70 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
July  17,  1902. 
not  afford  to  the  unscrupulous  a  fine  field  for  roguery.  We 
have  become  past  masters  in  the  art,  and  now  like  evil  birds 
our  sins  are  coming  back  to  roost.  There  is  an  outcry  for 
everything  cheap,  and,  dare  we  add,  nasty.  Where  we  wore 
fine  linen  and  the  softest  of  calicoes,  now  we  resort  to  the 
wretched  flannellette !  We  bought  suits,  and  the  first 
question  was  :  “  Is  it  all  wool  ?  Will  it  bear  and  keep  this 
colour?”  Now,  if  the  “cut”  is  about  right,  we  do  not  mind 
what  sort  of  shoddy  clothes  our  persons.  The  working  man 
rejoiced  in  good  -serviceable  fustian,  now  forsooth  he  must 
have  a  cloth  suit  like  his  employer  (not  his  master) — the 
term  is  obsolete.  It  is  one  of  the  factors  that  keep  him  poor, 
for  he  has  constantly  to  renew  his  garments. 
Why  are  we  so  bitter  just  now?  We  are  beginning  to 
-wake  up  a  little  to  the  fact  that  we  are  in  this  wool  business 
robbing  ourselves  twice  over.  In  the  first  place,  there  is  no 
market  for  this  great  product  of  ours  ;  and,  in  the  second, 
by  consenting  to  wear  shoddy  made  garments  we  are 
effectually  keeping  closed  our  wool  markets.  What  on  earth 
is  the  use  of  merchants  buying  our  wool  if  we  are  quite 
content  with  cheap  substitutes?  In  olden  days  to  encourage 
the  home  manufacture,  the  law  was  that  all  corpses  should 
be  wrapped  in  woollen  cloth.  If  dead  bodies  needed  wool, 
our  poor  living  ones  need  it  far  more. 
Last  week  we  had  the  great  Royal  Show,  when  repre¬ 
sentative  farmers  gathered  from  the  ends  of  the  earth.  We 
might  almost  use  the  list  of  names  to  be  found  in  Act  II., 
9,  10,  11  ;  in  fact,  it  might  be  rather  a  long  list,  and  among 
these  men  is  a  strong  contingent  of  sheep  fanciers  and 
breeders.  They  have  their  International  Conference,  and 
this  topic  of  adulterated  wool  is  the  first  on  the  list  of 
subjects  for  discussion.  We  must  quote  at  length  from  the 
first  speaker.  Mr.  A.  Mansell,  Shropshire.  He  says  :  “  That 
in  a  drive  of  thirty  miles  around  Bradford  there  are  not 
oa  ^  but  scores  of  mills  where  for  every  bale  of  wool  used,  ten 
bales,  and  often  more,  are  used  of  shoddy,  mungo,  stockings 
and  cotton,  and  that  in  the  heavy  woollen  district  of  York- 
shne  there  are  dozens  of  manufacturers  who  never  buy  a 
single  bale  of  raw  wool,  and  yet  are  known  and  acknow¬ 
ledged  as  influential  manufacturers  of  woollen  goods 
Woollen,”  he  says  further,  “may  mean  anything— shoddy 
mungo,  cotton.”  “  All  wool  »  is  the  only  sure  guarantee  one 
can  accept  when  buying  would-be  woollen  garments.  When 
we  read  of  woollen  stuff,  54in  wide,  and  sold  at  Is.  Id.  per 
jaid,  w hat  can  we  look  for?  If  we  will  have  such  cheap¬ 
ness,  we  must  be  cheated.  Mr.  Mansell  tells  of  an  Army 
contractor  for  the  supply  of  blankets  who  was  found  to  be 
using  50  per  cent,  of  shoddy. 
America  is  just  as  bad,  as  shoddy  there  to  the  amount  of 
40  million  rounds  is  displacing  120  million  pounds  of  wool 
American  woollen  fabrics  are  principally  cotton!  What  a 
satire!  If  margarine  may  not  be  sold  as  butter,  why  in  the 
name  of  all  that’s  reasonable  should  woollen  goods  be  sold 
as  '  all  wool  ?  There  are  still  many  poor  simpletons  who 
need  to  be  protected  irom  fraudulent  manufacturers. 
What  is  shoddy?  This  is  how  the  National  Live  Stock 
Association  of  U.S.A.  describe  it— as  being  the  rotten,  cast¬ 
off  rags  of  European  paupers,  having  in  them  all  kinds  and 
amounts  of  filth  and  disease.  Dealing  with  the  production 
of  woollen  goods  from  these  materials,  the  Association 
writes:  ‘  lo  encourage  such  a  fraud  is  simply  putting  the 
lousy  rags  of  European  paupers  in  competition  with  the 
sheep  and  wool  growers  of  America  and  elsewhere,  and 
lobbing  the  consumers  who  wear  woollen  garments  by  selling 
the  stuff  under  a  misrepresentation.”  Those  of  us  who  live  in 
the  vicinity  of  seaports  have  heard  a  good  deal  at  one  time  or 
another  of  the  dangers  arising  from  the  importation  of 
foreign  rags.  Let  an  epidemic  break  out  on  the  Continent, 
then  we  are  all  for  burning  these  wretched  rags.  Let  the 
epidemic  subside,  and  we  hear  no  more  about  them,  and 
the  unholy  traffic  continues.  At  the  English  Conference  on 
baturday,  July  5,  one  gentleman  from  Tasmania  opined  that 
it  was  the  dear  price  of  wool  that  encouraged  this  fraudu- 
lence  ;  but  really  one  would  have  thought  the  wool  price  had 
touched  the  lowest  mark  now,  and  we  might  have  it  used  in 
a  pure  state.  The  New  Zealand  representative  declared 
that,  as  touching  this  matter  of  inter-mixture,  his  country 
was  at  present  free  from  blame. 
In  reference  to  working  up  the  old  rags  into  new  “  cloth,” 
a  writer  in  a  daily  paper  recalls  a  fact  in  natural  history 
?ew  to  us.  Perhaps  he  is  “having  us,”  but  we  will  quote 
sfc:  When  the  frog  has  done  wearing  his  jacket,  and  crawls 
out  of  it,  he  is  said  to  roll  the  old  one  into  a  pill  and  swallow 
it,  doubtless  for  the  gradual  manufacture  into  a  new  one. 
He  is  severely  economical.”  This  is  the  principle  on  which 
the  great  trades  of  shoddy  and  mungo  have  been  budded 
up. 
Our  next  paragraph  we  might  head  “  A  Storm  in  a  Tea 
Cup,”  or,  “Much  Ado  About  Nothing.”  After  having  Free 
Traded  ourselves  practically  to  the  verge  of  ruin,  there  has 
been  a  most  tremendous  and  foolish  outcry  when,  extra  taxa¬ 
tion  being  imperative,  the  trifling  impost  of  Is.  per  quarter 
has  been  put  upon  Wheat.  It  was  taxing  the  poor  man’s 
loaf  ;  it  ivas  a  retrograde  movement.  The  sods  over  Cobden 
and  Bright  had  been  seen  to  lift,  and  we  wrere  going  back  to 
semi-barbarism.  We  could  hardly  realise  that  there  were 
men,  and  women  too,  who  could  talk  such  arrant  nonsense. 
We  have  taxed  the  poor  man  beyond  what  he  was  able  to 
bear,  and  so  forth,  and  so  on. 
Lord  Goschen  has  a  word  or  two  to  say  on  the  subject. 
He  never  loses  his  head  or  is  earned  away  by  passion,  and  he 
has  tried  to  place  before  the  public  in  plain  figures  where 
and  how  lightly  the  taxation  will  fall  upon  the  individual. 
A  bag  of  flour  containing  280lb  will  be  taxed  at  Is.  0^d  ;  a 
sack  of  flour  will  make  95  quartern  loaves,  or  380lb  of  bread, 
and  the  tax  is  thus  a  trifle  over  half  a  farthing  on  the  quartern 
loaf.  The  statistics  of  the  consumption  of  bread  (we  quote 
from  a  well-known  paper)  by  the  population  of  this  country 
give  an  average  of  about  4-5ths  of  a  lb,  or  13oz  per  diem, 
and  this  is  9^d.  per  year  per  head,  so  that  a  family  of  five 
will  contribute  4s.  per  year.  Now  a  man  cheerfully  pays 
double  and  treble  this  duty  on  his  “  ’bacca,”  and  says 
nothing,  and  his  wife  will  pay  through  her  tea  a  duty  at  the 
rate  of  3s.  per  head  per  annum,  and  she  also  says  nothing. 
All  the  community  must  take  their  share  in  replenishing 
the  National  Exchequer,  and  we  cannot  think  any  easier  or 
lighter  method  could  be  instituted.  To  set  against  this  tax 
which  is  said  to  press  so  heavily  on  the  poor  but  honest 
artisan,  just  let  him  bear  in  mind  that  he  now  is  the  only 
class  who  gets  his  children  well  educated  ;  that  is, 
thoroughly  absolutely  gratis.  Every  child  costs  the  Govern¬ 
ment  from  7s.  to  10s.  annually.  Will  he  be  willing  to  pay 
that  if  Sir  Michael  Hicks-Beach  will  remit  the  Corn  Tax? 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
Farmers  are  notorious  for  everlasting  grumbling,  but  we  must 
put  in  a  claim  to  be  an  exception  to  that  universal  rule,  for  he 
must  indeed  be  a  misanthrope  who  could  quarrel  seriously  with 
matters  agricultural  at  the  present  time.  A  fine  hot  week  has 
been  favourable  to  the  saving  of  the  crops  of  Clover,  Cow-grass, 
and  Sainfoin,  and  many  meadows  are  now  down  in  swathe.  The 
root  crops  were  inclined  to  .resent  the  sudden  change  to  heat 
and  drought,  and  we  had  no  sooner  acquired  a  longing  for  a 
Turnip  shower  than  down  came  the  rain  in  just  the  quantity 
desired.  One  or  two  late  birds  who  have  Clover  still  in  cock 
are  grumbling,  but  perhaps  they  would  be  less  happy  had  they 
nothing  to  grumble  about.  Certainly  the  rain  has  worked  marvels, 
and  there  must  be  a  fine  root  crop  this  season.  We  own  to  having 
made  a  wrong  forecast  last  year,  but  one  mistake  in  seven  may 
surely  be  forgiven. 
We  are  glad  to  see  that  Potato  spraying  is  not  entirely  dis¬ 
carded,  for  a  growing  season  like  this  may  readily  induce  a  bad 
attack  of  disease.  It  is  not  yet  too  late  to  use  the  Strawsoniser ; 
in  fact,  growers  who  do  the  thing  thoroughly  may  give  their 
crops  two  sprayings  after  this.  Of  course,  much  depends  on  the 
soil  and  situation.  On  low-lying  heavy  soil,  moderately  drained, 
spraying  can  hardly  fail  to  pay,  even  if  it  only  keeps  the  haulm 
in  a  growing  state  for  an  extra  week.  On  very  light  soils,  and 
especially  in  connection  with  second  early  kinds,  which  will  meet 
a  forward  market,  there  may  be  some  doubt  as  to  the  commercial 
value  of  spraying ;  but,  even  in  such  cases,  there  is  a  doubt,  and 
it  is  better  to  be  on  the  safe  side. 
With  a  cessation  in  haymaking,  we  can  put  all  hands  to  Turnip 
hoeing.  The  skerry  is  most  useful  now,  and  can  hardly  be  used 
too  much,  for  every  stirring  of  the  soil  seems  to  put  fresh  vigour 
into  the  young  plants.  It  is  rather  a  heavy  labour  bill  we  have 
to  meet  for  weeding.  The  weather  which  suits  Turnips  suits 
weeds  no  less,  and  we  must  not  let  them  get  big  and  strong,  or 
entire  eradication  may  prove  well-nigh  impossible.  The  Mangold, 
which  we  had  fondly  hoped  were  placed  “  on  the  mantelshelf,” 
have  required  further  attention.  Weeds  which  were  too  small 
for  observation  at  the  last  weeding  have  been  lately  only  too 
obvious.  This  is  one  of  the  penalties  of  early  sowing.  Mangolds 
which  are  sown  early  and  grow  slowly  cost  thrice  the  money  for 
weeding  which  late-sown  Turnips  do. 
Stock  generally  are  healthy,  and  good  to  sell.  Pastures  are 
as  satisfactory  as  prices,  and  we  must  congratulate  our  grazier 
friends  on  what  should  be  a  record  season. 
