480 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
November  19,  1903. 
(N.B. — The  rural  and  agricultural  population  must  not  be 
confounded ;  they  are  not  one  and  the  same  thing,  for  the 
country  is  the  retreat  of  (1)  those  out  of  business,  (2)  of 
those  who  go  to  and  from  their  work,  (3)  of  miners  and 
other  w'orkers  that  are  not  of  the  agricultural  class  at  all. 
The  number  of  farmers  proper  have  fluctuated  a  good 
deal  during  the  fifty  years.  In  1861 — 71,  their  numbers 
increased  as  compared  with  ’51  ;  they  went  down  iu  ’81  and 
’91,  touching  their  lowest  point  in  ’91,  and  they  have  risen 
again  in  ’01.  This,  and  the  fact  that  we  find  so  many 
relatives  of  farmers  as  assistants,  points  to  the  fact  that 
many  of  these  farmers  are  holding  lessened  areas,  and  are 
employing  relatives  rather  than  outside  help,  i.e.,  they  are 
doing  the  work  within  themselves,  and  forming  a  class  of 
men  who  are,  perhaps,  the  most  hard-wmrking  of  any  com¬ 
munity.  Probably  in  many  instances  the  farais  are  their 
own,  and  it  is  only  by  the  means  above  indicated  that  they 
are  able  to  keep  their  heads  above  water.  We  know  many 
instances  of  sons  and  daughters  working  for  nominal  wages, 
or  perhaps,  barely  more  than  their  keep,  just  because  they 
have  honest  pride  enough  to  wish  to  keep  the  bit  of  land 
intact.  Farm  bailiffs  are  on  the  increase  during  the  last 
ten  years.  The  name  “farm  bailiff  ”  reads  differently  in 
various  neighbourhoods.  “  Farm  Bailiff  ”  proper,  ranks 
rather  above  a  “  foreman,”  and  the  name  implies  a  superior 
class  of  men  who  are  managing  land  under  the  landlord, 
rather  than  the  tenant,  and  this  would  suggest  that  land¬ 
lords  have  a  good  deal  of  land  in  their  own  hands  at  present. 
We  hardly  think  this  is  the  case ;  certainly  not  in  the  north 
of  England. 
Mr.  Druce  thinks  the  drop  of  22  per  cent,  of  labourers 
and  shepherds  during  the  last  ten  years  may  be  accounted 
for  by  the  fact  that  the  census  was  taken  during  the  period 
when  we  had  so  many  men  (reservists)  out  with  the  forces 
in  South  Africa.  We  do  not  think  that  would  affect  shep¬ 
herds,  We  do  think  that  on  many  farms,  from  motives  of 
economy,  the  foreman  and  shepherd  are  combined  in  one 
person.  The  percentage  of  arable  laid  down  to  pasture 
during  the  like  period  (ten  years)  has  been  six  per  cent. 
The  tendency  of  making  small  farms  or  letting  farms  to 
men  in  a  lower  grade  of  life  than  formerly  all  tends  to  the 
lessenirig  of  the  demand  for  labourers.  These  men  have  to 
keep  down  expenses  to  the  lowest  point,  and  to  do  so  they 
first  cut  off  supeidluous  labour  (or  what  they  think  super¬ 
fluous),  and  then  cut  off  all  the  manurial  agents  they  dare. 
There  is  very  little  intensive  farming ;  now  the  farms  are 
run  more  on  the  American  system,  and  are  all  for  utility  as 
against  beauty  and  mere  neatness.  We  are  sorry  for 
this,  for  the  neat  picturesqueness  of  an  English  farmer  is 
very  pleasant  to  the  eye,  and  it  is  what  strikes  a  foreigner 
so  forcibly.  We  have  sometimes  been  inclined  to  think 
certain  “  faddy  ”  men  have  run  up  their  labour  bill  too 
much.  They  could  still  have  had  things  well  done  had  they 
paid  more  attentioii  to  details  themselves ;  insisted  on  more 
punctual  arrivals  in  the  morning,  and  not  overlooked 
early  departures.  There  is  much  more  time  and  money 
lost  in  this  way  than  can  be  easily  calculated.  Such  irregu¬ 
larities  are  not  for  one  moment  allowed  in  factories  or 
mills :  it  is  only  the  easy-going  farmer  who  gets  victimised, 
and  he  has  but  himself  to  blame  for  much  of  it. 
We  see  the  farmer  is  blamed  for  his  apathy  in  not  giving 
more  attention  to  the  higher  branches  of  dairy  work.  The 
better  class  of  cheeses — for  instance,  those  that  we  find  at 
the  good  hotel  or  the  fashionable  club.  The  irony  is  that 
we  let  the  foreigner  seize  and  hold  this  market,  and  we 
hardly  see  how  it  can  be  otherwise  till  this  question  of 
agricultural  population  rights  itself  a  little.  Cows  may  be 
fed  and  milked,  and  the  milk  despatched  to  some  great 
centre,  and  in  this  w’e  see  the  minimum  of  labour  with  the 
maximum  of  profit  ;  but  it  comes  about  that  if  the  farmer 
wishes  to  convert  this  milk  into  cheese  he  is  brought  face 
to  face  with  a  great  difficulty.  Unless  his  own  family  will 
undertake  the  work,  it  must  go  undone.  True,  the  rush  of 
work  is  during  the  summer  months  alone  ;  but  it  matters 
little  when  it  is,  if  he  can  get  no  one  to  do  it.  We  know 
ourselves  of  a  case  where  all  the  summer  milk  was  turned 
into  most  excellent  Stilton,  but  this  was  only  because  the 
mistress  worked  like  a  slave  herself,  being  in  her  dairy  daily 
bv  6  a.m.,  if  not  earlier.  She  could  get  no  servants  to  help, 
and.  by-and-bye,  had  to  give  it  up,  the  strain  being  too 
much,  taken  in  connection  with  her  other  household  duties. 
Why  cannot  some  of  those  young  women  who  flock  into 
towns  and  make  indifferent  dressmakers  and  badly  paid 
shop  assistants  turn  their  hand  and  attention  to  this 
industry?  But  they  won’t,  preferring  anything  to  a  country 
life.  It  is  a  soz’t  of  madness  we  cannot  understand,  and  we 
fear  it  is  growing. 
We  have  seen  this  yeai’,  for  the  first  time  during  a  long 
life,  the  meets  of  various  hounds  postponed,  not  on  account 
of  the  frost,  but  because  the  ground  w'as  too  wet  for  sport, 
and  there  was  imminent  danger  of  harming  the  crops.  This 
gives  some  idea  of  the  universal  deluge,  a  deluge 
unequalled  certainly  during  the  lifetime  of  this  generation. 
Shall  we  need  to  say  a  word  in  favour  of  the  farmer  ?  Do 
all  that  “ride  to  hounds”  choose  their  road  as  carefully  as 
possible?  We  have  had  occasion  to  remark  that  on  soB 
land  a  horse’s  foot  does  positive  harm  in  beating  and 
solidifying,  and  this  on  bare  fallows ;  but  must  the  harm  be 
on  fields  of  freshly  sown  Wheat  or  over  young  seeds  ?  It 
is  not  one  solitary  horseman,  but  the  “  fields  ”  of  to-day  are 
so  immense,  and,  we  fear,  many  of  them  come  only  for  a 
gallop.  There  are  acres  of  Mangolds  yet  unpulled,  and 
though  the  Mangold  is  hardier  than  of  yore,  it  is  not 
improved  by  a  great  piece  being  punched  out  of  its  side  by 
an  iron  shoe.  If  men  would  only  believe  it,  “  the  going  ” 
is  much  easier  on  the  headland,  and  the  damage  done  far 
less.  We  hear  a  whisper  that  the  fair  sex  is  the  most  to 
blame,  and  if  so,  we  fear  that  these  words  of  ours  won’t 
meet  the  eyes  of  the  chief  delinquent. 
As  to  fences,  and  the  damage  done  to  them  (if  we  dare 
make  the  suggestion),  a  few  hand  gates  might  do  much  to 
obviate  this  difficulty.  Need  we  say  that  we  hope  all 
strands  of  dangerous  wire  are  now  removed  from  along  the 
tops  of  the  fences  ?  On  whom  this  duty  and  expense  falls 
is  still  a  debated  question  ;  but  we  think  that  as  hunting  is 
the  sport  of  rich  men,  and  the  present-day  farmer  is  a  poor 
man,  the  expense  should  come  out  of  the  hunt  fund.  We 
were  amused  the  other  day  by  the  statement  that  fox¬ 
hunting  was  the  cause  of  the  decadence  of  poultry  rearing, 
and  the  reason  of  our  great  lack  of  eggs  !  “  Credat  Judaeus.” 
If  there  is  a  real  and  true  desire  to  keep  poultry,  foxes  wdll 
prove  no  bar.  We  whisper  it,  but  we  believe  the  fact  impli¬ 
citly,  that  foxes  are  often  blamed  for  the  destruction  of 
poultry  that  is  yet  to  be  hatched ! 
Work  on  tlie  Home  Farm. 
Although  we  have  had  very  little  rain  since  our  last,  the  land 
has  not  dried  much.  We  have  had  three  nights’  frost,  rising 
from  three  degrees  of  frost  to  eight,  and  though  it  added  to  the 
anxiety  of  Potato  growers  with  crops  still  unlifted,  it  would 
probably  do  considerable  good.  Wet  pastures  will  now  be  safer 
to  run  -sheep  on  as  regards  the  danger  from  liver  fluke,  though 
the  animals  will  be  better  on  sounder  land  until  after  Christmas 
if  it  can  be  managed. 
We  notice  a  few  Potato  pies  being  soiled  up.  We  hope  there 
may  not  be  many  bad  ones,  or  the  closing-up  now  may  be  im¬ 
politic.  No  doubt  the  frost  has  given  a  warning  note,  but  we 
seldom  have  frosts  -so  early  which  are  severe  enough  to  go 
through  a  good  covering  of  straw  batts.  Hands  are  too  scarce  at 
pre.sent  to  allow  of  turning  the  crops  over  and  taking  the  bad 
out. 
We  hear  of  fifteen  tons  of  Evergood  per  acre  being  grown, 
and  a-  portion  being  sold  at  £9  per  ton.  This  is  an  eight-acre 
field.  We  also  hear  of  three  bad  Northern  Stars  at  one  root, 
and  of  a  purchased  21b  lot  containing  one  veiy  bad  one.  These 
are  facts  we  can  vouch  for. 
W  e  are  Wheat  sowing,  but  it  is  very  heavy  work  for  the 
hor-ses  in  the  drill,  which  we  prefer  to  use  if  possible.  Some 
■farmers  are  thinly  ploughing  their  seed  Wheat  in  after  Potatoes, 
but  they  must  be  leaving  many  Potatoes  beneath  which  a  deeper 
ploughing  would  have  recovered. 
A  neighbour  is  taking  Carrots  up — a  fine  crop,  which  he  sold 
at  £26  per  acre.  Carrots  were  such  a  drug  last  year  that  very 
few  people  have  grown  any  ;  consequently  they  are  now  selling 
vei-y  well.  Next  year  it  will  be  a  case  of  enter  Carrots,  exit 
Potatoes. 
We  shall  defer  ploughing  fallows  down  for  winter  until  the 
water  has  had  greater  chance  to  drain  away,  and  shall  find  occu¬ 
pation  for  the  horses  in  carting  manure  on  to  the  seeds.  There 
will  also  be  -some  work  in  delivering  Barley  to  the  railway. 
Winnowing,  or  screening  the  corn,  is  occupying  the  time  of  some 
of  the  hands.  This  is  work  that  must  not  be  slipped,  if  we  are 
to  keep  a  good  name  with  the  buyers  on  the  market.  A 
“  small  ”  farmer  showed  us  the  other  day  a  delivery  order  for 
some  Barley  which  he  had  received  from  the  purchaser. 
“  Ficafie  dress  well,”  was  heavily  underlined.  That  Barley  was 
weighed  at  the  machine  tail, "and  never  dressed  at  all. 
Cattle  are  all  up  and  on  strictly  winter  keep.  Roots  are  good, 
but  hardly  ripe  enough.  The  cattle,  however,  seem  to  thrive, 
which  is,  so  far,  satisfactory.  We  shall  have  to  procure  a  supply 
of  poles  and  stakes,  as  the  time  for  repairing  fences  is  near  at 
hand. 
