110 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
February  4,  1904. 
as  Irish,  land  on  our  shores  every  summer,  can  be  bought 
very  cheaply,  and  take  but  little  fattening-nff  on  our  Eng¬ 
lish  stubbles.  Feather  beds  are  out  of  fashion,  but  pillows 
are  still  other  than  blocks  of  hollowed  wood,  and  sofa 
cushions  are  in  demand,  so  that  the  white  soft  covering, 
carefully  dried,  is  a  valuable  asset  to  the  thrifty  house¬ 
wife. 
We  have  passed  on  from  eggs,  but  with  the  reader’s 
permission  will  just  revert  to  that  topic.  Winter  eggs: 
Now,  although  winter  eggs  are  and  can  be  produced,  we 
reallv  do  not  know  why  there  should  be  such  an  outcry  for 
them  except  for  culinary  purposes  ;  a  winter  egg  is  very 
devoid  of  the  real  egg  flavour.  No  artificial  food  can  come 
near  that  of  fresh  greenery  and  fresh  delicate  insect  and 
worm.  We  take  it  that  no  epicure  could  fail  for  one 
moment  to  differentiate  between  the  flavour  of  a  November 
egg  and  one  laid  in  April.  New  Potatoes  are  at  times  a 
fraud  ;  out-of-season  dishes  never  satisfy  except  the  purse- 
proud.  In  our  own  household  a  boiled  or  poached  egg  is 
rarely  consumed  in  winter ;  not  because  they  do  not  exist, 
but  because  other  delicacies  are  in  season,  and  the  egg 
“  hoff.”  Once  get  the  spring  again,  and  then  there  is 
“  egg  ”  galore  1  This  is,  perhaps,  strange  heresy*  but  there 
is  a  germ  of  truth  in  it  after  all!  It  possibly  is  that  we 
country  folk  get  a  bit  more  fastidious  than  the  town  folk. 
We  know  we  should  nob  care  for  a  great  deal  of  their  milk 
and  vegetables,  which  before  they  reach  the  table  have 
known  the  vicissitudes  of  much  travel. 
Mr.  Brown  furnishes  us  with  some  startling  statistics  as 
to  the  consumption  of  eggs  in  Great  Britain — 250,000  tons 
in  one  year.  Some  few  are  used  in  manufactures,  but 
only  a  very  small  portion.  The  weight  of  poultry  consumed 
during  the  same  period  was  63,000  tons.  This  looks  much 
out  of  i^roportion  to  the  egg  weight,  and  the  egg  weight  is 
nearly  all  gain,  the  aggregate  shell  weight  falling  far  below 
that  of  bone  and  feather  of  fowl. 
Mr.  Brown  is  also  glad  to  note  that  there  is  a  better 
spirit,  i.e.,  the  spirit  for  improvement,  among  poultry 
raisers,  especially  in  Ireland,  where  the  premium  farms 
are  disseminating  a  better  class  of  fowl.  We  sadly  want  a 
movement  here  of  similar  nature.  So  many  people  keep 
fowls,  but  they  are  all  “  wrong  Tins  ”  as  regards  utility. 
They  ?na)/  be  ornamental  (this  we  doubt),  but  useless  w'e 
know.  We  have  had  ourselves  trouble  about  the  disposal 
of  eggs ;  the  local  mai’ket  meant  low  prices — so  many 
middlemen — and  the  only  way  that  appeared  to  be  any 
better  was  the  direct  sale  to  a  large  town  firm.  That  was 
better,  but  as  we  could  not  persuade  any  neighbours  to 
co-operate,  except  for  a  week  or  two  (they  found  the  pack¬ 
ing  tiresome),  there  was  a  difficulty  about  the  carriage  of 
small  lots  at  wholesale  prices.  Had  ours  been  French  or 
Danish  eggs,  anything  but  the  Shires,  we  should  have  got 
far  more  profitable  terms  from  the  railway  companies. 
There  is  another  way,  too,  in  which  small  farmers  are 
handicapped.  In  summer  months  their  butter  may  be 
decidedly  soft  (they  have  no  appliances  for  keeping  it  firm), 
and  consequently  when  it  goes  to  the  nearest  shop  in  a 
little  town  the  buyer  will  only  give  a  decent  price  for  it 
on  condition  that  he  has  the  offer  of  the  eggs  too.  They 
are  said  to  “  harden  the  butter,”  i.e.,  make  less  chance  that 
the  butter  does  not  lose  money.  We  have  seen  this  done 
times  and  times  again,  and  Mr.  Brown  mentions  it  as  one 
of  the  antiquated  forms  of  marketing.  We  cannot  blame 
the  buyer.  We  know,  alas  1  how  often  the  small  parcels  of 
butter  mean  actual  loss,  for  deterioration  has  already  set 
in,  and  unless  the  sale  is  rapid  the  oily,  unsatisfactory 
butter  goes  out  as  cart  grease.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
eggs  are  made  to  keep  till  wanted.  Not  being  sold  by 
weight  their  value  is  not  visibly  diminished. 
The  import  business  in  poultry,  game,  and  eggs  is  some¬ 
thing  enormous,  and  is  still  increasing.  Mr.  Brown  says 
there  wmuld  seem  to  be  no  limit  to  the  growth  of  impoiTs 
from  abroad,  and  he  gives  the  money  values  for  the  last 
three  years  as  obtained  from  the  Trade  and  Navigation 
returns : — • 
1901.  1902.  1903. 
£  £  £ 
.  5,495,767  ...  6,308,985  ...  6,617,619 
Poultry  and  Game  ...  980,757  ...  1,059,044  ...  1,203,086 
Totals  .  6,476,524  ...  7,868  029  ...  7,820,705 
Increase  over  1900  ...  6\054  ...  951,561  ...  1,404,237 
According  to  other  elaborate  calculations  each  family  of 
five  Britons  has  an  egg  bill  with  a  foreign  country  of 
18s.  per  annum,  and  this  in  addition  to  home-grown  and 
Irish.  If  people  are  not  learning  to  buy  milk  fast  enough, 
surely  they  are  learning  the  value  of  the  egg ! 
We  usually  find  about  Christmas  time  that  there  is  a 
large  influx  of  foreign  turkeys.  Perhaps  the  influx  was  not 
as  great  as  usual,  for  we  have  heard  many  complaints  as  to 
the  scarcity  of  turkeys.  Those  fortunate  folk  who  had  fine 
large,  well-fed  birds  have  had  an  excellent  market  for  their 
wares.  Turkey  rearing  will  never  become  very  popular 
with  the  masses,  for  it  demands  a  good  amount  of  care  and 
forethought ;  it  is  one  of  the  callings  specially  adapted  for 
those  people  who  attend  personally  to  every  detail,  and 
leave  nothing  at  the  mercy  of  hirelings. 
We  are  at  the  threshold  of  a  fresh  breeding  season — it 
cannot  well  be  worse  than  the  last.  The  bad  weather  in 
the  early  months  affected  the  vitality  of  the  eggs;  summer 
we  had  none,  and  young  chickens,  like  every  other  young 
things,  thrive  best  in  sunshine.  There  was  rain  enough 
at  any  rate  for  young  ducks,  but  it  is  quite  possible  even 
for  them  to  have  too  much.  We  have  seen  no  statistics 
as  to  turkey  rearing,  but  certainly  the  cold,  wet  season 
would  have  a  very  adverse  effect.  The  turkey  chick  can 
stand  at  one  stage  no  exposure  to  damp,  even  an  untoward 
shower  may  cut  short  its  career. 
How  seldom  we  see  guinea  fowls,  and  yet  what  useful 
birds  they  are  when  game  is  in  demand.  lb  is  many  years 
since  we  tried  our  hand  with  them,  and  we  found  them 
almost  as  bad  to  keep  in  a  prescribed  area  as  a  mountain 
bred  sheep.  Their  note,  too,  is  peculiar  and  not  altogether 
pleasing.  One  strong  point  to  which  Mr.  Brown  refers  is 
the  growth  of  hatching  establishments  where  rearers  can 
procure  young  birds  without  the  risk  and  trouble  of  hens 
or  incubators.  This  is  division  of  labour  with  a  vengeance  ! 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
The  weather  is  more  favourable  for  spring  work,  although 
the  land,  except  that  of  a  .sandy  nature,  is  none  too  dry.  The 
chief  work  now  is  crossing  the  fallows  with  the  plough  or  culti¬ 
vator,  and  j)loughing  turnip  land  behind  the  sheep.  This  latter 
work  is  much  more  satisfactory  than  it  was,  the  sheepfolds 
now  providing  both  a  good  lair  for  the  sheep  and  a  dry  surface 
for  the  plough  to  turn  over. 
There  is  much  difference  of  opinion  just  irow  as  to  the  value 
of  steam  cultivation  compared  with  deep  ploughing  with  horses 
in  preparing  ley  for  the  Potato  croiJ.  The  advocates  of  the 
plough  affirm  that  land  which  is  inclined  to  he  heavy  is  more 
liable  to  run  together  under  the  influence  of  heavy  rain  than 
land  ploughed  deeply  in  the  ordinary  manner.  We  do  not 
believe  it,  but  contend  that  the  cultivated  portion  of  a  field 
would,  after  a  suitable  period  of  rest,  be  more  easily  brought 
into  a  fine  state  of  tilth  than  another  portion  deeply  ploughed 
at  the  same  time.  Any  imaginary  advantage  in  favour  of  the 
ploughing  is  usually  produced  by  a  difference  in  the  conditions 
under  which  the  work  has  been  done,  or  by  a  difference  in  the 
time  .since  it  was  done.  By  cultivation  we  mean  a  thorough 
upheaval  of  the  .soil  with  digging  tackle,  whereby  the  surface 
is  left  in  such  a  state  as  to  make  walking  over  it  very  laborious. 
There  has  been  a  lull  in  the  Potato  trade,  and  deliveries 
are  now  on  a  small  scale.  The  cause  is  a  large  arrival  of  foreign, 
and  we  are  advised  that  very  good  new  Potatoes  are  coming  in 
from  Guernsey  ;  but  we  need  not  fear  any  serious  competition 
from  that  quarter. 
Roots  are  disappearing  quickly,  and  as  mangolds  were  such 
a  moderate  crop,  we  shall  have  none  too  little  natural  food  left 
before  grass  time  comes  round.  There  is  plenty  of  hay  and 
clover,  but  farmers  have  been  warned  again.st  the  use  of  clover 
hay  for  sheep,  and  it  has  fi'ightened  them  a  little.  We  fancy 
that  the  scare  about  clover  has  been  caused  by  the  u.se  of  coarse 
trifolium  or  cowgrass,  and  that  no  ill-effects  would  have  followed 
the  use  of  the  ordinary  broad-leaved  clover. 
In  the  absence  of  other  employment  we  have  got  a  great 
deal  of  work  done  to  the  fences,  and  except  for  the  carting 
away  of  surplus  thorns  all  is  completed.  A  few  gates  require 
rehanging,  but  they  are  now  in  the  shed  under  process  of 
painting.  Our  butcher  tells  he  has  killed  lOG  pigs  this  winter 
for  farmers  and  labourers,  yet  pigs  and  pork  are  plentiful,  and 
likely  to  remain  so. 
- - 
A  War  Office  Stud.— The  result  of  a  conference  between 
the  War  Office  and  the  Board  of  Agriculture  would  appear  to  be 
the  establishment  of  a  national  stud.  The  Government  is  con¬ 
vinced  that  the  time  has  arrived  for  it  to  breed  its  own  army 
horses. 
