190 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  21,  1902. 
has  decreased  in  value,  as  the  value  of  forage  or  grazing 
crops  have  increased.  Seeds  are  dear,  and  sometimes  are  a 
bit  shy  at  growing  ;  but  wThen  they  do  grow  their  value  to  the 
stock  farmer  is  difficult  to  get  at.  In  consequence  of  this  it 
has  become  the  practice  to  let  them  stand  for  an  extra  year, 
and  it  is  always  found  when  old  pasture  (and  really  in  some 
cases  the  seeds  amount  to  this)  is  ploughed  up,  the  Wheat 
crop  later  is  likely  to  be  subjected  to  the  attack  of  the  wire- 
worm.  It  really  comes  to  this,  whether  it  is  better  to  save 
your  seed  bill  and  labour  and  secure  an  extra  year’s  feed, 
or  plough  early  with  the  assurance  of  a  Wheat  crop.  Of 
course,  here  the  farmer  must  be  his  own  judge.  It  used  to 
be.  the  rule  to  get  all  seeds  ploughed  up  by  August  ready 
for  the  new  Wheat  crop  ;  but  year  by  year  sees  a  retrograde 
movement  here.  For  one  thing,  as  sheep  breeding  is  pro¬ 
fitable,  the  farmer  has  in  view  the  value  to  his  stock  of  a 
good  run  on  old  seeds,  hence  the  delay  in  ploughing  up. 
Whether  wireworm  will  attack  and  destroy  Mangolds  is 
sometimes  a  disputed  point.  The  Mangold  has  many  foes. 
We  hear  a  good  deal  this  season  of  the  eelworm  in  Oats,  for 
Tulip-like  bulbs  are  forming,  and  the  worm  can  easily  be 
seen  under  the  microscope.  There  seems  to  be  no  method 
of  cure,  only  suggested  methods  of  prevention.  The  insect 
is  so  completely  shielded  in  the  body  of  its  host  that  it  can¬ 
not  be  got  at.  Miss  Ormerod  suggests  deep  cultivation,  rich 
manuring,  and  rotation  of  crops.  Now,  in  a  case  we  know, 
all  these  suggestions  had  been  carried  out  to  the  very  letter, 
and  yet  the  crop  is  half  destroyed.  Professor  Wrightson  is 
of  opinion  cold,  wet  weather  has  much  to  answer  for  in 
respect  of  this  plague.  The  Wheat  eelworm  is  also  injurious 
m  cold,  wet  summers.  Unlike  the  Oat  pest,  in  Wheat  it  is 
the  ear  that  is  attacked,  rather  than  the  stem  near  the  root. 
Cold  nights  are  much  to  blame  for  the  prevalence  of  insect 
life,  that  is,  injurious  insect  life,  and  we  really  think  this 
summer  has  seen  as  many  cold  nights  as  that  of  1879.  That 
year  we  began  to  lead  Wheat  September  29,  and  this  year 
in  mid-August  there  seems  at  present  to  be  little  prospect  of 
npe  com. 
If  we  corn  farmers  suffer  from  parasite,  what  of  the  poor 
Hop  growlers  1  They  seem  to  spend  all  their  energy  and 
capital  in  combating  aphis  and  mould.  We  cannot  read 
one  report  that  is  really  very  favourable,  and  the  acreage 
is  diminished,  too,  this  year.  It  is  said  to  be  the  worst 
attack  of  aphis  that  has  occurred  since  1882.  It  appears 
to  us  with  the  Hop  crop  there  are  far  more  bad  seasons  than 
good.  Sir  Wilfrid  Laurier  declares  that  before  long  Canada 
will  not  only  be  the  granary  of  Great  Britain,  but  also  of 
the  whole  of  Europe.  Is  it  possible,  too,  that  in  the  near 
future  we  shall  depend  entirely  for  our  Hop  supply  from 
the  foreigner?  Perhaps  in  a  new  country,  and  under 
different  climatic  conditions,  a  good  crop  may  be  more  easily 
obtained.  No  doubt  this  year’s  crop  is  that  of  hay.  Every¬ 
where  the  promise  of  an  abundant  yield  has  been  fulfilled, 
and  most  of  it  has  been  got  under  favourable  conditions. 
We  have  before  us  the  report  of  British  farm  crops  as 
estimated  by  the  “  Times  ”  as  they  stand  now  in  the  fields. 
The  review  of  the  situation  as  a  whole  is  most  favourable. 
Taking  100  as  denoting  a  full  average  of  healthy  quantity, 
we  find  the  grass  crop  put  down  as  102.  That  is  something 
certainly  unusual,  for  during  the  last  ten  years  the  grass  crop 
has  been  weak.  Wheat,  Barley,  and  Oats  are  put  96,  with 
a  trifling  difference  in  the  decimal ;  roots  follow  at  95.1. 
Beans  are  suffering  from  a  small  aphis  (parasites  again) 
which  has  materially  lessened  the  yield,  and  the  weather, 
too,  has  been  favourable  for  the  production  of  filth  among 
Peas.  Of  Hops  we  have  spoken  before;  “deplorable”  is 
the  term  applied  to  their  condition  by  the  “Times.” 
Potatoes,  too,  show  signs  of  disease;  and  we  fear  no  amount 
of  spraying  will  check  the  ravages.  We  are  not  quite  sure 
that  we  absolutely  regret  disease  in  Potatoes.  It  seems 
a  dreadful  thing  to  say,  but  most  growers  will  allow  that  in  a 
disease  year  they  make  more  per  acre  than  wffien,  as  last 
year,  there  was  a  plethora.  Potatoes,  to  use  a  vulgar  ex¬ 
pression,  are  “  all  muck  or  money,”  a  most  speculative  crop, 
save  on  some  of  the  red  lands,  where  Potato  growing  always 
means  a  very  good  return.  Red  land  Potatoes  “  use  ’  so 
well,  and,  after  all,  that  is  the  greatest  test  of  all. 
We  derive  great  comfort  from  the  excellent  reports  of  the 
root  crop,  i.e.,  Turnips,  Swedes,  and  Mangolds,  throughout 
the  kingdom.  Every  spring  the  agricultural  papers  discuss 
the  question  as  to  whether  growing  roots  is  altogether 
justified  by  results.  It  is  an  expensive  business,  and  the 
crops  by  no  means  a  certainty.  There  are  so  many  diffi¬ 
culties  to  contend  with ;  unsuitable  wreather  (not  only 
drought,  but  ungenial  temperature),  the  ordinary  Turnip  fly, 
and  sometimes  the  dreaded  diamond  back.  If  the  season 
should  turn  out  wrong,  then  there  is  great  jubilation  among 
the  advocates  of  forage  and  root  crops  ;  but  if  the  season  be 
as  the  present,  and  the  prospects  continue  still  favourable, 
the  voice  of  the  malcontents  is  silenced.  For  our  part  we 
know  what  terrible  destitution  we  suffer  with  a  “  shortage  ” 
in  the  root  crop,  and  w~e  are  only  too  thankful  when  we  look 
round  and  see  first  the  good  supply  of  hay  (well  got),  the 
plentiful  pastures,  and  the  regular,  even  rows  of  roots.  With 
straw  in  abundance,  this  promises,  at  any  rate,  to  be  a  good 
comfortable  winter  for  stock. 
We  are  wondering  now  how  our  lambs  will  weather  the 
next  few  weeks,  and  we  are  also  making  preparations  for 
the  lamb  crop  of  1903.  Some  ram  sales  are  over,  and 
although  the  prices  are  better  a  trifle  than  last  year,  we  do 
not  see  the  recovery  we  should  like.  Ram  breeding  is  an 
expensive  pursuit,  calling  forth  much  skill,  much  patience, 
and  a  long  purse.  We  depend  on  “  abroad  ”  for  our  best 
customers,  and  as  the  South  American  ports  are  still  closed 
against  our  sheep,  we  fare  but  badly.  We  saw  the  other 
day  that  the  King  was  offered  a  selection  from  some  foreign 
herd  of  cattle  (some  remote  district  of  which  the  name  has 
slipped  our  memory),  and  he,  in  common  with  his  humblest 
subject,  had  to  decline,  on  account  of  the  strict  regulations 
against  the  importation  of  livestock.  It  is  a  wise  rule,  and 
does  much  to  keep  home  animals  free  from  disease.  It  is 
only  those  who  remember  in  past  years  the  terrible  ravages 
that  disease  (often  imported)  has  made  among  us  who  fully 
appreciate  the  desirability  of  keeping  a  stringent  barrier 
between  ourselves  and  the  cattle  of  our  neighbour. 
■  ‘i 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
Passing  the  village  smithy  to-day  we  noticed  two  reapers 
about  to  undergo  repairs.  Their  ancient  appearance  invited 
a  closer  inspection,  and  a  remark  to  the  blacksmith  elicited 
the  information  that  they  had  been  out  of  use  for  three  or 
four  seasons,  and  the  repairs  were  likely  to  be  expensive,  that 
the  owner  had  self-binders  on  his  premises,  but  fearing  that 
the  crops  would  be  too  heavy  for  them,  was  having  his  old 
harvesters  got  ready  for  any  emergency.  We  fancy  that  the 
old  self-raker  was  little  more  effective  than  a  binder  amongst 
badly  laid  corn,  and  when  the  binder  will  not  work  we  should 
prefer  to  fall  back  cn  an  old  manual  delivery  machine  or  the 
scythe. 
.We  have  had  very  little  sun  during  the  past  week,  and  the 
nights  have  been  cold.  The  crops  have  ripened  very  little, 
and  it  must  be  a  September  harvest.  Such  being  the  case,  will 
farmers  be  wise  to  twitch  their  grain  crops  tightly  with  string? 
It  will  be  very  inconvenient  to  put  our  string  binders  away 
and  revert  to  the  old  method,  but  we  have  some  fine  crops, 
and  it  will  be  a  thousand  pities  if  they  are  wasted  for  a  matter 
of  4s.  or  5s.  per  acre.  String  binding  and  stooking  cost  5s.  6d. 
per  acre  at  least,  without  counting  horse  labour  and  driving, 
which  would  amount  to  another  2s.  6d.  If  arrangements  are 
made  at  once,  men  can  be  found  to  mow  and  tie1  up  anything 
which  is  not  really  heavily  laid,  at  12s.  per  acre.  Only  experi¬ 
enced  farmers  can  fully  appreciate  the  difference  between 
mown  and  string  bound  sheaves  when  it  comes  to  the  stacking 
process.  In  Norfolk  and  Suffolk,  where  the  farmers  have 
always  made  the  most  strenuous  efforts  to  get  their  fine  Barley 
in  good  condition,  it  is  not  considered  policy  to  tie  it  up  at 
all.  We  may  use  the  binder  for  Wheat,  but  not  for  Barley  or 
Oats.  Whether  the  weather  has  been  too  cold  or  too  wet, 
certainly  Potatoes  are  not  fulfilling  their  early  promise.  They 
do  not  fill  the  rows  so  well  as  they  did.  There  are  no  signs 
of  disease  here,  though  they  are  reported  from  elsewhere. 
Field  Cabbage  for  next  summer’s  use  should  be  sown  at 
once.  If  an  acre  of  ground  can  be  spared,  41b  of  seed  will  be 
required,  and  should  produce  100,000  plants  sufficient  planted 
out  for  eight  acres.  There  is  still  no  better  kind  than  Enfield 
Market  if  you  get  a  good  stock.  Drumhead  is  good  for  later 
use,  and  is  a  heavy  cropper. 
German  Sugar  Industry. 
Last  year  the  Germans  produced  1,500,000  tons  of  raw 
sugar,  representing  13  per  cent,  of  the  best  root  crushed,  which 
was  an  increase  since  1840  from  8,000  tons  of  product-  as  51  per 
cent,  of  the  material  used.  The  dyeing  industry  earned 
$30,000,000  last  year,  against  $6,000,000  in  1874,  notwithstand¬ 
ing  diminished  prices  and  increased  wages.  Artificial  indigo 
now  employs  over  6,000  men,  including  148  scientific  chemists, 
although  started  only  about  thirty-five  years  ago  with  less  than 
forty  men.  In  1898  Germany  employed  14,000  persons  in 
making  scientific  instruments,  the  exports  being  three  times 
those  of  1888. 
