  old  Yorkshire 
saying :  “  Muck  in,  wicks  out,”  wicks  being  what  in  most 
other  counties  are  called  “  twitch.”  Clean  land  in  good 
heart  will  grow  satisfactory  crops. 
We  often  hear  complaints  from  old-fashioned  dairy  folk 
about  the  difficulty  they  have  in  getting  butter ;  i.e.,  they 
churn  for  hours  with  no  practical  result.  All  sorts  of  causes 
are  blamed,  the  weather,  the  temperature,  the  cows  the 
churn,  and  so  on.  To  churn  butter  satisfactorily  there  must 
be  air  in  the  chum,  and  there  cannot  be  sufficient  air  if  the 
churn  be  too  full  of  cream.  We  know  exactly  how  it 
happens.  There  is  an  extra  quantity  of  cream,  and  the 
question  arises,  Shall  I  divide  this,  or  churn  it  all  at  once  for 
the  sake  of  saving  time  ?  And  the  result  is  a  weary  business 
brought  to  a  very  unsatisfactory  conclusion.  A  good  rule 
is  to  only  half  fill  the  churn,  and  ventilate  frequently.  All 
books  or  directions  for  dairy  work  frequently  repeat  this 
axiom,  but  people  will  not  stay  to  consider  the  why  and  the 
wherefore. 
Sometimes  the  cream  gets  “  sleepy  ”  ;  that  is,  it  thickens 
and  sticks  to  the  sides  of  the  churn.  Add  either  water  or 
skimmed  milk  at  the  temperature  of  60deg,  and  the  butter 
will  presently  come.  Remember  the  cream  does  not  want 
so  much  violence  ;  a  steadv,  even  beat  and  plenty  of  air.  - 
If  butter  does  not  come  easily  in  winter,  the  low  temperature 
of  the  cream  is  generally  at  fault. 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
» 
A  very  fine  and  hot  week  has  been  most  favourable  for  those 
early  birds  who  had  anticipated  it  by  cutting  down  their  Clover, 
and  these  fortunates  are  now  literally  “  in  clover,”  having  fine 
piles  of  well  saved  fodder  in  the  yards,  whilst  their  more  dilatory, 
or,  to  be  charitable,  less  fortunate  neighbours,  are  to-day  watching 
a  steady  downpour  upon  their  recently  shaken  out  swathes. 
From  other  aspects  than  that  of  haymaking,  to-day’s  rain  will  be 
most  beneficial ;  the  change  from  watery  to  dry  conditions  had 
been  too  sudden,  and  both  cereals  and  roots  would,  without  rain, 
have  soon  been  hanging  out  signals  of  distress. 
The  heat  has  favoured  the  sowing  of  the  late  breadths  of  Turnips 
which  are  now  all  in  the  ground,  and  some  of  them  already  up 
again.  All  hands  have  been  well  employed,  the  Clover  was 
quickly  got,  and  happily  so,  for  there  has  been  ample  employ¬ 
ment  for  all  amongst  the  Turnips  with  either  horse  or  hand  hoes. 
The  Mangold  crop,  too,  is  in  need  of  further  looking  over.  The 
seed  grew  so  well  this  year,  and  produced  so  thick  a  plant,  that 
there  are  more  doubles  than  usual.  These  must  be  singled  down 
to  the  best  plant.  Single  roots  with  a  fair  amount  of  room 
produce  much  the  greatest  weight  per  acre,  and  everyone  tries 
for  the  big  heap  nowadays. 
The  alternations  of  heat  and  moisture  have  sorely  multiplied 
the  labours  of  the  shepherd,  who,  since  clip  day,  has  been  enjoying 
a  well-earned  easy  time.  The  fly  has  never  been  less  trouble¬ 
some  in  June,  but  now  that  the  temperature  has  become  more 
summer-like,  it  is  simply  rampageous,  and  a  flock  of  200  ewes 
and  their  lambs  constitute  a  breeding  ground  quite  large  enough 
to  occupy  one  man’s  whole  time  in  keeping  it  clear  of  maggots. 
There  are  many  recipes  for  killing  the  maggots,  but  few  of  any 
value  in  preventing  other  attacks,  but  finely  powdered  tobacco 
dredged  on  a  sore  place  will  prevent  the  fly  striking  there  again. 
The  owner  of  our  local  set  of  steam  cultivators,  informs  us 
that  he  is  full  of  orders  for  breaking  up  seed  pastures  before 
harvest ;  he  is  now  at  work  on  a  field  to  be  sown  with  late  Turnips. 
The  farmers  who  employ  him  will  be  themselves  employed  in  hay- . 
making,  whilst  he  is  making  hay  of  their  twitch.  We  can  almost 
hear  someone  say  they  ought  not  have  any  of  that  noxious  weed, 
but  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum,  and  when  there  is  little  Clover  it 
has  a  way  of  filling  up  the  spaces  with  twitch  in  a  miraculous 
manner. 
- - 
Webbs  at  the  Royal  Show. 
On  entering  the  showyard  the  first  object  was  the  imposing 
stand  of  Webb  and  Sons,  of  Wordsley,  Stourbridge.  This  firm  has 
been  for  many  years  engaged  in  the  improvement  of  plants  by 
means  of  cross-breeding  and  selection  at  their  celebrated  Kinver 
seed  farms,  and  their  experiments  have  been  frequently  inspected 
by  many  agricultural  authorities.  A  prominent  exhibit  was  the 
new  and  improved  varieties  of  Wheat,  Barley,  and  Oats,  which 
have  been  introduced  by  this  firm,  and  a  comparison  of  the 
quality  and  productiveness  of  these  highly  selected  stocks  with 
that  of  the  old  varieties  shows  the  improvement  effected  by 
Messrs.  Webbs’  scientific  operations.  Noticeable  among  these 
were  Webbs’  New  Mont  Blanc  Wheat  ,  Webbs’  New  Standard  Bed 
Wheat,  Webbs’  New  Hardy  Winter  Black  Oat,  and  Webbs’  New 
Burton  Malting  Barley.  Plants  in  growth  represented  Webbs’ 
Grass  and  Clover  seeds  for  permanent  pasture  and  alternate 
husbandry.  Recognising  the  increasing  tendency  of  agriculturists 
to  grow  vegetables  for  market,  this  firm  exhibited  a  selection  of 
the  most  suitable  kinds  to  grow  for  profit.  These  included  WT ebbs’ 
New  Pioneer  Pea,  Prize-winner  Carrot,  Exhibition  Cos  Lettuce, 
Emperor  Cabbage,  and  Early  Mammoth  Cauliflower.  About 
twenty  plants  of  the  new  Tomato,  Webbs’  Coronation,  are  also 
shown,  the  handsome  fruit  hanging  in  great  profusion,  and  com¬ 
manding  universal  admiration.  In  the  flower  section,  Webbs’ 
Excelsior  Gloxinias  made  a  grand  show,  although  consisting 
merely  of  plants  grown  for  the  production  of  seed.  Amongst 
named  varieties  were  Webbs’  Stanley  (vivid  crimson),  Peerless 
(white),  and  Purple  Queen.  Webbs’  Gloxinias  were  awarded  the 
Royal  Oxfordshire  Horticultural  Society’s  Gold  Medal  last  week. 
About  120  varieties  of  Sweet  Peas  were  also  shown,  including 
several  novelties,  grown  in  Webbs’  experimental  grounds. 
Messrs.  Webb  are  probably  the  largest  manufacturers  of  artificial 
manures  in  the  kingdom,  their  special  fertilizers  having  proved 
so  successful  in  promoting  the  growth  of  heavy  crops  that  many 
thousands  of  tons  are  now  annually  sent  to  all  parts  of  the 
k'ngdom  from  their  works  at  Saltney,  Chester. 
