22 
January  7,  19C4. 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE 
alas!  IS  hot  a  comfortable  covering^ ior  stock  of  any  sort— - 
the  congregation  in  a  mission  room,  or  the  cattle  in  the 
shed.  When  you,  want  heat,  you  get  the  maximum  of  cold, 
and  the  full  benefit  of  the  broiling  sun  (concentrated 
essence)  in  the  dog  days. 
Thon,  too,  unless  well  painted,  iron  is  apt  to  suffer  imicli 
deterioration  from  the  weather,  and  paint  is  an  expensive 
luxury,  whether  applied  by  landlord  or  tenant.  .A  question, 
too,  arises  as  to  the  possibility  of  proper  ventilation.  It  can  be 
done,  but  it  is  not  easy.  The  cheapest  thing  is  generally 
the  least  desirable ;  but  there  are  times  and  situations 
where  one  has  to  consider  how  to  make  a.  little  money  go  a 
long  w’ay,  and  on  a  heavily  burdened  estate  it  is  often  a 
-question  of  no  covered  yard,  or  one  cheaply  and  easily 
made.  All  things  considered,  the  wooden  roof  is  as  well 
or  better  adapted  as  any  for  the  requirements  of  the  oi’di- 
nary  tenant  farmer. 
There  are  two  questions  to  bear  in  mind ;  first  costs, 
and  repairing  costs.  Of  course,  slates  have  long  lives,  tiles 
are  more  fragile,  and  wo  liave  known  a  lieavy  gale  of  wind  in 
a  few  minutes  do  many  pounds  worth  of  damage.  Corru¬ 
gated  iron  is  dearer  much  than  wood,  and  is  rising  in 
price,  and  it  is  still  an  open  question  as  to  whether  its 
durability  is  as  great  or  greater  ;  this  is  one  of  the  questions 
our  children  will  have  to  decide  on.  In  no  case,  or  on  no 
pretence  should  a  yard  have  more  than  one  side  open  ;  there 
is  no  draught,  and  the  temperature  is  more  even.  Should 
the  yard  be  well  sheltered  by  buildings  on  the  east  let  that 
be  the  side  open. 
Thiis  far  for  covered  yards  themselves  ;  now  for  some 
of  their  adva^ages.  It  is  a  well  established  fact  that 
warmth  hgt^Jfei^iuch  to  do  in  the  production  of  flesh  as  food. 
The  problefti  is  how  to  produce  that  flesh  at  the  least 
possible  cost;,, and  in  (he  least  possible  time.  Starvation 
and  hunger  go ‘hand  in  hand.  Due  warmth  and  comfort 
given,  much  less  food  is  necessary. 
Fresh  air,'  and  plenty  of  it,  without  draught 
is  as  essential"  to  the  stock  as  it  is  to  mankind, 
and  there  need  be  no  fear  of  undue  “  tendering " 
where  this  is  the  first  consideration.  This  was  the  cry 
of  the  old  fanners,  that  covered  yards  tended  to  debilitate 
•stock  to  such  an  extent  that  there  wa,s  serious  risk  to  their 
■constitutions.  Of  course,  there  was  reason  in  what  they 
■said  ;  stuffy,  dark  yards  were  never  likely  to  engender  or 
promote  health,  but  with  years  we  have  learned  wisdom, 
and  provide  warmth  without  closeness,  and  shelter  without 
undue  “  coddling.” 
Then  there  is  the  question  of  manure  to  consider.  We 
all  know  what  a  powerful  agent  water  is  in  dissolving 
almost  any  constituents,  and  what  of  the  value  of  the 
manure  in  yards  exposed  to  every  drop  of  rain  and  every 
flake  of  snow  1  Beasts  are  fed  on  expensive  food,  and  their 
excreta  is  of  proportionate  value  as  long  as  it  is  in  a  fairly 
•dry  condition.  The  most  valuable  ingredients,  viz.,  solu- 
able  mineral  matter  and  nitrogen,  are  absolutely  wasted, 
and  worse  than  that,  draining  off  no  one  knows  where  ;  often 
finding  their  way  into  the  water  drinking  supply  of  the 
farm,  and  cause  irreparable  mischief  to  life  and  health. 
We  may  at  least  set  down  a  ton  of  covered  yard  manure 
to  be  equal  in  value  to  tons  of  the  old  rain-saturated 
compound.  This  being  so,  we  jrain  in  labour,  for  there  is 
no  harder  work  on  the  farm  than  filling,  leading,  and 
spreading  “muck.”  Then,  too,  comes  another  point  to  be 
considered,  as  no  amount  of  stones  put  in  by  order  of  the 
Prince  could  fill  up  the  Slough  of  Despond,  so  no  amount  of 
bedding  can  in  a  wet  winter  make  an  open  yard  a  warm  or 
comfortable  place  ;  and  straw  is  a  valuable  factor  on  the 
farm  in  these  days  of  non-wheat  growing.  The  loads  upon 
loads  of  straw  in  the  old  days  got  certainly  trodden,  but 
there  was  too  much  of  it  ever  to  be  transformed  into  really 
good  manure. 
Ifc  had  to  be  led  out,  allowed  to  decay  in  large  heaps, 
and  then  applied  to  the  land  ;  the  long,  coarse  straw  was 
unmanageable  in  any  other  way.  Perhaps,  too,  the  garth 
■mill  may  liavj  a  wor<l  to  say.  One  we  knew  who  toiled  for 
years  in  open  yards  and  is  now  rewarded  by  a  warm,  snug 
enclosure,  declares  his  work  to  be  quite  that  of  a  gentle¬ 
man  !  No  more  sodden  boots,  no  more  soaking  clothes,  no 
more  damp,  starved  cattle  with  hair  all  the  wrong  way,  and 
no  suspicious  coughs !  “  Nous  avons  change  tout  cela  ”  ; 
and  recognising  the  value  of  warmth  and  comfort  ourselves, 
are  ready  to  let  the  dumb  animals  participate  in  the  same 
comforts. 
AND  COTTAGE  GABDENER.^ 
Work  on  the  Home  Farm. 
The  weather  has  remained  dull  but  fine.,  and  very  warm  for 
Christmai5tide.  We  have  been  ploughing  turniii  land  and 
two-.vear-old  seeds,  the  latter  intended  for  a  crop  of  oats,  as 
the  land  is  unsuitable  for  other  crops,  and  there  is  not  a  little 
couch  in  it.  To-day  we  have  8deg  of  frost  and  the  ground  as 
hard  as  if  there  had  been  sixteen.  The  turnip  land  ploughing 
is  stopped,  hut  we  can  still  work  on  the  seeds,  which  have  a 
good  deal  of  cover.  Perhaps  another  night’s  frost  will  stop 
us  there  too.  If  so,  we  shall  have  to  turn  again  to  manure 
carting.  This  time  we  shall  lead  it  into  a  hill  in  the  field 
which  is  coming  Swedes.  This  will  be  the  best  manure  from 
the  feeding  cattle  and  cows,  all  of  which  are  cake  fed.  We 
have  also  a  good  heap  of  stable  manure  which  will  do  for 
manuring  grass. 
Yard  manure  i?  not  very  good  just  now.  The  yard.s.  were 
too  well  bedded  to  begin  with.  There  was  such  a  quantity  of 
refuse  from  the  stackyard  during  the  wet  harve.st,  also  from 
haystack  tops,  and  the  cattle  have  done  little  to  improve  its 
fertilising  properties. 
There  has  been  very  little  doing  amongst  potatoes,  but 
prices  are  reported  to  be  rising,  and  several  merchants  have 
just  been  round  buying.  They  have  been  rather  unsuccessful, 
as  farmers  are  holding  very  firmly,  and  can  with  difficulty  be 
induced  to  make  any  offer. 
Every  time  we  visit  the  turnip  fold  we  notice  the  rapidity 
with  which  the  roots  are  disappearing.  We  shall  be  on  Swedes 
a  fortnight  sooner  than  we  expected,  and  we  are  afraid  that 
they  will  go  up  as  quickly  as  the  Green  Globes  are  now  doing. 
They  certainly  do  not  look  anything  like  the  crop  they  promised 
to  be.  It  will  he  a  disaster  if  turnips  run  short,  and  sheep 
are  thrown  on  the  ma^’ket  before  grass  is  regdj'in  for  hundreds 
of  farmers  who  havei  been  hard  hit  through harvest  are 
looking  to  their  .pho(^..tP  pull  them  ■througli,^,, We  .have  been 
surprised  to  hear  such  loud  complaints  from  'the  large  meat 
markets  as  to  the  pqpr  pripe  of  good  beef.  ,  At  fhe  ^giall  country 
markets  round  here  prices  have  been  most  satisfactory,  and  if 
quotations  are  worth  anything  they  have  been .  quite  four  or 
five  farthings  per  pound  above  the  markets  complained  of. 
Perhaps  we  shall  get  the  back-wash  later  on. 
Everyone  is  pig  killing,  but  it  has  not  been  good  weather 
for  curing. 
The  Unemployed  in  Towns,  and  Farm  Labour. 
Evidently  the  editor  of  the  London  “  Daily  Mail  ”  has  read 
some  of  the  articles  of  our  Home  Farm  correspondent,  who  said 
recently  ;  “  Look  through  any  agricultural  paper,  and  complaints 
as  to  the  scarcity  of  men  will  be  found  to  be  general.  Wages 
are  good;  houses  are  cheap  ;  hours  are  short.  Farmers  don’t  do 
much  work  by  candle  power.  This  is  how  we  are  fixed.  Now- 
turn  to  another  aspect  of  affairs.  On  Friday,  December  4th,  a 
labour  bureau  was  opened  for  the  unemployed  in  a  large  city  in 
the  North  of  England.  Before  5  p.m.  1,171  men  had  entered 
their  names  as  desirous  of  a  job.  If  the  Corporation  can  make 
work  they  will,  for  good  men  ;  provide  employment  for  three  days 
in  the  week,  and  pay  11s.  3d.,  preference  being  given  to  married 
men  with  families.” 
The  daily  paper  we  have  named  furnished  a  leading  article 
in  its  issue  of  Monday  last,  which,  in  other  words,  repeated  some 
of  the  statements  and  .sugge.stions  which  our  correspondent  had 
already  made. 
The  “  Daily  Mail  ”  observed  that  “  this  is  just  the  kind  of  case 
w'here  a  central  organisation  can  step  in  and  supply  the  needs 
both  of  the  farmer  and  of  the  unemployed.  The  fact  that  these 
advertisements  for  labour  go  unanswered  even  in  times  of  distress 
seems  to  show-  that  the  railway  fare  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
unwillingness  of  the  men  to  leave  the  towns  and  face  what  is  to 
many  of  them  quite  an  unknown  life  on  the  other,  are  the  two 
chief  obstacles  which  prevent  the  demand  being  supplied.  The 
farmers  naturally  will  not  pay  the  railway  fare  of  a  labourer  when 
they  have  no  guarantee  that  he  will  remain  with  them  ;  and  even 
those  labourers  who  might  be  able  to  find  the  money  would  be 
unwdlling  to  spend  it  on  going  to  a  distant  part  of  the  country 
in  which  they  might  find  themselves  unwilling  to  remain. 
“  The  .suggestion,  then,  is  that  a  committee  should  assist  men 
who  are  out  of  work  to  avail  themselves  of  this  demand  for  labour. 
The  organisation  for  keeping  the  men’s  homes  together  in  their 
absence,  or  until  it  was  desired  to  transfer  them,  could  still  be 
effectively  used ;  and  it  would  not  Ibe  difficult  to  arrange  that 
at  least  a  proportion  of  the  w-ages  should  be  paid  to  the  coni- 
mittee,  who  could  apply  it  to  the  maintenance  of  the  families 
at  home.  We  feel  convinced  that  if  more  of  the  distressed  popu¬ 
lation  of  London  knew  what  life  in  the  country  was  really  like, 
they  would  be  less  afraid  of  adopting  it.” 
Some  of  the  metropolitan  papers  have  described  at  some  length 
the  farm  colony  for  the  London  unemployed,  which  is  in  operation 
at  Hadley,  Herts. 
