ALBERT R. MANN LIBRARY New York State Colleges of Agriculture and Home Economics AT Cornell University Cornell University Library S 513.D92 How to make the land pay; or, Profitable 3 1924 000 325 021 H Cornell University S Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924000325021 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAT LONDON : FEINTED BY ■8POTTI8WOODE AND CO., NEW-STHEET SQiTTARE AMD PABMAMENT STREET HOW TO MAKE ' THE^LAND PAY PROFITABLE INDUSTRIES OR ^ . CONNECTED WITH THE LAND AND SUITABLE TO ALL OCCUPATIONS, LARGE OE SMALL BY HENRY pf DUNSTER, M.A. VICAB OF WOOD-BAETWIOK, NORFOLK ' Homo sum : himumi nihil a me cdiernm puto P. Tebentii Heautont. Act. I. s. ii LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 1885 All rights reserved PBEFACE. Though fully persuaded that the many subjects here dealt with, in the interest of both owners and occupiers of land, might have been left to abler and better hands, I am still of opinion that little or no apology is needed on my part, or indeed on the part of anyone who seeks to remedy an existing wrong, or who has anything to offer which can claim to mitigate, if it cannot wholly remove, an acknow- ledged distress. Something is gained if only the better informed are set thinking. As far as concerns myself, I do not deprecate criticism ; for it is by honest criticism and free ventilation that the truth in any matter is brought to light. My sole object has been to do good. I can honestly say that I have recorded my own candid convic- tion — that I have dealt with the various subjects here mentioned, not only according to my own knowledge of . them derived from practice and observation, but that I have sought anxiously and diligently, by intercourse with others better qualified to give an opinion, and by reading, -i2 "VI PKEFACE. for the Soundest information in order to correct or to con- firm my own experience. To the kindness of those who have answered my numerous inquiries, and to the labours of those who have studied and so ably written upon several of these subjects, I profess myself a debtor : to most of these the debt has already been acknowledged, to all an acknowledgment is due, and it is here placed upon record, for if left unrecorded it might be supposed to be unfelt. HENEY P. DUNSTEK. Wood-Bastwick Vicarage CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. PAGE Low price of wheat likely to be permanent — Substitutes necessary — Extent of foreign importations of articles of food which small farmers could produce — The protection farmers need and can have — Comparison of yield between market-garden and farm land — Small farms and large — The writer's claim to be heard on these subjects 1 CHAPTER II. DAIRY FARMING. Neglect of this profitable industry — Deficiency in our herds of cows — Folly of rendering foreign importations necessary — Sums paid to foreigners for dairy produce — Unused cow-sheds and dairies — The small dairy farms of Holland and Belgium- — Their arrangements and general management — Food for stall- fed cows — How to get rid of unpleasant flavour of turnips in milk and butter — Experiments in feeding — Cost of five cows — Value of ensilage —The tree cabbage' — Dairies in the Channel Isles — Hints upon milking — Profits of a dairy . . 7 CHAPTER III. MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. How the foreigners take our farmers' profits on these articles of food — Scarcity of milk among labouring poor — Dr. Lancaster's opinion — More small farms needed — The factory system — Mr. ' Long's lecture — What Denmark is doing — Madame Nielson and her dairymaids — Visit to a butter factory — Mr. Tolle- mache at Sudbury — Lord Vernon's dairy — Hints on butter- making — Cheese — A Scotch lady's recipe — Stilton — Cream cheeses — Rennet 17 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. BACON, HAMS, SALT PORK, AND LARD. paob The aggregate value of these imported articles — Loss to our farmers — Profits of pig-keeping — Factories needed — Tricks of the Americans — The doings at Chicago — Profits in curing bacon, hams, &c. — A Yorkshire recipe — "Wiltshire bacon — Cobbett's celebrated recipe 34 CHAPTER V. POULTRY FARMING. Neglect of this profitable industry — Enormous importation of foreign eggs — Does poultry pay ? — The secret of success — Poultry farms in Prance — Profitable sorts of poultry — Fowls' house and yard — Feeding and fattening — Incubators — Mr. Barnes's experience — Ducks and geese — What Mr. Fowler, of Aylesbury, says about them — Turkeys — Marketing of eggs and poultry 43 CHAPTER VI. RABBIT FARMING. Increasing value of rabbits as articles of food — The hutch system and enclosed warrens — Babbit farming on the Continent — The Ostend boat — Major Morant's hutches — What Mr. B. Lloyd Price says about breeding and the profits of rabbit farming in hutches — The Belgian hare and cross breeds — Selection of site for enclosed warrens — Cost of enclosure — . Sorts to be kept — Feeding — Trapping — Marketing — Fair rent to landlord and profit to tenant from land hitherto waste . 57 CHAPTER VII. FRUIT FARMING — ORCHARD FRUIT! 3 . Home-grown supply not equal to demand — Two millions and a half of money sent abroad — Orchards neglected — How to renovate them — New orchards, how to plant and how to pay for them — Apples, pears, plums, and cherries — What sorts most profitable — Useful hints on selecting trees — Planting and pruning— Packing for market — Mr. Charles Gibb, of Abbotsford, Quebec, and his visit to the Bussian orchards — . What the Canadians are doing — How our farmers may profit by fruit growing — A crop of barley plus a crop of damsons . 68 CONTENTS. IX CHAPTER VIII. FRUIT FARMING — BUSH FRUITS. l'AGK Fruits included under this name — Not affected by foreign competi- tion — Increasing demand for them — Management of planta- tions of gooseberries — Currants, red, white, and black, and raspberries — Lord Sudeley's jam factory — Profits of bush- fruits growing, and following Mr. Gladstone's good advice — Valuable recipes in ' Modern Cookery,' by Eliza Acton . . 83 •" • • • CHAPTER IX. FRUIT FARMING — STRAWBBRRT GROWING. Strawberry growing in Kent — Extent and value of strawberry farms — Soil best suited — Management of plants — Eunners — Number of plants for an acre — Sorts — The ridge and furrow fashion — Mr. Kynaston's plan — 501. an acre gross returns — Large profits 90 CHAPTER X. FILBERT GROWING. Nut plantations — Situation more important than soil — Immense profits — Mr. Cooper, of Calcot Gardens, near Reading, Berks, states his own experience — Varieties of cob filberts — Filbert- growing advantageous to small freeholders — With tenants long lease necessary — Extensive export trade in filberts, especially with America — Nut growers to be congratulated ... 96 CHAPTER XI. FLOWER GROWING FOR CUT FLOWERS. A new industry developing — Growing demand for cut flowers — Felicia Hemans's prayer — Saturday's Yarmouth market — A farmer's garden — Unscientific classification the best — Flowers according to colour— Skill of the fair sex — White flowers to be grown for cutting — Blue, red, and yellow flowers, what to grow and how to grow them — How to pack flowers for a journey, and how to revive them when flagging . . . 103 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XII. FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING FOR DISTILLATION, FOR MEDICINAL AND OTHER PURPOSES. PAGE Number of plants grown for these purposes — Eimmel's ' Book of Perfumes ' — Flower jarming in the South of France — Statis- tical accounts — Analysis of flower-growing soil by M. Septimus Piesse — Atmosphere even more important than soil — Its effect on flowers — English lavender and peppermint the best — Other plants in demand — Caraways and coriander — What Arthur Young tells us — Enormous profit — The plants grown at Mitcham, Market Deeping,and elsewhere — Essential oils and extracts — Laboratories close at hand 116 CHAPTER XIII. BULB GROWING. Cultivation of bulbous plants greatly on the increase — Trade with the Dutch — Our own soil equally as good as Holland— Patient industry deficient — How the Dutch growers propagate — Hyacinth growing a peculiar industry — Our own experience with bulbs generally — Large profits from a small industry . 12& CHAPTER XIV. VEGETABLE FARMING. Small farmers advised to send vegetables to market with butter and eggs — Vegetables far more profitable than corn — Large imports from abroad — Why not grow enough for ourselves and for exportation also 1 — What to grow for profit, and how to grow them — Three sorts of vegetables : permanent crops, root crops, and green crops — Lists and cultural instruction — ■ Double cropping — What Mr. Middleton says an acre of market-garden ground can be made to return — Mr. Robinson's description of the small market-gardens in the neighbourhood of Paris— Startling facts for English farmers .... 136 CHAPTER XV. SUGAR-BEET FARMING. Two considerations affecting it — Foreign beetroot sugar to the value of eight millions and upwards imported annually — Why not profitable here? — Factories need constant supplies — CONTENTS. xi Different sorts of beet — Least exhausting of all root crops — Best situation for sugar-beet factory — What Mr. Biddell, M.P. for West Suffolk, says about it — The discovery of strontia : its use and Dr. Lyon Playfair's opinion — Preparation of land and cultivation of beet crop — Process of work at sugar-beet factory — Quantity of sugar and residuum from five tons of beet 1.48 CHAPTER XVI. CROPS JUST OUTSIDE THE ORDINARY METHOD OF FAEM CROPPING. The four-course system of farming a failure — Effects of foreign competition — Sound advice of Messrs. Sutton and Sons, of Reading — Outside crops — Buckwheat — Canary — Chicory— Comfrey — Lucerne — Maize — White and Black Mustard — Bape — Saintfoin — Spurrey — The teazel — Vetches .... 155 CHAPTER XVII. MUSHROOM GROWING. Large export trade in mushrooms of the French and Belgians — Mr. Kobinson's account of the doings in France — Miles of mush- room beds — Old stone quarries turned to profitable account — Modern cookery and the demand for mushrooms — Where to grow them and how — Recipes for making spawn — Mr. Barton's plan — How Mr. George Cooper paid for making and glazing a long range of pits by growing mushrooms .... 171 CHAPTER XVIII. OSIER AND WATERCRESS GROWING. Why treated of togethex — Value of the joint crops — Good profits to tenant and good rent to landlord — How to plant osiers — Sorts according to Loudon and uses — Local names — Great demand for baskets — How to propagate watercresses — Value of the crop to small farmers — Watercress growing at St. Peter Port, Guernsey — Profitable employment for young children . .180 CHAPTER XIX. FLAX GROWING. Flax growing three or four times more profitable than wheat grow- ing — Flax for linen and linen yarn — Linseed — Imports over eight millions — A new industry — Flax straw for paper making Xll CONTENTS. — Large profits and no trouble— Mr. Stratton and the Ely- Paper Mills — Value of flax straw — Returns per acre — Mr. Hulbert, of North Corney Farm, confirms Mr. Stratton's opinion — Advantages of flax over corn crop stated — Piece of good- advice to farmers 186 CHAPTER XX. ENSILAGE. Advantages of ensilage over hay — Practice common in Holland and Germany — Mr. Wood's admirable lecture — Lord Tollemache and his Cheshire tenantry — Silos inexpensive — The process explained — Mr. Wood's experiments at Merton Hall — His super-silo— Large barns useful — Mr. Francis Sutton's opinion of the value of ensilage as food for cattle— Materials used — Ensilage in casks — Mr. Baker's process — Comparative estimate of ensilage and hay — Large balance in favour of the former . 194 CHAPTER XXI. BEE-KEEPING. Small industry, all profit, too generally neglected — Importation of foreign honey and wax — Bee-keeping in Poland and elsewhere — How Mr. Pagden made 701. a year by bees — Three systems of management — No bees destroyed — Neighbour's hives — Nutt's hives — The bar-frame hives — Swarming — -Feeding — Taking honey — Bee- dress 204 CHAPTER XXII. PISH FARMING. How connected with land — Riverside farms — Artificial fish-breed- ing — Howietoun's large fish farm — Report of operations — Trout-breeding — Hatching boxes — General management of young fish — Profits of fish farming 214 INDEX 225 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION. It is not intended that all or any one of the industries treated of in the following pages must necessarily consti- tute the whole or indeed any portion of every occupation. That the growth of wheat in this country at the present low prices, induced by foreign' competition, is unprofitable alike to landlords and tenants is acknowledged by every one ; and there are few persons who are not prepared to admit that these low prices will be permanent. Notwith- standing this, it is highly probable that for several years to come there will be large arable farms as at present, for on good wheat-growing lands with favourable seasons quantity will in some degree compensate for lowness of price. It is, however, an admitted fact, that on the general run of farms in England one or more substitutes must be provided, either wholly or partially, for unprofitable wheat. In the several industries here dwelt upon, it is hoped that some compensation may be found for losses sustained by foreign competition in this particular product, which hitherto has been regarded as the most important and best B 2 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. paying of the farm crops. Many of these industries may be small matters in themselves, but they all admit of a very large development, and most of them may be made to blend with present farm arrangements without much alter- ation of system and very little additional outlay of capital. A very slight change in the management of any large arable farm would render wheat-growing more profitable,, and at the same time tend to develop dairy produce and the rearing of stock. Let the grass seeds sown with the barley be mixed according to the selection of Messrs. Sutton, of Reading, to stand for three or four years instead of one year as is usual ; by this means not only will a large supply of grass for hay, or ensilage, or summer feed, for dairy and other stock, be provided, but a much larger yield of wheat may reasonably be expected when the time comes for such grass land to be broken up and sown. All the industries here brought together are profitable ; but the amount of profit to be derived from any one of them must, of course, be dependent upon circumstances — soil and situation must be taken into the account, also the facilities of conveyance, but especially the demand of any particular neighbourhood. The same soil will not grow everything ; a poor, thin-skinned, panny land is useless for orchard fruits. Bush fruits and strawberries cannot be, grown to a profit on a scorching sand, nor in any part of the country where labour is scarce at gathering time. Poultry cannot be well reared on a stiff, wet clay. It is vain to think of making a dairy farm pay where little or no summer food for cows can be managed ; or vegetables, if from want of easy conveyance the supply must be con- fined to a neighbourhood where most persons grow vege- tables for themselves. It is these peculiarities of soil and INTRODUCTION. 3 situation, rendering some localities suitable for some things and some for others, that serve to distribute home-grown food supplies more evenly throughout the country, and to prevent particular markets being overstocked with the same produce. It is a very common, but faulty objection, when any substitute for unprofitable wheat is proposed, to urge that the country would be overdone with that particular pro- duct, as if wheat everywhere would cease to be grown, and as if that one product would everywhere and wholly take the place of it. Whoever will give himself the trouble to consult the yearly returns issued by H.M.'s Custom House, will find that a sum of money little short of thirty-eight millions is being paid yearly to foreigners for the under- mentioned articles of produce because our farmers do not provide a sufficiency, viz. : — £ Bacon and hams 9,539,039 Pork, salted and fresh 729,041 Poultry and game . : . . . . 591,064 Butter 11,505,015 Cheese 4,739,664 Eggs 2,731,332 Lard . 2,079,719 Vegetables. Chicory 55,016 Hops 891,560 Onions 437,447 Potatoes 1,582,938 Tares 125,286 Vegetables unenumerated 363,741 Fruits. Apples • 552,385 Nuts . 397,007 Fruit preserved without sugar ... . 123,533 Ditto raw unenumerated ... . . 1,261,477 Ditto dried unenumerated . . . . 185,828 b 2 4 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. In addition therefore to the present home produce an amount valued at nearly thirty-eight millions of money of the above-named commodities must be forthcoming before the home supplies can ever satisfy the present demand of the home markets ; and this demand, it must be remembered, is ever on the increase. The effects of this increase have long been showing themselves in increased and increas- ing prices. Upon this point it is instructive to notice that while wheat, in consequence of foreign competition, has been falling in price, all these other items of farm pro- duce, viz. butter, cheese, bacon, eggs, &c, notwithstanding foreign competition, have been advancing. And that the demand for such items will continue to increase is certain, for the customers of these particular commodities increase in numbers so rapidly, that it has been calculated on the best authority, from the data of the last census, that our city populations will double themselves in the next forty years, and our rural population in fifty. While the occupiers of land in England are waiting, enamoured of protection and mourning its loss, other nations are absorbing the profits which might prove at any rate some compensation to them. The small indus- tries that give employment to and feed the millions are rapidly passing into other hands. Belgium is realising the boast of good old King Leopold, that his country would become the market-garden of England. Denmark and Holland are feeding us with cheese and butter, and now the Dutchmen seek to drive our dairymen alto- gether out of the markets and to supply London with milk. America inundates us with filthy counterfeits of dairy produce, and with bacon and hams, &c, which, how- ever inferior in quality, are made to command English INTRODUCTION. 5 prices by being introduced under English names. Canada supplies us with apples ; France, Spain, and other places with different sorts of fruit. It would be well for those inter- ested in land if, instead of clamouring hopelessly for pro- tection and waiting hopelessly for Government relief, they would set themselves to try the remedies which their own intelligence and industry and capital place within their reach ; and if the present system of farming does not pay, let them at any rate make trial of some other. Fashion is continually interfering with our manufac- turers and causing a great expenditure of thought, labour, and money in the adaptation of machinery to some new material, and the development of some new fabric. The land hitherto has been little under the influence of such like changes, and, therefore, it is no doubt that occupiers find it a hard matter to realise the necessity of them. The best pro- tection our farmers can have, and indeed the only one they are ever likely to get, is that wherein the great majority of the people are as much interested as themselves. Let them abandon once and for ever the idea of an import duty upon wheat, and join heart and hand in the demand to be protected against all adulteration of food whether of home or foreign produce. Let them insist that not only milk, tea, and coffee should be sold pure, but that such manufac- tured articles of food as cheese, butter, beer, &c, should be what they profess to be unless otherwise declared. A protection of this kind it is the interest of every consumer to support. Another great source of profit within reach of, every farmer is the closer cropping of the soil, and avoiding waste. If any one doubts that under the present system of cultivation ordinary farm land in England does not yield the amount of food it ought, let him look to land 6 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. managed as market-garden land everywhere, and to the small farms in Holland, Belgium, Brittany, and elsewhere on the Continent. Let him compare the net produce of an acre of the best wheat land in England with the amount of food and profit therein derived from an acre of market- garden ground anywhere, or from the mixed husbandry so generally to be met with abroad. Should it be asked, what claim has the writer to be heard on such subjects as these, the reply must be the claim of a long life passed in the midst of industrial pursuits, with the faculty of observation sharpened by ample opportuni- ties for the exercise of it at home and abroad. And further, the claim common to all consumers whose interests must be identical with those of the producers of food. As much for the benefit of ourselves as of our farmers, we consumers prefer home-grown to imported produce, home- made butter and cheese to unwholesome substitutes for these articles imported from abroad; we prefer new-laid eggs from our farms to stale ones from France.; fresh fruits from home-growers to fruits, however delicately handled and carefully packed, that come to us from foreign climes ; we prefer salt pork, bacon, and hams from the dairy farms of old England to those that have passed through the curing processes at Chicago. Above all, we prefer that, whatever money we have to spend on these things, be it 38,000,000Z. or double that sum, should go to enrich the occupiers and owners of our own soil, and by them be cir- culated for the benefit of our manufacturers, the general improvement of trade, and the prosperity of the country. CHAPTER II. DAIRY FARMING. It is quite certain that a dairy, properly managed, is a , most profitable part of any farm whether small or large, and it is equally certain that much of the prevailing agricultural distress is due to the neglect of dairy farming ; even the dairy farms themselves that are in existence at the present time are suffering from this too general neglect. The stock of cows in the country has been re- duced so low, that there are not sufficient home-bred animals to meet the dairy farmers' and also the graziers- wants, and consequently large foreign importations every year are needed even to keep up an adequate supply of meat. With these imported animals has been introduced ' foot and mouth disease ' — that terrible scourge injurious alike to all stock and dairy farmers. Had our farms been managed as they were originally laid out, this evil in all probability would never have occurred ; at any rate, we should not be sufferers from an imported disease, for our home-reared stock would have kept pace with our demands. As the case now is, not only are we paying to foreigners the large sum of nearly 10,000,000L every year for im- ported ' living animals,' but the still larger sum of 16,000,000Z. for ' butter and cheese,' all of which are profit- 8 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. able articles of ordinary farm produce where cows are kept. In years gone by, dairies were looked upon as necessary portions of all farms, whatever the size of them. The small tenants and the large tenants alike kept cows ; a farm without cows was a thing unheard of. The management of the dairy was the special occupation and concern of the farmer's wife and his daughters. Every old-fashioned farmhouse throughout the country bears testimony to this, for in every homestead there is a shed set apart for cows, and in every farmhouse one or more rooms suitably situated and fitted up for dairy purposes, often even now to be seen bearing their ancient labels c Dairy ' and ' Cheese-room,' though they have long since ceased to fill the purposes for which they were originally built. Where five or six farms are held under one occupation, as is now so generally the case in the arable districts, the ' off farms ' are tenanted by a bailiff or yardman to look after the fatting stock that has been ' bought in,' but without one single cow in the home- stead, where in time past five, six, or even more, were kept, and managed by the wife and daughters of the farmer, who himself rented only this one farm. In these small farms, not only were a few calves reared every year, but milk and butter were sold at the dairy. It is a positive fact that, owing to the loss of these small farms, and also to- the unwillingness of large farmers to be troubled with village customers for such a trifling affair, milk is not to- be bought in many a country village. This is a great- hardship to every poor family. What is needed is a return to small dairy farms, and landlords who study their own interest will do well to secure at any rate some tenants, whose wives are not above giving personal attention to- DAIRY FARMIKG. 9 1 dairies, and all that appertain to them ; such farms will pay a far better rent than large corn-growing occupations, and there are plenty of tenants to be found with sufficient knowledge and capital also among the better class of farm labourers, who go off to the colonies and elsewhere every year because they can find no suitable occupations in th& old country. Every year proves how short-sighted a policy it is on the part of both landlords and tenants to allow the breeding stock of the country to be so reduced. At the present time ' Cows, Heifers in milk or in Calf,' do not number anything like two and a half millions. In 1883 over and above ' meat fresh and salted ' nearly half a million of live cattle were imported, and considerably over one million of sheep. The foreigners reap the profit, and our farmers feel the loss. Home-bred stock are far more pro- fitable for grazing than foreign cattle, and milk, butter, and cheese are the best paying produce of the farm ; still dairies are neglected. The fact is, the wives and daughters of our large arable farmers will not trouble themselves to look after dairy concerns, and in these days servants cannot be found to do the work which can only be well done by them- selves. On the Continent the case is very different. Almost, invariably the farms are small, and cow-keeping consti- tutes the chief industry. The cow-sheds and dairies are in close connection with the farmhouse, often under th& same roof, and the farmer himself, his wife and his family, do all the work. Indeed, the attention required by so many minute particulars as dairy management involves, can only be expected from those whose profits depend upon it. It is quite true that a dairy causes a great deal of' 10 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. work. Early rising and the most scrupulous cleanliness are needed where milk and butter-making are concerned. The small dairy farms in Holland and Belgium and else- where are models of neatness. In Holland the room used as the dairy is usually sunk below the level of the soil, to preserve a uniform temperature, and is paved with bricks. The sides are often covered with Dutch tiles and the arched roof with cement. The cow-house is provided with a passage down the centre, broad enough for a cartway, and the cows stand with their heads towards this passage, which is paved with hard-burnt bricks. Their tails are towards the wall, along which runs a broad gutter sunk six or eight inches below the level of the flooring on which the cows stand. This gutter slopes towards a sink covered with an iron grating, which communicates by a broad arched drain with a vaulted tank into which all the liquid flows. The gutter is washed clean twice a day before each milking time. The cows stand and lie on a sloping brick floor, and have but a small quantity of litter allowed them, which is re- moved every day to the piggeries or to the dung-heaps, the bricks at the time being swept clean and in summer washed down with water. Nothing is lost by these indus- trious people ; but everything is turned to a profit. The liquid manure from the cow-house tanks is used to fertilise the soil, and so valuable is it esteemed that in certain places in Belgium it is contracted for at the larger town dairies at the rate of 21. a cow per annum. This shows how these well-to-do small farmers value what our farmers too generally waste. Their mode of fastening the cows is well worth notice. Two strong wooden pillars are set up- right about two feet apart from each other on the flooring DAIRY FARMING. 11 •of the shed, so that a cow can readily pass her head be- tween them. On each side of these is- an iron ring large ■enough to run freely up and down, with a hook attached to each ring; from these hooks two small chains pass to the leather strap which is buckled round the neck of the cow. By this arrangement the cow can lie down, rise up, and move forward to take her food which is placed in a manger before the two pillars ; she can also move back- wards, but she cannot strike her neighbour with her horns. In many dairy farms in Holland a very ingenious contri- vance is made use of to prevent injury to the milker and frequently to the milk-pail, from the napping of the cow's tail ; a pulley with a weight attached is fixed at the back of each cow, by the running line of which the tail of the cow is fastened, and kept up at the time of milking. To the above description of a cow-shed and its arrange- ments, as they are so often seen abroad, it may be well to add a few particulars respecting the dairy. It should be situated as near as possible to the cow-shed, that the milk may be put away without exposure to the outer air. The room used as the dairy should be sunk, if possible, two or three feet below the level of the ground, with a north aspect, and with outside walls at any rate on the opposite sides of it, so as to ensure a perfect ventilation. Round the walls stone slabbed or brick benches should be raised on arches about two feet or two feet six inches high, to receive the milk- pans. Air holes, covered with perforated zinc or close wire- work, should be fitted in the walls just a few inches higher than the top of the pans, and sliding shutters should be provided for these. The floor should be paved and have a gentle slope towards a drain properly fixed to carry off the large quantity of water which is certain to be needed. The 12 HOW TO MAT?*: THE LAND PAY. drain should run at once into the open air, and he kept, scrupulously clean. No dairy can thrive where there is any impurity from any cause. The best windows are those made of wood like Venetian blinds, for by their means light can be excluded without excluding air. A properly appointed dairy farm should consist of a certain quantity of permanent pasture and a certain quantity of arable land; the former for summer feed,, and the latter for roots to be used in winter. In most- districts cows do best stall-fed from November to May, so- that a requisite quantity of winter food must in all cases be provided. Taking acre for acre, there is no doubt arable land and roots will yield a larger amount of food than pasture land. It has been calculated that eighteen tons of mangel- wurzel, or fifteen tons of Swede turnip, are equal to three and three-quarter tons of meadow hay as regards the amount of nourishment contained in them. The roots in both cases, however, can be grown on less than three-quarters of an acre of land, whereas it will require between two and three acres of good meadow land to yield the quantity of hay. The flavour and quality of the milk depends very much upon the food of the cow. Turnips of all sorts give an unpleasant flavour, but a little care will prevent this. Let a piece of saltpetre about the size of a walnut be put into the pail and the cow milked upon it, and the most, fastidious, we venture to assert, will detect no turnipy flavour even if turnips be the only food. Malt-cums as they are sometimes called, that is, the dried sprouts of the grain in the conversion of barley into malt, which may be purchased at all maltings at a cheap rate ; also brewers' grains and distillers' wash, when they can be obtained,. DAIRY FARMING. 13 form most excellent winter food for cows, and so also does ensilage. Every farmer now is alive to the value of this new article of food, and has some knowledge of its prepara- tion, but all do not know that almost all kinds of green food can be turned into ensilage ; that nothing need be -wasted ; pea haulm, cabbage leaves, turnip tops, the coarse grass of the hedge-rows and marshes, may all be mixed to- gether, and when properly fermented be turned by this process into a palatable and nutritious food. Ensilage has been proved by repeated experiments to be especially valuable for dairy stock. The value of it, however, must depend, as on other things, upon the goodness of the materials of which it is made. Mr. Edward Blunt, of Blaby Hill, Leicester, has recorded some interesting experi- ments which show the increase of profit in dairy farming where cows are fed upon ensilage. The following figures give the relative cost of cows fed •on hay and roots and those fed on ensilage. ' Five acres of an average crop of clover,' writes Mr Blunt, ' will produce 40 tons of ensilage, or 10 tons of hay. The cost of making, stacking, and thatching the hay, will be 15s. per acre; therefore if the value of the hay be 41. the ton, the value -of the crop for that purpose is 361. 5s. I find the cost of making ensilage to be 4s. 6d. per ton, including a fair charge for use and depreciation of the silo and press : therefore add 9L to the 361. 5s., and you have 451. 5s. as the value of the 40 tons of ensilage, comparing it with hay at 41. per ton. Five cows fed entirely upon ensilage will consume 340 lbs. per day, or 1 ton 1 cwt. 1 qr. per week, equal to 39 tons 6 cwt. 1 qr. (say 40 tons) for thirty-seven weeks, the cost of which, ascertained as above, is 45Z. 5s. ; thus each cow 14 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. will cost rather less than 5s. per week. The same number of cows fed on hay and roots will consume 400 lbs. of roots and 80 lbs. of hay per day, or for thirty-seven weeks 46 tons. 5 cwt. of roots and 8 tons 5 cwt. of hay. The roots at 15s. per ton will amount to 34£. 13s. 9d., and the hay at 41. per ton to 37Z., a total cost of 71L 13s. 9d., or 7s. 9d. per cow per week ; for the five cows for thirty-seven weeks we have/ therefore a balance in favour of ensilage of 251. 8s. 9d, or 2s. 9d. per cow per week. The thirty-seven weeks of stall-feeding are of course the most expensive in the year, the remaining fifteen weeks are passed on the meadow lands at a comparatively trifling cost. , Beside the food here mentioned there is a sort of tree- cabbage grown in the Channel Isles, which the small dairy farmers there cultivate largely for their cows and find very profitable. The plants grow seven or eight feet high and even more, and last for three or four years ; at first the leaves only are gathered : but when these fail the tops are- cut off and the stalks removed. The stalks are of value^ for they make excellent stakes, and the best and straightest- are sold to be polished and mounted as walking-sticksj We have often wondered why this most profitable cabbage- is never grown in England ; it will grow and come to perfeor tion here, for we have grown it ourselves from seed purchased at Guernsey, and have a walking-stick and a handle to a landing-net made out of two of the stalks, which are ex-r tremely tough and very light. The small dairy farms of the Channel Isles are ad-r mirably managed, pay a large rent, and yield a good profit. In 1882, notwithstanding their large home con^ sumption, they exported 1,402 cwt. of butter to England, valued at 6,999L The pastures of these islands are with-r DAIRY FARMING. 15 out doubt of a superior quality, and the breed of cattle, known as Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney cows, some- what differing from each other, are all good for dairy purposes, although not well suited for our small English farmers, as they do not fatten as well as our home breds when they cease to be profitable for the dairy. The Durham shorthorns and red Suffolk polled cows are the most profitable with us. Their calves sell well to thq graziers, and the cows, when no longer useful for milking, fatten very fast. A good dairy cow may soon be spoiled, notwithstanding good feeding, by inattention to other im- portant particulars, especially with regard to milking. Cows should be milked in hot weather in as cool a place as possible ; in the morning or evening, before milking, they should be allowed to rest for some short time, and never be driven fast from the pasture to the milking-sheds ; if pastured on broken or uneven ground, it is better to milk where they are feeding and carry the milk to the dairy, than incur the risk of shaking a full udder by the cow's leaping on the uneven ground. After milking the udder of every cow should be left perfectly dry ; to effect this the milker should make a second and even a third trial, and the teats before they are left should be washed with a sponge and clean water. It is almost superfluous to add that pails and milk-pans must be scalded at once after each time of using them. There are various sorts of milk-pans in use : tin, copper, iron enamelled, glass and wood. Some will prefer one sort and some another ; but any of the former are preferable to the last mentioned, for they can more easily be kept clean. The thorough emptying of the udder at each time of milking cannot be too strongly insisted upon ; not only is there great waste, especially in 16 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. the quality of the milk, without it, but many a good cow is eventually spoiled by inattention in this respect. In a well-managed dairy the yearly produce of an average good •cow at present prices, not including the value of her calf, cannot be stated at less than 20L We have before us the account of a dairy of one hundred cows, where the average per head is 20Z. 1 7s. 6d. Now taking the thirty-seven weeks of winter feeding at Mr. Blunt's estimate at 5s. per week, 91. 5s., and allowing 4s. per week for summer pasturage of fifteen weeks, 31., we have 12Z. 5s. as the whole expense of feeding, leaving for each cow kept a profit of 71. 15s. per year, independent of the value of the calf and the manure to fertilise the land. Under such circumstances must not dairy farming pay ? 17 CHAPTER III. MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. It must appear at first sight almost incredible that, not- withstanding the extent of our pastures and our superior breeds of cattle, it should be necessary for us to pay to foreign farmers the enormous sum of between fifteen and sixteen millions every year for dairy produce. And, again, that in a country like ours milk should be so scarce a commodity that a very large portion of our rural popula- tion has no opportunity of buying it. New milk, home- made butter and cheese ought, certainly, to be found at every farmhouse ; and yet it is a well-known fact that in the arable districts it is quite possible to come upon farm- house after farmhouse where milk is never seen, for not a single cow is kept. The yardman, who is tenant of the farmhouse, is placed there to fatten imported stock, and at the village shop he and his family buy imported butter and imported cheese. Holland and America are only too glad to take the money which otherwise might go to swell the profits of the farms these tenants live upon. How long this wasteful neglect of home produce will be suffered to continue it is impossible to say. But continue it will until landlords interfere to put a stop to it — until they refuse any longer, by lowering rents or by a return of rents, to subsidise the growth of unprofitable wheat — and also C 18 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. exert themselves to secure tenants for moderate-sized holdings, who are real farmers of the land they occupy, and not above paying attention to those small industries which large capitalists think beneath their notice. The sale of milk at 2d. a pint will pay well, and many a small farmer at this price can make a good living out of three or four' cows by selling milk to village customers. He can also afford to pay a good rent for his small occupation. If he can manage to sell the whole quantity of his milk to his neighbours so much the better, for his wife and family are then free from the care and labour of butter-making. But anyway, whether by the sale of milk alone or by milk, butter and cheese, the produce of a small dairy farm of mixed pasture and arable land can be turned to a good account. Cottagers, especially those with large families, are always anxious to buy milk, and it is a great depriva- tion to them when the farms in their neighbourhood are so managed that they cannot get it. For a labouring man a pint of new milk for 2d. is far more invigorating and supporting than a pint of beer. Drink of the latter kind may lead him into error, drink of the former cannot. For infants and young children this sort of food is almost an essential. £ Milk,' says Dr. Lancaster, ' is a type of all food. That it is so is found in the fact that the young of all the higher mammalia are fed on this food for several months, many of them for above a year, and get no other article of diet. During this period they grow very rapidly, and increase in size. Consequently they must have obtained all that which constitutes their muscle, their nerve, their bone, and every other tissue, from the millr 1^bey take as food, sd that milk must contain the essentials of. all food.' MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. 19 It is gratifying to find that the consumption of milk is on the increase, and this increase would no doubt be greatly accelerated if there were a more liberal supply. The thirsty must have drink, and a draught of milk, if it could be had, would very often, no doubt, take the place of a draught of beer. We have remarked of late, in dairy windows of several populous places, notices that ' milk and soda may be had at all hours at Id. and 2d. a glass.' Why could not the same wholesome beverage be on sale at our small village shops, to the benefit of the shopkeepers and the tenants of small dairy farms where such exist ? l Cow-keepers in the neighbourhood of large cities and towns have a ready sale for their milk, and dairy farmers near a railway station, and within easy distance of any large centre of population, have no difficulty in sending away their milk in cans, which are taken full by the early morning trains and returned empty before the evening or, at any rate, in time for the next morning's supply. When dairy farms are situated at a distance from these conveniences as to the disposal of milk, there are plans in operation on the Continent which might be adopted with great advantage here as soon as a stock of cows has been Taised adequate to the population of the country, and dairy farming once again is allowed to occupy its proper place in our agricultural system. The agricultural returns reveal too clearly the present deficiency of our country as regards the production of milk. From the returns for the 1 The milk and soda, or soda and milk, as it is sometimes called, is managed thus : — Fill about | of a pint or a half -pint tumbler with new milk, and add to it sufficient water from a soda syphon to make it effervesce. Drink it while the head is on. This is a most refreshing beverage, wholesome and invigorating for the drinker, and, at Id. and 2d. the glass according to quantity, very profitable for the seller. c 2 20 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. year 1883, it appears that the number of cows in milk or in calf in England and Wales is 1,910,000, in Scotland 395,000, and in Ireland 1,400,000, whereas Denmark has nearly 1,000,000 cows, Norway 750,000, Sweden 1,500,000, Holland 1,000,000, and France 7,250,000. Thus, while we have only one cow to twelve acres of culti- vated land, Norway has one to four acres, Sweden one to eight, Denmark one to six and three-quarter acres, Ger- many one to ten, Holland has nearly one cow to every seven acres, while Prance is about equal to ourselves. The plan just alluded to is called ' The Dairy Factory System.' It has been so well described by Mr. James Long, of Shillington Manor, Hitchin, in a lecture which he delivered some time back at the Farmers' Club at Framlingham, that we cannot do better than give a few extracts in his own words. Mr. Long, in the interests of agriculture, visited the principal districts of dairy farming both at home and abroad. ' I have always contended,' he says, ' that, in order to master any system, there is nothing like seeing it working under various aspects ; and putting together the conclusions I drew from what I saw on the Continent and have seen in England, I have no hesitation in saying, that I believe the establishment of the factory system in any district where milk can be produced, and which is not far removed from a large centre of population, must prove highly beneficial to the farmer, and open up to him a source of profit, of which he can have but little idea. Now what is the Factory system ? Practically speaking, it is a system which enables the farmer to dispose of his milk at all seasons, in any quantity, for what it is worth. In the ordinary way it is conducted under two aspects, in one of which the factory is proprietary, and in the MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. 21 •other it is co-operative. In a proprietary factory, the owner conducts his business within a convenient distance •of a number of milk-producing farmers : he manufactures butter and cheese just as it pleases him, and pays the •farmers a price for all the milk they like to send him of .good quality, that price being considerably higher than ■could be obtained by the sale of milk to wholesale dealers, more especially when the cost of carriage, risk of destruc- tion by weather, &c, are considered. In sending to a factory owner the farmer has no responsibility, for when "the milk is despatched from his farm he has done with it. In the case of a co-operative factory matters,' continues Mr. Long, ' are not greatly different. There is the same plant, the same staff, and perhaps the same system of treatment of the milk, but the whole is managed by a committee of the farmers themselves, the personal direction •of the work being left to an expert, whose capability affects the annual result more than anything else in the concern. In a system of this kind the milk-producer receives his just share of the profits, and the price per gallon paid to him is principally affected by the quality of the cheese and butter, and the ability with which they are marketed. The farmer has no daily routine of cheese-making and butter-making, he requires fewer servants, while his time and the time of his family can be directed into any other channels.' Mr. Long, not without strong reason, reminds our farmers that for years the butters and cheeses of France have invaded our markets, and the result has been so suc- cessful that Denmark, finding corn-growing disastrous, ias set to work and transformed her agricultural system, .and is preparing to follow the example of France ; already, 22 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. as the customs returns point out, she sends butter to th& value of 2,151,730Z., and according to Mr. Long's account she has now commenced manufacturing a variety of cheeses which may very shortly be expected in our markets. 1 Mr. Long does not hold at a very high account the enter- prise of British farmers. 'All the time this foreign interference has been going on, our farmers,' he tells us, ' have hardly attempted to move. They have continued to- make butter in the same old-fashioned way, and to manu- facture the same class of cheeses which are frequently undersold by Americans and which realise far less per cow than many others, they might make which now come from abroad. In other words, instead of the farmer being a one-cheese farmer, he ought to be able to make a Stilton or a Cheshire, a Camembert or a Gorgonzola, just as well as the Frenchman and a great deal better than the Italian, by which means he would be able to suit the markets better, and obtain higher prices, as Madame Nielson does. Again, the butter-maker ought to understand the various methods of making tasty, soft, skim-milk cheeses, as well as the production of butter of that uniform quality which London butter merchants say they cannot obtain in England. This, however, could not be said under the factory system.' It is to the energy and enterprise of Madame Nielson that Denmark is indebted for the rapid development of this important industry. Though speaking no other- language than Danish, she travelled through Europe,, and learnt the art of making the most important ani popular cheeses of France, Italy, Germany, and Switzer- land, as well as England. When Mr. Long visited. 1 According to the * general imports ' return for 1883, cheese to the= -value of 3,3521. was actually received here from Denmark. MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. 23 her farm, he tells us, ' I found her hard at work among her ten dairymaids, making three varieties of cheese at the same time, while the next day I found her at her store at Copenhagen, selling, as it were, the cheese pro- ductions of six nations, but all of which came off her own farm.' As a testimony to their quantity he continues, ' I have seen the . Gorgonzola made in Italy, the Limburg in Germany, the Gruyere in Switzerland, many times Nor- wegian in Denmark, and a variety of cheeses in France from the Camembert to the Livarot, and, what is more, I have seen and tasted those made by Madame Neilson) which were quite equal to those from their respective countries. The result of this experience is, that I have not the least hesitation in stating my belief that it is neither the breed of cattle nor the food they consume, but the system of manufacture, which makes one cheese differ from another, and that a practised hand could produce them in one country just as well as in another.' It may be well in the interest of the British farmer, in order to show what the foreigners are doing and what we might equally well do ourselves, to make one more extract from the valuable lecture of Mr. Long. It is the account of his visit to a Swedish butter factory : ' Over the factory,' writes Mr. Long, ' I was very kindly shown by Mr. Hugo Lindgren. It is a proprietary business; butter being chiefly made for the English market, and about one hun- dred casks are made weekly, these holding 1,200 Swedish pounds. Skim milk is largely sold at ten ore to twelve ore per can, equal to 2d. per gallon, which is quite equal, in proportion to the cost of the new milk. The butter -obtains the price of the best Danish, which is saying a good deal, and the milk yields 3£ per cent. Skim milk 24 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. cheese yielded at the rate of 1 lb. (valued at 3£d.) per six quarts of milk ; it realises 30s. per cwt., and is chiefly sent to Scotland. Here also rennet and colouring matter are made for our country.' We are fully in accord with Mr. Long in his observa- tion, that it seems a most marvellous thing that we should have quietly built up this gigantic Scandinavian dairy business, or at least assisted a great race of people to do so, and to raise the same in France, which recently boasted that, although in 1883 her exports and imports of dairy produce nearly balanced, yet that she now exports seventy- five millions of pounds of butter annually, and receives in return, principally from England, four millions sterling. It is a hard matter to move the owners and occupiers of land in England to alter a long-established custom. A wheat-growing farm will continue to grow wheat long after wheat has ceased to pay its own expenses. The landlord will reduce his rent to the border of destitution, and a tenant or two will appear in the Gazette before a change of system that may prove profitable will be thought of and adopted. It is gratifying to remark that with regard to the dairy factory system, there are evidences that the foreigners will not be suffered much longer to gain all the advantage. The Duke of Westminster has established factories on different parts of his large estates. Lord Vernon also, at Sudbury, near Derby, has a large factory in full working ; and others no doubt there are and will shortly be in other places. We extract the following remarks upon factories in general, and Lord Vernon's factory in particular, from a valuable lecture lately de- livered by the Hon. Stanhope Tollemache at the Stow- market Farmers' Club : — MILK, BTJTTEB, AND CHEESE. 25 ' After going carefully into all the details,' says Mr. Tollemache, 'I have ascertained that to start such a factory, with all the latest and most improved machinery, would require a capital of about 1,7003. The advantage of establishing a butter factory in an arable district is, that food can be more easily raised for feeding the cows in winter than in a grass district. For the manufacture of cheese grass districts have advantages, as cows must be in profit during the summer ; good cheese is never made in winter, probably owing to the low temperature and •dampness of the atmosphere. Farmers sending milk to a butter factory should be induced to arrange for their -cows to be in profit from October to April inclusive, as during that period the factory could probably afford to ^pay an average price of 8d. per gallon for the milk, while for the remaining five months the average price could not be more than 6d. per gallon. The reasons for this differ- ence in price would be, firstly, butter is cheaper in summer than in winter ; secondly, in winter, 6d. per gallon (carriage paid) could readily be obtained in London for the skimmed milk, whereas in summer there would be considerable •difficulty in disposing of this important item ; and, thirdly, in winter 1 lb. of butter can be made from ten quarts of milk, while in summer 1 lb. of butter can only be made •from fourteen quarts of milk. I should propose that the milk be bought by weight, 10 lbs. 4 oz. to the gallon, to remunerate good cow-keepers ; and of course the quality of the milk supplied would require frequent testing to prevent adulteration. I have obtained much of the information I have just given, through the courtesy of Mr. Bates, the manager of Lord Vernon's butter factory at Sudbury, near J)erby, who showed me everything when I went over the 26 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. factory a few weeks ago, and the details connected with the- .manufacture of the butter there would, I think, interest you, ' The factory was started with only ten contributors ; now there are fifty-nine sending milk from 1,000 cows in summer and 600 in winter. The milk-cans on arriving are hoisted up by a pulley to the first floor, where they are emptied into a weighing machine. The weight hav- ing been carefully recorded, the weighing machine is- tilted, and the milk flows into a large vat lined with tin, when the temperature of the milk is raised to 80° P."; from here it runs into three separators, which make from 2,000 to 5,000 revolutions per minute, and separate' 300 gallons of milk per hour. The skimmed milk runs from the separators into a vat, and after passing through a refrigerator, runs into another vat, from whence- it is sent away and sold. The cream is let off from the separators into cans, which are let down to the ground floor by pulleys, and, after standing thirty-six hours, ar& passed into the churn-room, where there are three churns,, each capable of churning thirty gallons of cream. The- temperature in the churns is kept at 56° F. in summer and 58° F. in winter. The butter-milk is let off from the churn by a tap, after which four or five gallons of water- are put into the churn to wash the butter, the churn is. then turned round a few times and the water run off.. This process is repeated thrice with the addition of 2 lbs.. of salt. The butter is then taken out of the churn and placed in the mechanical workers, where it is kept for about five minutes, 1 oz. of salt to 6 lbs. of butter being sprinkled over it. From the workers the butter is passed to the makers-up, and made by them into pounds and half- pounds, covered with muslin, and stamped "Vernon."' MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. 27 During these various processes it is never once handled by the operators. The churns, separators, and a fan for cooling the dairy in summer, are driven by a 10-horse-power engine, with a 12-horse boiler. 40 lbs. pressure of steam is all that is found necessary for driving purposes, but a quantity of steam is also required for heating.' Meanwhile it is most desirable that small milk-pro- ducing farms should be multiplied throughout the country,, to meet not only the demand of these factories as they become established, but to supply a class of cow-keeping tenant farmers now almost extinct, and to give the land-* owner that fair rental that he can no longer expect from wheat-growing land. The factories no doubt will be the best, because the most certain and regular customers of these dairy farmers ; but until they become general, cow- keepers must look to butter and cheese-making as well as milk-selling for their profit, and a good profit there is, when properly sold, attached to both these, for the prices of butter and cheese, notwithstanding the extent of foreign importations, have advanced considerably the last few years- Scrupulous cleanliness in all things relating to a dairy cannot be too strongly insisted upon. Dirt in every form,, foul smells, bad water, and all other abominations must b& got rid of. The flavour of butter is greatly affected by the food of the cow. Turnips are certain to give an un- pleasant flavour; this, however, may be entirely avoided by milking the cow upon a small piece of saltpetre ahout the size of a walnut to a two-gallon pail, as mentioned in the previous chapter. Many persons use saltpetre when scalding milk or cream ; but this does not do away with the unpleasant flavour anything like as well as squirting the new milk from the teats of the cow upon a piece of 28 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. saltpetre in the pail. We used the plan for many years in our own small dairy, and if anyone doubts its efficacy, a single trial will produce conviction by the difference in the flavour of the milk. The following points are especially worthy of attention. They are enlarged upon in an ad- mirable pamphlet, ' Hints on Butter-making,' by H. M. Jenkins, F.G.S., which should be carefully studied by every small dairy-farmer : — Thoroughly clean all dairy utensils by rinsing them with cold water as soon as they have been used, then scrubbing them with boiling water and again rinsing with ■cold, and drying them. Cool the milk, as soon as it comes from the cow, by setting the cans in a running stream or in large pans of cold water. Use glazed earthenware pans, or enamelled iron pans, •and set the milk in a temperature of 55°. Hang a ther- mometer in the dairy. After twelve hours skim with a proper perforated skimmer, and be very careful not to take up any milk with the cream. After another twelve hours skim again, but ■do not Tnix this second skimming with the first until the time comes for churning ; if the cream is too thick for ■churning, add a little clean water, not milk. Use a barrel churn, the more simple the better, because it can the more ■easily be kept clean, and churn at a temperature of 57° to 60°. The common Norman barrel churn and Thompson and Taylor's prize patent self-acting eccentric churn, are both recommended by Mr. Jenkins. Ventilate frequently for a few seconds the first ten minutes, and listen to the sound of the cream as churning goes on, so as to stop as soon as the butter comes, get rid of all butter-milk by pass- MILK, BUTTER, AND CHEESE. 29 ing it through a hair sieve to avoid loss ; the retaining of any portion of butter-milk will certainly spoil the flavour of the butter. Half fill the churn with cold water, and wash the butter in it by giving it two or three turns, withdraw this water and repeat the washing until the water comes out quite as clear as it went in. Take out the butter with a pair of wooden patters or a hair sieve ; but on no account handle it. In Mr. Jenkins' pamphlet there is a drawing of a kneading board for press- ing out all water that may be in the butter. It is a very inexpensive affair, and as it saves handling, it will be found very useful in small dairies. There are also in the same pamphlet some very useful remarks upon packing and marketing. With regard to the manufacture of cheese, as the sorts are so numerous and the process so varied, it is not possible here to do more than explain the general prin- ciple, and give one or two recipes that may be found useful to small farmers, in making cheese for their own consumption, and for sale in their own neighbourhood. As a general rule, dairy produce is more profitable sold as milk or butter than as cheese, except perhaps in those counties, such as Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Derbyshire and others, that have a name for a particular sort of cheese, where the dairy-farmers, being in possessionof the markets, pay special attention to the making of it. In Cheshire we are given to understand that the factories in respect of this industry cannot compete with the dairy-farmers, whose cheese is worth from 10s. to 15s. per cwt. more than that made in the factories. This, however, does not appear to be the case elsewhere. 30 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. Cheese is the curd formed from milk by artificial co- agulation, pressed and dried for use. Curd exists in the milk and not in the cream, and is separated by coagulation. •Coagulation is brought about by the aid of some extrane- ous substance which makes it insoluble in water. All acids will effect this ; in Holland muriatic acid is used in the making of Dutch cheese. Some vegetables also contain acids which readily separate the curd from the whey, the juice of the fig-tree will do this, and so also will the flower of a common wayside weed Galium verum, known commonly as the lady's bed straw. When better rennet cannot be had, these may be substituted for real rennet, the natural hurdler of milk, which is the gastric juice taken from the stomach of the sucking calf. This, taken from the stomach as soon as the calf is killed and properly prepared, is found to answer better than anything else that is gene- rally used. When the curd is freed from whey by the use of rennet, it is kneaded and pressed so that all whey may be entirely expelled, and by this means it becomes cheese. Salt is used in order to preserve it, and it also acts as a kind of seasoning. It should be well dried, as if it con- tains moisture it will soon turn bad. Most cheeses are coloured, and the colouring substances, anatto, turmeric, and marigold, are in themselves harmless. Anatto, how- ever, must be used with caution ; it is said to be at times adulterated with red lead. Cheese, of course, varies in quality and richness, according to the materials of which it is composed. Our best cheeses, Cheddar and Cheshire, are made of new milk ; Stilton of new milk and cream in addition; Gloucester, of new milk mixed with skimmed milk ; and the cheeses of Suffolk and Holland, of skimmed MILK, BUTTEK, AND CHEESE. 31 milk. A wholesome cheese can also be made from butter- milk. A Scotch lady gives the following recipe : — ' The contents of my churn I put into a pot, which I hang over a slow fire. The butter-milk curdles, and the curd •sinks to the bottom of the pot. I then pour off the whey ;and work the curd, as I would do that of other cheese, giving it salt to taste. The curd is then put into a clean •coarse linen cloth, tied tight, and hung from the ceiling to •dry for a few weeks, when the cheese is fit for use. The linen cloth, when hung in a net, gives a neatness to the appearance of the cheese. If a small piece of butter be worked into the curd and the cheese kept for three or four months, it will then be very good.' This cheese can be made on a very small scale, even from the butter-milk of one cow. This, though nutritious and good, is about the poorest sort of cheese that is made. The following is one of the richest recipes for Stilton •cheese : — < Have ready a cheese vat, that is a 10-in. high tin-plate cylinder, 25 in. round on the outside, without top or bottom, but with the sides pierced with holes to let out the whey. Take about nine gallons of new milk and the cream from two or three gallons of milk, which must be warmed before mixing. The rennet for this cheese is from the stomach of a lamb prepared in the usual way, but in addition to the ordinary amount of salt a lemon stuck full of cloves is put into the jar with it. This rennet is used warm when the milk is new, and the curd when it comes is not broken, but with the greatest <;are laid on a strainer of coarse cloth in a cheese-basket ; the cross corners of the strainer are drawn together, and in this way the cufd remains for some hours, until it is 32 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. sufficiently firm to slice. It is then cut in slices and packed in the vat above mentioned, a layer of curd and a sprinkling of salt alternately, until the vat is full. Then a flat square piece of hoard is placed at the top of the vat, a similar one having previously been placed for the vat to- stand upon. Thus secured with one hand of the operator underneath and the other at the top, the vat is taken up and turned over very quickly every two or three hours the first day, and two or three times the next, the weight of the cheese giving it sufficient pressure. It is kept in the vat three or four day3, according to the firmness of the curd. When taken out, a thin piece of calico dipped in boiling water and wrung out, must be pinned tightly round the cheese. This cloth must remain on until it is thoroughly dry, the cheese being turned twice a day. Such a cheese requires a twelve months' keeping, when it will show blue mould, and prove rich and fine flavoured, and equal any Stilton at Is. 4d. to Is. 6d. per lb. Between these two extremes of richness and poorness there are several sorts of cheeses, named generally, as we- have remarked, according to the different counties in which they are made, and varying in quality and price- according to the value of the materials of which they are- composed. Cream cheese, so called, is in reality not cheese at all. It is simply cream thickened by heat, compressed and ripened by being kept. Eennet is prepared as follows : — Take the bag, maw,. or stomach of a fresh killed sucking calf, and having removed the curd contained therein, wash it clean, and. salt it thoroughly inside and out, leaving a white coating of salt over every part of it. Put it into an earthen jar MILK, BUTTEB, AND CHEESE. 33 and let it stand three or four days, in which time it will have formed the salt and its own natural juice into a pickle. Take it out of the jar and hang it up for two or three days, to let the pickle drain from it. Re-salt it, place it again in a jar, cover it tight down with a paper pierced with a large pin, and in this state let it remain until wanted for use. It may he used a few days after this second salting, but it will be better and stronger from somewhat longer keeping, and ought to keep good for twelve months. The lamb's bag or maw is prepared in the same way. 34 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTEE IV. BACON, HAMS, SALT PORK, AND LARD. It will surprise many persons to whom the subject is new, to learn that the declared value of the imports of the several articles of food that stand at the head of this chapter, now reaches the enormous aggregate of 12,347, 7991. £ EST} 9 ' 539 ' 039 Salt pork. . . .... 729,041 Lard 2,079,719 Not many years ago our own farmers supplied us with all that was needed of these necessary commodities, and at prices ranging from id. to 6d. per lb. made a profit with which they were content. Prices have considerably in- creased of late years, and concurrently with this increase an amount of these very articles now equal to, if not larger than, the home supply must be purchased from abroad to supplement the home demand. It cannot be too strongly insisted upon, that whatever amount of money is sent out of the country to purchase what we might produce our- selves is so much loss to the country, it may be altogether, but at any rate for a time. The price paid for imported produce serves to enrich the foreigner and enables him to purchase more manufactured goods ; but it does not follow BACON, HAMS, SaLT PORK, AND LARD. 35 that these goods need be the produce of our own manufac- turers, and it is quite certain that to the extent of the money sent away, our own people have lost the power to become purchasers of anything. It is the Americans who, as regards the important articles of food now under notice, have been and are ab- sorbing the profits which our own farmers fail to secure ; and it is a well-known fact that much of this imported produce is sold as home-grown, and commands an additional profit in consequence. Every English farmer is free to admit that the breed- ing and fattening of pigs is a profitable part of his occupa- tion. Over and above the value of the animal for sale and consumption there is the manure left upon the farm, and allowed to be one of the best fertilisers of the soil. At the present low prices of all fattening food — wheat-meal, pollards of various sorts, barley-meal, pea-meal, maize, &c. — and the high prices of all kinds of meat, there ought to be no hesitation as to the profits of pig-farming — profits that might be greatly augmented if facilities were afforded in different localities for increasing the supplies of home- cured bacon, hams, salt pork, &c. Why should there not be in every county in England, or at any rate in most of them, one or more curing estab- lishments where farmers could find a ready market for their fat pigs, and by means of which, customers would be certain to get the real articles they pay for, viz., home- cured bacon and hams and salt pork, instead of foreign products sold under false names ? It would no doubt pay well, if companies could be set on foot under the Limited Liabilities Act for the establishment of factories at con- venient centres for the curing of meat, as well as places s 2 36 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. for the manufacture of butter and cheese, which are now becoming general on the Continent, and of which an account has been given in Chapter III., page 20. If the home supply were in any degree adequate to the home demand it is hardly too much to assert that a reduction, if not an entire stoppage would be made to these foreign im- portations which are so inferior in quality that to command a sale at all they must be dressed to imitate home products, and be introduced into our markets under a false name. Wiltshire has long been famous for bacon, and Yorkshire for hams ; but can anyone in his senses credit that all the bacon offered for sale under the name of Wiltshire bacons, and all the hams sold as York hams, have had any connec- tion whatever with the places whose name they bear ? How many of these pigs have fed in the woods of America, been slaughtered and cured at Chicago, and taken a voyage across the Atlantic to be sold under England's best names to English consumers, it would be hard to say. This only we know for certain, that pig-meat in some form or other was imported in one season to the value of upwards of 12,000,000Z., and that if all the bacon and hams sold in England under the name of Wiltshire and Yorkshire were derived from pigs bred, born, fattened or cured on the farms of those two favoured counties, their occupiers can have very little cause to raise the cry of distress. The doings of the Americans with regard to pig-farming are so extensive and important that they merit the especial attention of all persons interested in agriculture, and may serve to point a useful moral to English farmers, who most certainly are very sadly neglectful of this great enterprise. We learn from those well qualified to express an opinion, that although of small individual value, the American. BACON, HAMS, SALT PORK, AND LARD. 37 farmers' capital in hogs cannot be less than from twenty to thirty millions. The hogs are reared as cheaply as possible on grass, clover, and other green foods in summer, and finished off with a little corn in the yards in winter. They are sold at ages varying from six to eighteen months, and at weights varying from one hundred to three hundred pounds. A few only are slaughtered and salted by the farmers, the great bulk of them pass into the hands of the packers. The packer's business is one of the special and most prosperous industries in the States, commenced several years ago and rapidly increasing, owing to the great demand for exportation. Until recently much of the bacon and pork was salted and pickled in barrels; but now it is chiefly distributed throughout the States in bulk and in boxes, and throughout Europe entirely in boxes. Assisted by a cheap and abundant supply of ice the packing process is carried on during summer as well as winter. The six principal cities engaged in hog-packing are — Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Milwaukee, Louisville, and Indiana- polis. Of these the first-named is the most important. Almost all American travellers have given accounts of the hog-packing at Chicago, and have had something to say about the many millions of pigs annually slaughtered there. The process is as follows — the curing process that is, for the slaughtering process is too revolting to be dwelt upon : — The pigs are split, and the sides used for bacon have the backbone partly or entirely removed. Placed on trucks these sides are carried off to the salting-house and well rubbed with Canadian or Liverpool salt and a very little saltpetre. Each side takes up from two to three lbs. of Bait. The sides, averaging about 56 lbs., are then piled ■one upon another, to the number of sixteen or twenty, in a 38 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. cool, dark storehouse, and after the lapse of a week they- are turned over and rubbed again. In a general way they are ready in twenty days, but if required for long keeping they must be kept under this process for double that time. Every piece, as it passes from the salting-house is examined, in a tester used to ascertain whether it is tainted in any way. The sides are then scraped, dried, and packed. In imitation of British home-cured, much of this bacon is now dried in smoke. Each hog from the slaughtering pen is also swung on to a hearth where the hair is rapidly singed off among burning straw and wood shavings. From the smaller hogs the belly-pieces are cut off and pickled in large vats. This pickled pork, as may be seen by the amount of our own importations, constitutes a large and growing trade. American hams deserve especial notice, for a very large proportion of them come to England in size and' shape to suit our markets, and are sold indiscriminately with home produce — there being nothing in appearance to* denote their Chicago origin, and it is of course never con- spicuously set forth. They are cured in large quantities in a sweet pickle made with salt, sugar and saltpetre, in very large vats, in which they lie from sixty to seventy, days, being turned over three times during that interval. Some are merely dried, but the greater part are hung up for three days in smoking-houses, generally in the vapours of maple sawdust. For exportation they are packed thirty or forty together in boxes, with a partition down the centre to ensure ventilation and lessen the risk of bruising. Breakfast bacon in pieces from 8 to 10 lbs. is treated much in the same way as the hams, but for the American market this bacon is brushed over with a solution off BACON, HAMS, SALT PORK, AND LARD. 39 chrome and rice flour to keep off flies. This yellow coat- ing, however, does not suit English customers, and is seldom seen here. Sausage-making to a fabulous extent, aided by a rapid steam process, is carried on also at all these large pork factories. Every portion of the pig is manufactured into something. Several descriptions of sausages are made, and the products of Germany and other European countries closely imitated. The heads are steamed and cleaned, the soft pieces minced by machinery are flavoured with salt, pepper and spice, and canned in tins of 2 lbs. and 4 lbs. each. They are prepared ready for immediate use, or they will keep for some long time. The prepara- tion is very similar to a mode of dressing pigs' heads which is well known in our Eastern counties, and sold under the name of pork-cheese or brawn. American bacon and hams, though so generally realising from the consumers the prices of the best Wiltshire and Yorkshire home-cured, are very greatly inferior in quality and readily distinguished in use. The pigs are not so well fed, and consequently the meat is not so fat and firm. It wastes very much when broiled, and much of it emits a peculiar flavour. Our farmers stand strangely in their own light when they suffer the enormous profits of this great import trade to be lost to themselves, in consequence, solely, of their failing to provide an adequate supply of home: produce for home consumption. Consumers have to pay 10^d. to Is. the pound for good bacon, and at the present prices of pig food, fat pork can' be sold at a profit at bd. a pound. The difference between bd. for fat pork and 10^d. or Is. per pound for bacon leaves, surely a very large margin of profit, making full allowance. 40 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. for the cost of labour and trouble and the salt and sugar used. Farmers who are desirous to secure this profit for themselves, or at any rate some portion of ify by selling hams and bacon to retailers if they cannot to their own customers direct, will find any of the following receipts useful : — A genuine Yorkshire receipt for curing hams and bacon. — Let the hogs be put to fast for twenty-four hours before they are killed ; and observe that neither a time of severe frost nor very damp weather is favourable for curing bacon. After a pig has been killed and scalded, let it hang twelve hours before it is cut up, then for every stone (14 lbs.) weight of the meat, take 1 lb. of salt, 1£ oz. of saltpetre and ■£ oz. of coarse sugar. Eub the sugar and saltpetre first into the fleshy parts of the pork, and remove carefully any extravasated blood that may show itself, together with any broken blood-vessels adjoining ; apply the salt especially to these parts as well as to the shank ends of the hams, and any other portions of the flesh that are more particularly exposed. Before the salt is used warm it a little before the fire, and at first use only a portion of the whole : then as it dissolves or is absorbed by the meat, add the remainder at different times. Let the meat meanwhile lie either on clean straw or on a cold brick or stone floor; it will require from a fortnight to three weeks' curing, according to the state of the atmosphere. When done, hang it in a cool dry place where there is a thorough current of air, and let it remain there until it is perfectly dry, when the salt will be found to have crystal- lised on the surface. The meat may then be removed BACON, HAMS, SALT PORK, AND LARD. 41 to the storehouse and kept in a close chest surrounded with clean oat straw. If very large the hams will not be in perfection in less than twelve months from the time of their being stored. The quantities are easily remembered : • 20 stone of pork take 20 lbs. of salt, 20 ozs. of saltpetre, 10 ozs. of sugar, and from fourteen to twenty-one days in the process. According to the Wiltshire process each flitch, or side, of pork is sprinkled with salt and left for twenty-four hours for the blood to drain away. Then for every two stone of meat, take 1-J- lb. of coarse sugar, 1-J lb. of bay- salt, 6 ozs. of saltpetre and 1 lb. of common salt. Mix these ingredients well together and rub the mixture well into the meat, which should be in a trough, and be turned every day for a month. After this hang the meat to dry, and smoke it for ten days. The following is Cobbett's celebrated receipt for bacon, which has the great advantage of keeping it free from lust for a long time : — After the hams are removed the sides of pork are rubbed with salt on the insides or flesh sides, then placed one on the other (the flesh sides being uppermost) in a salting trough, which has a gutter round its edges to drain away the brine, which gives it the sort of vile taste that barrel or sea pork has. Everyone knows, how different is the taste of fresh dry salt from that of salt in a dissolved state, therefore change the salt often — once in four or five days. Let it melt and sink in, but not lie too long; twice change the flitches, put that at bottom which was first at top ; this mode will cost a great deal more in salt than the sopping mode ; but without it, the bacon will not be so sweet and fine nor keep so well. As for the time 42 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. required in making flitches sufficiently salt, it depends upon circumstances. It takes a longer time for a thick than for a thin flitch, and longer in dry than in damp weather ; but for flitches of a hog of five score in weather not very dry or damp about six weeks may do. The place for salting, like a dairy, should always be cool and well ventilated, for confined air though cool will taint meat sooner than the midday sun accompanied by a breeze. With regard to smoking, two precautions are necessary,, first to hang the flitches where no rain comes down upon them, and next that the smoke must be wood smoke, not; the smoke of peat, turf or coal. A month in a farmhouse: chimney is generally time enough to hang for smoking, if the wood fire be well kept-up. It is a good plan to place the meat in canvas bags, or to cover it with bran or saw- dust before hanging it in the smoke. Flitches of bacon may be kept sweet and good for a very long time in a deep chest, one flitch upon another, well covered in with clean and dry wood ashes — the chest being set in a dry place. 43 CHAPTER V. POULTEY-FARMING. In calling the attention of small farmers to this too much neglected branch of their business, it will be our endeavour to show how foreigners are making a large profit out of our own neglect, and that unless the home supplies are better attended to, there is great danger that the trade altogether will pass out of our hands. It will surprise many persons to hear that according to the custom-house returns, we are paying foreign countries nearly three millions a year for eggs, and more than half a million for poultry. The import" of both these items is on the increase. The advance made in modern cookery necessitates an. immense consumption of eggs, and the French and the Belgians are not slow to take advantage of our demands. These two countries also send us the largest amount of poultry. Hundreds of tons of fowls, geese, ducks, turkeys, rabbits and pigeons, dead and alive, are brought by the steam-packets every week into the port of London alone.. These immense supplies are collected by dealers in the different countries from the industrious small farmers who rear them, and by them consigned to salesmen in this country just in the same way as country produce with us is sent up and sold in the London markets. If the farmers 44 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. in foreign countries can rear these things at a profit for markets so very far distant from them, why should our farmers be contented to deprive themselves of what must prove far more advantageous in their case, for it is notorious that English eggs are greatly to be preferred to foreign, and that the poultry which is reared upon our English farms and sent to market realises a far better price than that which comes from abroad ; the expenses of transit, &c. are also less. Foreign eggs are always at a great dis- advantage. There must be more or less uncertainty about them, no one can tell how long they may have been kept packed closely in their large boxes, and as to their fresh- ness the best that can be said of them is ' warranted to boil,' as they are now often advertised. The question is frequently asked : Does poultry pay ? and the answer too generally given is that it does not. But the true reason is kept in the background. It does not pay with us because it is too generally badly managed. The proper answer, therefore, to this question is that the French and Belgians and other foreigners make poultry pay, or they would not send such large supplies of eggs and fowls, &c. to our markets. The secret of their success and of our own failure is that we leave our poultry to take care of itself or con- sign it to the care of others who have little or no in- terest in it, whilst these industrious small foreign farmers look after it themselves, and make their profits accord- ingly. They have made the discovery, which few who profess to keep poultry in this country have made, that it pays best whether on a small or a large scale, to have fowls comfortably and warmly housed, well fed, and kept scrupulously clean. If farmers treated their live-stock POULTKY-FABMING. 45 as too many among them treat their poultry they would have reason to complain that stock farming does not pay. On the other hand, if the same attention were given to poultry which is given to other stock upon a farm, it would soon he found that a profitable return can be made from this industry, affording indeed a higher percentage of profit than from any other part of the farm. A moment's reflection will show that it can be no matter of wonder that upon the large English farms fowls do not pay. They are left to breed at random and to nest anywhere, so that half the eggs are lost or stolen. No account is taken of the age of the stock birds, and what chickens are reared are too generally poor, leggy, and unprofitable. On small farms, especially small dairy farms, the case is different ; such farms, however, at present are too few to keep down or lessen the foreign supplies. The French make poultry-farming a business by itself. In the neighbourhood of Paris there are large poultry- farms where as many as 100,000 hens are kept; and where by feeding at high pressure the enormous average of 300 eggs a hen is said to be produced, and chickens and other poultry are fattened to a great extent. The process of feeding and fattening also is not altogether such as would commend itself to our English ideas, but never- theless it is said to be profitable. With us large poultry- farms have been tried also, but we believe that hitherto they have failed. Where poultry pays, and pays well, is upon small farms, when the farmer's wife and family give to it that individual attention which is the sole secret of success. All small farms, however, are not alike desirable ; soil and situation must be taken into the account. The soil best suited for poultry is of a light sandy character, 46 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. and a cold clay is the worst. A warm sheltered situation with a run of grass land is also most desirable. Next to soil and situation is the selection of breeds. Many persons go in for fancy stock, and the few who are fortunate enough by obtaining prizes to make for themselves a name, can realise large sums by this means ; but, for the many, useful layers and birds that will early fatten for the table will be found more profitable than any fancy stock, for there is no risk here, but always a certain market. For eggs the non-sitters, Polands, Spanish, Hamburghs, and Houdans are most valuable : of these the Houdans are to be preferred, for they can be fattened easily when they have ceased laying, and in this way a succession of young birds ean be ensured by hatching early every year under other hens. Dorkings and Brahmas also come early to maturity, and are probably the most profitable birds for fattening. Cochins are good layers and heavy birds when fattened, but for the table they are too leggy to command the highest market prices. Much has been said in praise of the barn-door fowl — birds of no particular breed — and of the profit that the old- fashioned farmers made of them ; but it must be remem- bered that no account was ever taken of the expense of feeding them. They were fed with unlimited wheat and barley at barn doors where the flail was in daily use. Machine threshing has put an end to all this. A small farmer with good management, who has a convenient hen- house, and can command from half to an acre of grass land near to it, will make a good profit, as things now are, out of forty or fifty hens : Houdans, Brahmas, and Dorkings being the best sort he can select. His fowl-house should be from 25 to 30 ft. long, 6 to 7 ft. wide, and 7 to 8 ft. in height. A brick building is, of course, better than one of POULTRY-FAKMING. 47 "wood ; but any rough structure of wood, if water-tight and ■draught-proof, may be made to answer the purpose of the best brick building. Proper ventilation is absolutely necessary, this can be made by perforated zinc ventilators in the roof. There are several modes of fitting up a hen- house — that which ensures the greatest cleanliness is un- doubtedly the best. The Canadian plan is excellent : a wooden shelf not less than 2 ft. broad is placed at the back of the house, about 3 ft. from the floor, and the perch is fixed 4 or 5 inches above it and a foot from the wall. The nests separated by brick or board partitions are arranged on the ground beneath; they require no covering, for the broad board protects them, and while it screens the roosting "birds from the upward draughts of air it affords quiet to •laying and sitting birds beneath. This board, which catches all the droppings, is scraped clean every morning and sprinkled with fresh sand. In this way a large quantity of valuable manure is collected, and the floor of the house is kept scrupulously clean. It has been calculated that fowls' dung will average 1 oz. a day for each bird. When collected it must be kept dry ; it will find ready sale at 7s. per cwt. When used it should always be mixed with dry earth or dissolved in water and given as liquid manure. If it can be managed it is very desirable that sitting birds should be kept in a separate house or compartment. They are less liable to be disturbed and their feeding can be better attended to. Connected with the general hen-house there should be a yard sufficiently large to accommodate the number of hens when it is necessary to confine them in bad weather or from any other cause. The yard, which can be laid with gravel or cinder ash and 48 HOW TO TVTAKTi: THE LAND PAY. renewed occasionally, may be enclosed with galvanised wire- netting, and covered with the same at a very small expense. In it there should always be a good supply of clean water in pans, and where no grass run is provided, green food of some sort must be supplied : any garden refuse will eagerly be picked over by birds in confinement", and with- out something of the sort they will not be kept in health. Feeding is a most important matter, for upon this- to a great extent depends the profit or loss of poultry keeping ; much judgment is required in hitting the- happy medium between too little and too much. Both extremes are bad. Starvation does not pay, neither does over- feeding. The fowls should have at their different meals just as much as they seem to eat with an appetite but no more ; food should not be left before them. When there is a run of grass two feeds per day should be quite enough. The food should be varied as much as possible, the early meal being given warm ; barley-meal and potatoes mashed up with pot liquor or hot water, and the later meal consisting of buckwheat, barley or other grains. Chopped nettles and prickly comfrey may with advantage be added to the first r and if the fowls have no opportunity of getting animal food by running upon grass, some scraps from the house or occasionally some chopped bullock's liver ought to be given. Another requisite for hens when laying is a heap of old mortar or pulverised oyster shells. The value of chopped nettles and prickly comfrey either chopped or in bunches in the poultry yard is not generally known ; but those who have used them will at once recognise the benefit gained. A few swede turnips and mangel-wurzel cut small with a knife or in the turnip cutter used upon farms will be found a cheap and valuable addition to com food. The POULTRY-FARMING. 49 feeding of young chickens involves a great deal of trouble ; but it is a trouble which pays work ; they require, after the first twenty-four hours, frequently feeding. To ensure rapid growth, for the first few days they should have something given them — just as much as they will take — every two hours chopped eggs for the first day or so and then oatmeal mixed to a cake, after this barley-meal, mashed potatoes, and any change of food, and if confined to a yard, they will Tequire a little chopped meat. It must be borne in mind that the profit of poultry is mainly dependent upon its being turned to account at the earliest possible time. The sooner chickens can be made fit for the table, and those kept for stock birds can be induced to lay, the greater will be the profit attending them ; on this account it is advisable to set hens as early in the year as possible, for spring chickens not only command the highest prices but they are brought to market at the smallest cost. Some early hatched pullets should be kept, for they will be in profit when eggs are dearest. Pullets from five to seven months old should begin laying, but size and demand alone can determine when they can most profitably be killed. One thing is quite certain that it is useless to put up either pullets or cockerels to fatten before they are full grown. A great mistake is often made here. If well fed they will be fleshy and fit to kill as they run about, but when immature they will not bear to be put up. When full grown, however, they will be much improved by being cooped and fatted for a period not exceeding three weeks. Much cruelty, it is to be feared, is not unfrequently resorted to in the fattening of poultry, even the cramming process, which is perhaps the least objectionable, is unnecessary, and ought not to be E 50 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. tolerated. Any of the following plans will effect all that is needed : — Put the fowls to be fatted in a quiet and rather dark place, feed them three times a day with rice boiled in skimmed milk until it is quite tender. Give this food as dry as possible, and just as much each time as can be eaten. Remove and well wash the trough after each meal. Give for drink the rice milk, or clean water. In one week fowls so fed will be sufficiently fatted and the flesh quite white ; sour food of any kind prevents fattening. Some persons recommend oatmeal and barley-meal mixed with TYiillr and a little dripping, and given alternately, each time in a clean trough. Fresh water must be provided with this, and it is always desirable to put sand or gravel at the bottom of the coop. The following is said to be an excellent recipe : — Feed three times a day, in a clean pan, with barley-meal mixed with water to the consistency of cream, adding to it a little coarse sugar or treacle. Let the fowls have as much as they want of this, but no water. A few days with this feeding will be quite sufficient, and as soon as the fowls are sufficiently fatted let them be killed : they will become unhealthy, and waste if the time be prolonged. We have already spoken of the fowls' dungwhen collected and properly dried as being a source of profit in addition to the eggs and fatted fowls ; it must not, however, be forgotten that there is another item of profit in the feathers. When properly picked over and dried feathers command a ready sale at remunerative prices, differing greatly according to quality. As soon as a fowl is killed it is most easily plucked, and in the process the small and large feathers should be kept separate. From the large feathers the hard quilly por- tions must be cut off, and then all may be put together in a POULTRY-FARMING. 51 large canvas bag, which can be hung up in a dry warm kitchen, placed occasionally in a cool copper or oven and ex- posed on fine bright days to the sun and air. In this way they may be most effectually sweetened and made fit for use. There is, as our readers doubtless are aware, an artificial method of rearing poultry much practised on the Continent, and also coming into use in our own country, especially among gamekeepers in rearing pheasants. The method is cleanly and economical, and altogether deserving of more general use. That it answers admirably with chickens and ducks we have the testimony of a well-known authority to prove : ' I commenced operations,' writes Mr. Barnes in a letter to the Editor of the ' Standard,' ' some time since by purchasing a hydro-incubator — which I first tried with seventeen " shop " eggs, producing seven chicks. I next put eighty-five eggs principally from my hens and got sixty-three chicks. In April of the same year I bought another hydro-incubator, and got the two to work with eighty-five eggs in each, out of which number I obtained 132 chickens. In May I again put in eighty-five eggs in each of my hydro-incubators, and produced 126 chickens, and in June I got 102 chickens and ducks from 140 eggs entrusted to the two machines to hatch out. The grand total of my hatchings was therefore 430 chickens and ducks, all of which after two days passed in a basket before the kitchen-fire were put under an artificial mother. ' One point about these latter appliances deserves most special attention. During all the summer not a single chick reared under them has suffered from vermin or parasites, such as no birds reared under a hen can be kept free from. In my opinion,' continues Mr. Barnes, 'the absence of parasites in these young chickens means a very perceptible E 2 52 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. increase of profits in thus rearing them. I have now got into a regular system of working my hydro-incubators which, I think, partly accounts for my success with them. I fill up both machines on the same day. After seven days I reject all non-germinated eggs and replace them by fresh eggs, so that my hatching is really only completed on the twenty-eighth or twenty-ninth day. Then for three days I work the incubators empty, allowing the drawer to remain open for thorough cleansing and purify- ing. I make, therefore, about one hatch per month from each machine. I calculate my average hatching to be at the rate of fifty-five chicks out of every seventy fertile eggs, or at the rate of seventy-eight per cent, for the entire season. Out of 430 ducks and chickens I have lost thirty- two from various accidents, chiefly from wet weather ; all the survivors have been reared artificially. The next season I purpose beginning to hatch in November, and shall go into it thoroughly. I mean to have a fine stock of nicely fattened young chickens and ducks before our old friend the hen has made up her mind to begin sitting on her own eggs.' Incubators vary much in construction and also in price. That of M. Carbonnier is said to be the cheapest and most natural, and generally preferred. We have seen an incu- bator made by a village carpenter for a few shillings which does its work admirably. Those who wish to go in for artificial hatching will do well to get instructions from one who has had experience in the process ; by this means they will save themselves much trouble and expense also. Almost any one who can handle a few common tools can make an incubator and an artificial ' mother,' also for his own use. Care and trouble will conquer every difficulty, POTJLTBY-FAKMING. 53 and a very large increase of profit will be found to result from adopting these artificial means. Incubators and artificial mothers of various sorts have for many years been used in France, and it is mainly owing to the use of them, that the French are enabled to feed themselves so largely as they do on eggs and poultry, and still leave an enormous surplus for exportation. Hitherto our remarks have been confined to chickens. Under the head of poultry, however, several other sorts of birds are included, which may with a like benefit engage a small farmer's attention. Ducks are even more profitable than fowls. In a suitable situation they are very inexpen- sive, for they take to the water early, and there find the largest portion of their own food. Of the two varieties most commonly to be met with, the Aylesbury and the Kouen, the former is in our opinion to be preferred. In colour it is spotless white and a fine large bird for the table. It is also a good layer, but the eggs are not so large as those of the Eouen variety. Ducks' eggs are more valued for hatching than for any other purpose. They should there- fore be kept for hatching, and sold for that purpose if not wanted. If the duck is not inclined to sit the eggs may be placed under a hen or in the incubator. The best authority with regard to Aylesbury ducks is Mr. J. K. Fowler, of Aylesbury. He says : ' The Ayles- bury duck often begins to lay before Christmas. Sitting hens can then be procured, and immediately after hatching the ducklings are taken away from the hen and put fifty or a hundred together in a close warm place with one hen tied by the leg to teach them to peck, and also to huckle them. They should be given stimulating food, that is, meal well mixed with boiled meat and greaves ; they are 54 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAT. thus made fat in six or seven weeks, and if sent to market in March or April realise from 12s. to 18s. per couple. With regard to my own breeding stock,' continues Mr. Fowler, ' the selection gives me no trouble. All the large breeders know that I will give a guinea at any time for a very fine and well-developed bird, and thus I keep my strain large and am constantly infusing new blood.' ' Of Eouen ducks,' Mr. Fowler remarks : ' They are reared much the same as Aylesbury, but are not nearly so forward, rarely laying before February or March. They are very handsome and will weigh eight or nine pounds each, and as a rule do much better in most parts of England than the Aylesburys. Their flesh is excellent, and at Michaelmas is, I think, superior to the other.' Ducks are greedy feeders ; nothing comes amiss to them ; they devour what fowls will refuse as food ; but the better the food the finer the birds, and the more delicate the flesh. They should always have access to water — a running stream is better than pans. Water to them is as essential as sand or cinder-ashes to fowls. They will thrive well and fatten on Swede turnips cut small, and washy meal food ; a good grass run is also most acceptable to them. They should be housed in a low shed and have clean straw to lie upon. When young they require to be carefully protected from rats. Chickens and ducks are the most profitable poultry for small farms. Geese and turkeys require a larger range or common land to wander over. Where there is convenience both of these will be found profitable. Of geese there are two principal breeds ; we again quote Mr. Fowler : ' I much prefer,' he says, 'the Grey, or Toulouse, to the White, or Embden, being larger and handsomer. I have had a Toulouse gander POULTRY-FARMING. 55 which weighed 34 lbs. — a weight, I am sure, never attained by the White breed. They are also better shaped, as a rule, in every way the more profitable variety. The forehead should be flat and the bill a clear orange red. The plumage is a rich brown, passing into white on the under part and tail coverts. The Embden goose is pure white in every feather, and the eye should show a peculiar blue colour in the iris in all well-bred birds.' Geese should be hatched in March or April ; they do not thrive in very hot weather. Goslings should be fed on boiled oatmeal and rice at first, and have shallow, pans o:' pond water set so that they may dabble in them. Barley-meal is the best food to fatten with. The geese should be penned for fattening in rather a dark place. From Michaelmas to Christmas geese sell well; their feathers also constitute a source of great profit when care- fully dried and sorted. Turkeys, where there is space to keep them, pay well. Small farmers and even cottagers in Ireland rear numbers ; but with us, turkeys are very much confined to certain counties and generally seen on large farms. The hen begins to lay in March, and if the eggs are withdrawn after half-a-dozen or so have been laid, she will continue laying for a long time. These early eggs should be placed under a hen ; seven eggs are quite as many as a hen can well cover, and if the hen turkey lays eighteen, eleven will be left for her. She must be carefully fed while sitting, or she will starve herself to death before her four weeks are over. Oatmeal moistened with milk and chopped grass and a little pepper mixed with it is the best food for. young turkeys — chopped nettles as used in Ireland are a good substitute for grass and pepper — while young they 56 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. must have food very frequently like young chickens. For the first two months young turkeys require great care^ after this they grow apace and are generally hardy. The quicker they can he turned into money the better. They are most in demand about Christmas, and gain then the best price. Guinea-fowls and pigeons also come under the name of poultry, and if circumstances suit, can be kept with profit. Their management is easy enough and require? no special notice for those who understand poultry of other kinds. With regard to the marketing of eggs and poultry of every kind, there is not the slightest difficulty in any county in England; prices may differ materially and in the same part at different seasons of the year ; but there is always a demand everywhere and at all seasons. In every village the current price for eggs can be had at the village shop, or if not there at the nearest market town, and this price is frequently in winter as high as l^d. and 28 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTER Vn. FRUIT FARMING — ORCHARD FRUITS. Under the name of orchard fruits are included apples, pears, plums, and cherries, all of them articles of produce of great and increasing demand in this country, and at the same time articles of which we do not at present grow an amount in any degree commensurate with our consumption. Though the consumption of fruit per head in England falls very far short of the quantity consumed in Continental countries, it has been calculated that imported fruits are nearly equal to half the home-grown produce. There is- therefore plenty of opportunity for the development of fruit farming. Consumption would increase as the means of production became enlarged. It is scarcity that slackens the demand which a more liberal supply would generate. Different sorts of fruit in season appear in large quantities at every table d'hote abroad, generally for break- fast and dinner also. No well-to-do mechanic in France or Germany would consider that he had dined satisfactorily unless he finished his meal with fruit. How very few of this class in England have the boon within their reach ! Of imported fruit ' apples raw ' now form so large an item that it has recently been deemed necessary to give them a separate return in the ' Customs' Blue Book,' or ' annual statement of the trade of the United Kingdom, compiled HRUIT FARMING — OECHABD FEUITS. 69 in the Custom House from documents collected by that ■department.' According to this statement, in the year 1883 ' raw ^apples ' to the extent of 2,251,925 bushels, valued at •533,488L, were imported, and of other fruits — such fruits as can be and are grown in the country classed under the head of ' unenumerated raw,' there were 2,660,475 bushels, •of the declared value of 1,380,959L In addition to this amount of ' raw fruit ' there are also two other heads under which fruit is returned : ' unenumerated dried ' and ' un- enumerated preserved with sugar,' the quantity of the former being 299,866 cwt., valued at 303,337£., and of the latter 15,364,015 lbs., valued at 147,623Z. It appears, then, that there are at the present time, even with our limited consumption, customers ready to buy fruit to the value of the enormous sum of nearly two millions and a half over and above what they can buy of •our own growers ; and because our growers will not pro- duce supplies equal to their demands, these two millions and a half of money are sent abroad to benefit foreign growers. Fruits come to us from France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the United States and Canada. That which is grown at home commands a far higher price than that which is imported. It was proved at the Apples Congress held in 1883 that our home-grown apples were Jiot only more numerous in sorts, but far superior in quality to any grown elsewhere ; and the same must be said of all other sorts of fruit grown in the United Kingdom : for does not the quality of fruit depend mainly upon its freshness, and is not this freshness deteriorated by packing for a long voyage ? 70 • HOW TO MATTE THE LAUD PAY. Our forefathers, in setting out their farm lands, found it to their advantage to appropriate as an orchard a certain portion of grass land near every homestead, where apples, pears, plums, and cherries, or at any rate some of" these fruits, were grown, and at the same time this orchard formed a convenient run for poultry. Traces of these orchards are to be seen near every old farmhouse, though in far too many instances the trees have gone to decay, and not unfrequently the grass land has been .ploughed up for wheat growing. In Kent, and what are called the cider counties, Devonshire, Herefordshire, Somersetshire, and Gloucestershire, some attention is paid to fruit growing,, although in most of these parts the orchards are in a very unsatisfactory state. In the country generally it is notorious that fruit grow- ing is made of little regard. In some few English counties there has been a slight increase in the acreage of orchards during the last ten years, but throughout the country very little has been done to meet an increasing demand. No one can deny that the orchard fruit that is grown, notwith- standing the little attention given to orchard culture, does pay — pays well — pays both landlord and tenant far better than the growth of any cereals on the same quantity of land would pay, and that if more care were bestowed on our orchard trees they would yield far better than they do. There are at the present time, according to the returns of the Board of Trade, about 180,000 acres of land under orchard cultivation, and from these acres our home supply of fruit is derived. Taking then imported fruits, as already stated, as equal to half our home supply, 90,000 more acres of orchard land, that is 270,000 acres in all, would render us independent of foreign interference, according ERUIT FARMING— ORCHARD FRUITS. 71 to present consumptive demands. No doubt a far less acreage would serve to effect this, if more care and a better cultivation were ensured. Still, assuming that this amount of acreage is necessary, and that in this way the 2,500,000Z. of money sent to purchase foreign fruits could be retained in this country, rather more than 91. an acre would be added to the gross earnings of every fruit-growing farm. Surely here is a premium upon fruit growing offering an ample inducement to small farmers to cultivate orchard produce in the place of so much unprofitable wheat. Much requires to be done — old orchards require renova- tion, and many acres of new orchards must be planted before the supplies of home-grown fruits will meet the present demand, and as supplies increase the demand will be found to increase also. Notwithstanding what is grown here and what is imported, there are thousands of our fellow-creatures in large cities and manufacturing towns who hardly know the taste of fruit. The neglected state of the orchard trees in most parts of the country is notorious. No one can travel in any direction without remarking it. Infested with blights of various kinds, of which Briosoma, or the American blight, as it is termed, is the worst — covered too with mosses and lichens, orchard trees are too generally to be seen pre- maturely aged and in a state of decay. But as long as the roots are in a sound state such trees admit of a speedy renovation. In the autumn when the sap is down, all dead wood should be removed, and the trunk and larger branches should be rapidly but thoroughly dressed with pure paraffin oil ; a painter's sash brush being used for the purpose. In the early spring following, before the sap begins to rise, the rusty bark and dead moss and lichen may be scraped 72 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. off. By this means a healthy circulation of sap will be ensured, and trees so treated will become vigorous and in a state to bear fine sound fruit. This is no theory, but the result of actual experiments carried out by the writer upon his own trees, several of which had ceased bearing and were apparently in a dying state some five or six years ago, but are now entirely renovated and in full bearing. No tenant farmer who has an old orchard on his hiring should delay to use this remedy. The expense can be no object to anyone. Any number of trees can be dressed at a cost of 2d. or 3d. a tree, and cleared of dead wood also, and the very first season will show the beneficial result. When the old orchard has been put in order, the small farmer will do well to add, if his land is conveniently placed for it, a few acres more to his orchard ground. In the formation of a new orchard, unless the tenant has a very long lease of the farm, or can claim compensa- tion for his trees as an unexhausted improvement, it seems but fair that the expenses should be borne in relative pro- portion by each party — the landlord and tenant. The orchard trees, being a permanent investment adding to the rental value of the land, should be provided at the owner's expense. The preparation of the land and planting might then fall upon the tenant. Neither would be greatly burdened by the outlay. Where trees are planted in straight lines forming squares, or what is called the quin- cunx arrangement, that is, every four trees forming not a square but a diamond, it takes about four dozen trees, at ten yards apart, to stock an acre of ground. This, however, is rather close planting, forty trees an acre will be found quite enough. Now where quantities are taken almost any of our large FRUIT FARMING— ORCHARD FRUITS. 73 growers will agree to deliver free at any railway station standard apples and pears at Is. each, and plums and cherries at Is. 3d. each. The landlord's cost, therefore, including stakes for the support of the young trees, three stakes for each, could not exceed 45s. to 50s. the acre. While the cost to the tenant, in addition to the ordinary annual expense of cultivation, would be entirely covered by the small sum of 3d or 4d. a tree for planting and fixing the stakes. The field selected for a new orchard should be a deep loam, in good heart, underdrained if the subsoil requires it, and in a somewhat sheltered situation. It should be taken after a crop of turnips has been fed off by sheep during autumn and early winter, and the trees planted in spring. If it be intended to lay the field down in per- manent grass, which is most desirable for an orchard, a crop of barley may be grown with the young grass seeds. This will pay rent, &c, and leave a profit the first year, and until the trees come into bearing the grass crop must make "the return. As soon as they begin bearing, of course the double profit begins, for orchard trees are not a substitute for a surface crop, but a most valuable addition to it. There is a plan adopted in Brittany, and elsewhere on the Continent, which seems to answer very well. The trees do not stand so thick upon the land as in ordinary orchard planting. They are set in straight lines with open spaces more or less wide between the lines — which open spaces are cultivated as ordinary farm land with root crops and cereals in alternate years. In this case there is always a strip of grass some four or five yards wide left for the rows of trees to stand upon and to mark the limits of the plough. 74 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. Where apples, pears, plums, and cherries are all of them to be planted, it will be found advantageous, espe- cially at gathering time, to have separate small orchards- for each, or at any rate to keep the sorts distinct. Apples- are the most valuable of all orchard fruits. Of them we grow the largest quantity and import the largest quantity As already stated, upwards of half a million was last year paid for imported raw apples, and of this sum 178,699Z. was sent to Belgium. There is certainly nothing in the climate and soil of Belgium better suited to the growth of apples than is to be met with in our own country. It is the greater industry, and better knowledge of self-interest of the numerous small Belgium farmers, that enable them to supply their own wants and to make profit out of our people- by growing supplies for them also, because our farmers fail. The sorts of apples are innumerable. Those selected for new orchards must be determined very much by refer- ence to locality. It is not always the best sorts that do> best everywhere ; great mistakes are often made by imagin- ing that an apple of high class character in one neighbour- hood can with equal success be grown in another several miles distant. All who intend planting orchard trees of any kind will do well to take account of the sorts they find thriving and bearing best in the gardens and orchards- round about them, and to make their selection accordingly. The following succeed in most neighbourhoods, and in the absence of more definite information, there can be no hesitation in recommending them : viz., Dr. Harvey, Kes- wick Codlin, Reinette du Canada, and Lord Suffield — all four good for cooking purposes, and the last two equally good for dessert. For this latter purpose, however, the? FETJIT FAEMING— OECHAED FEUITS. IS- following are [to be preferred : viz., the Blenheim Orange,, ■'Stunner Pippin, Scarlet Crofton, King Pippin, and Devon- shire -Quarrenden — all old, well-known sorts, for which a market can always be found. Of pears there can be no hesitation in recommending 'the following half-dozen : Williams' Bon Chretien, Louise- Bonne of Jersey, the Seckle, Marie Louise, Knight's Monarch, and Beurre Ranee. There are many others, no- ■ doubt, equally good ; but these will at all times command a sale at good prices. Of standard plums, there are none better than Rivers'" 3D»rfy Prolific, Washington, the Victoria, the old-fashioned : ©rleans and Greengage, Jefferson, and Magnum Bonum. 'These are all really good dessert varieties, and bring high 'prices in a good market. The Winesour and Mussel 'plums, Damsons and Bullace — all good for preserving, can ! be grown wherever there is a vacant place for planting in ^hedgerows and shrubberies. They will thrive and bear fruit almost anywhere, and their produce is always saleable. The only other orchard fruit to be mentioned is the Gherry. Cherries are more uncertain than any other orchard crops. Where soil and situation suit, and cherries do well, they make a large return ; but this is not the case everywhere, and more than usual care and judgment are needed in selecting a site for a cherry orchard. The sorts, are numerous and they are all good. The May Duke and Black Tartarian ripen in June. The Black Eagle and Bigarreau in July, the Late Duke in August, and the Morello in October. The Morello produces its finest fruit when planted against a wall and properly pruned. The- crop of the standard trees, however, is larger, and the- quality of the fruit by no means inferior. 76 HOW TO MATTE THE LAUD PAY. Beyond the attention necessary to keep their bark in a healthy state, for which directions have already been given, ■all fruit trees require a certain amount of pruning and careful cultivation of the soil. The less the knife is used in pruning, especially in the case of plums and cherries that are given to gumming, the better. Disbudding, properly carried out, will prevent a large amount of knife-pruning in the case of both wall and standard fruit-trees, and it may be adopted with great benefit in the case of all trees that bear fruit upon spurs. With pears, especially when grown as dwarf standards, it will be found a good plan to break down to two eyes everyone of the year's new shoots, not removing the broken shoots at the time — say the last week in August — but leaving them to die naturally ; and in this way to draw off a certain amount of sap, and so to convert the eyes left into blossom buds for another year. When the foliage dies on these shoots broken down, that is, just before the winter sets in, these broken shoots may be cleared away. The practised eye of the cultivator can easily distinguish between wood buds and blossom buds, anywhere, for the former are pointed and the latter round, and the two eyes left near the stem or branch after this operation of breaking down has been properly carried out will be found gradually to assume the rounded form, and become blossom buds for the following year. Now, although it is true that there can be no crop of fruit without blossom, experience proves that there may be an abundance of blossom without fruit. Here, again, the art of the cultivator can materially assist. Close observation .shows that all fruit trees have three distinct sets of roots, and that these are most wonderfully designed to serve three FRUIT FARMING — ORCHARD FRUITS. 77" distinct purposes: — 1. The tap root is, as it were, a con- tinuation of the stem, which should be allowed to strike downwards into the soil, for it is nature's own support for the tree, and for security's sake must never be cut or- interfered with. 2. There are the lateral or wood-bearing- roots : these push their way on all sides of the stem within a certain distance of the earth's surface, and while they serve to strengthen the hold of the tree upon the ground,, they at the same time convey nourishment and develop the growth of the stem, the branches, and foliage. It is these lateral roots, in young trees especially, where the- growth of wood is too luxuriant, which must be cut through every three or four years, at a certain distance- from the stem. The distance should be about three or four times the length of the girth of the circumference of the stem in its thickest part ; i.e. if the circumference of the stem be one foot, the roots must not be cut closer ix>- the stem than three or four feet. This cutting is designed to weaken the roots that produce only wood-growth and to assist the tree in carrying out its blossom and its fruit.. 3. There are the fibrous roots, which supply direct nourish- ment to the blossom buds, and develop the fruit. These roots which may be seen as a network of fine fibres about the stem and upon the lateral roots close to the stem, are most important, and should be carefully preserved from, harm. It is from fear of doing them harm that no wood- bearing roots are allowed to be cut within a certain distance of the stem. Indeed so important is the purpose- which these fibrous roots serve, that in transplanting trees they should never be cut or broken, and that, when planted, not only a good dressing of well-rotted manure should be placed over them every autumn, but a liberal supply of 78 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. liquid manure should be given to them two or three times -a week while the tree is in blossom and forming its fruit. Anyone who is planting a new orchard will do well to notice whether these three sets of roots are perfect, and on no account to suffer the tap root to be cut, or the fibrous. Toots to be injured in any trees that may be purchased. Treated thus carefully, young trees freshly planted early la- the spring will bear a crop of fruit the same year, and under ordinary circumstances fruit may be relied upon -every year, if proper nourishment be afforded to sustain the trees while the fruit is being formed. How orchard produce may most profitably be disposed ■of is a difficult question. The supplies of home-grown fruit vary much in different seasons and in different places. ' In one part of the island there may be a scarcity of some sort, and in another an abundance. Local buyers are always to be met with, but they are not always the seller's best market. The open markets of large towns offer, per- haps, the best opportunities for disposing of fruit at fair and reasonable prices. Samples can be sent by parcel post, neatly packed in boxes, to salesmen at Covent Garden or else- where, and if arrangement as to price be agreed to, empty boxes and crates will be sent to the nearest railway station, to be packed full and returned. The seller in this case usually undertakes all expenses of gathering and carriage. The value of fruit depends very greatly on the state in which it is sent to market. On the Continent and in America and Canada far greater care is taken in gathering and storing and packing than in our country. This can be seen by the way in which foreign fruits are sent over. Even in Eussia for their own markets, Mr. Charles Gibb, of Abbotsford, Quebec, who visited that country to report FEUIT FAEMING — OECHAED FEUITS. 79 upon Russian fruits with a view to improve the fruits of ■Canada, tells us, ' The Russians handle their fruit, pack it> and keep it with much more care than we ' (i.e. the Canadians) ' do. They seem to look upon an apple as a living thing to be kept alive as long as possible. If allowed to ripen on the tree, it has a rich mellow flavour, but then it will not keep. All apples in Russia, picked for a distant market, are picked rather earlier than we pick them.' Mr. -Gibb is here speaking of the ' Antonovka,' which, together with the ' Anis,' he seems to consider the two most valuable Russian apples, so valuable that they ought to be largely grown in Canada. Prom Mr. Gibb's most interesting account, which was kindly sent to us, we extract the following with reference to a particular variety of cherry known as ' The Vladimir ' : — * First in importance,' says Mr. Gibb, ' are the cherries known all over Russia under this name ; like the Ostheim and the TBrune de Bruxelles, they are usually bushes rather than trees, and have narrow, small but finely textured and thick "foliage. We saw this fruit not only in the markets, but sold in the streets of all the larger towns, where the con- sumption of this cherry is very large.' Mr. Gibb further mentions that he tried to get some estimate of the extent of the culture of this cherry in the Vladimir district whence it takes its name. ' " Are there 10,000 trees ? " I asked. " More than one hundred men have 15,000 each," was the Teply. "What is the amount shipped?" In reply I was told that entire cars, and in some instances entire trains, have been loaded with this one product. At the village •of Viazniki,' he continues, ' the chief industry of the neigh- bourhood is cherry culture. We find the cherry in all the northern markets in great quantities. It seems to be cut 80 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. off the trees with scissors, leaving about one inch, or less, of stalk attached to the fruit, and thus packed it stands- carriage well, and keeps for some time after arrival at its destination.' The interest taken by Mr. Gibb and others in the fruits of foreign countries, especially of Russia, is doing good service to the home produce of Canada, and affords an ex- ample which might profitably be followed by the fruit growers of our own country. The following extract from Mr. Whitehead's valuable essay on profitable fruit farming will be read with interest by those who contemplate orchard fruit growing on a small scale : — ' Many persons,' says Mr. Whitehead, ' are planting miniature fruit trees, not only in gardens to take the place of slow-growing, wide-spreading standards, which overshadow the vegetables beneath, but also in plantations. This applies to apples and pears especially, and also to- cherries and plums. With regard to miniature apple trees, these may be planted one and a half feet apart each way, and when they get too thick every other tree may be taken out, leaving the remaining trees three feet apart, at which distance they will do well for many years. If they get too thick they can easily be taken out, for moving is serviceable to them. To obtain these dwarf trees grafts or buds of the desired sort are worked upon the stock known as the Pommier de Paradis, or upon the French Douan stock. These dwarf trees produce fruit the second year, and with proper management bear large crops of fine fruit.' ' Pear trees of dwarf and most fruitful habit are obtained by grafting upon quince stock. These may be planted either as pyramids or bushes, and maybe cultivated on a large scale in the same way as apple bushes. Plums FRUIT FARMING — ORCHARD FRUITS. 81 •also do well as bushes and pyramids, and in this form have many advantages over standard trees. Cherries also,' con- tinues Mr. Whitehead, ,' formed by working with the Maha- leb stock, are very prolific as bushes, and bear at a very early age. It is said that the Bigarreau or White Heart family, thus classified by Dr. Hogg, do not do well in the bush form ; this, however, is not the experience of many practical growers. Kentish and Flemish cherries, and all those classified by Dr. Hogg as Red Morellos in contra- distinction to Black Morellos, do remarkably well as bushes and pyramids.' Not only, in the opinion of Mr. Whitehead, are bush trees of all the kinds enumerated things of beauty in flower and in fruit in a garden or plantation, they are also especially profitable, and the extension of their cul- tivation is strongly recommended to growers. Their ad- vantages as concerns pruning, picking, and compara- tive immunity from the effects of wind, are sufficiently obvious; while their fruit is particularly well flavoured, nicely coloured, and well-sized, being almost invariably larger than that grown upon standards. Everyone who has travelled much on the Continent must have remarked how frequently fruit trees, especially plums and cherries, are seen growing on hedgerows and on the wastes by the .side of public roads. We can call to mind a long grove of cherries growing by the roadside from Emmerich to Cleve in Prussia ; most delicious-looking plums of the mussel or winesour type hanging thick upon trees in waste places in Pranconian Switzerland; apples, &c. along the Rhine and the Neckar and elsewhere. Why should not our lanes and hedgerows, and the odd uncultivated corners which -are to be seen on every farm in England, be planted in the G 82 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. same way and help to pay the rent of the land ? In parts of Kent and Shropshire we have seen damsons growing in hedges, and have found, upon inquiry, a very profitable- return for them ; but the practice is far too limited. Fruit grown in this manner can interfere with nothing else, and must be regarded as an additional crop upon the land. A crop of barley plus a crop of damsons in the hedges of the field must certainly be allowed to be more valuable than the barley crop without the fruit, while the same rent covers both. 83 CHAPTER VIII. FRUIT FARMING BUSH FRUITS. Notwithstanding, as mentioned in the last chapter, ordi- nary orchard fruits — that is, apples, pears, plums and cherries — may be and are profitably grown as bushes, they are not usually included under the name of bush fruits. This term is confined to gooseberries, currants — black, white, and red, and raspberries — fruits of a minor character, but still so useful that they are to be found in every garden, and are grown extensively for market in the neighbourhood of every large town. The supply, however, does not keep pace with the demand, and the consumption, which is large now, would enormously increase if better means were at command for the packing and transport of these fruits to the markets of the great centres of our manufacturing industries. Bush fruits, from the very nature of them, do not bear long journeys as well as orchard fruits. This, though in one sense a drawback to the grower, is in another an advantage very greatly in his favour. Foreign competition cannot affect them. The prices of them are regulated by home supply and demand alone, and these are very remunerative. We have known gross sums of money, to which large and almost in- credible profits were attached, realised weekly by small o 2 84 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. market gardeners, who from their own gardens and from the cottagers around have sent, from our own neighbour- hood in Norfolk during the season, currants and raspberries, &c. to Manchester, Bradford, Newcastle, and elsewhere. Black currants are always in demand and fetch very high prices. Though all bush fruits are of easy culture and inclined to bear well, yet it will be found that the quantity as well as the quality of the fruit produced depends very materially upon good management. There is something to be learned about soil, situation, and, above all, about proper pruning in the case of all the different sorts. Let' us take them in the following order : gooseberries, currants, and raspberries. Gooseberries will grow on the poorest soil, but to produce fine fruit the soil must be rich and deeply dug before planting. They are raised from cuttings, which do best taken early in October ; the shoots- selected should be new wood, of medium size, about 12 in. long. The tops of the shoots must be cut off and all buds removed except the topmost four, which are to be above ground ; the root portion of the cuttings should have two or three shallow notches in the bark to induce fibrous rootlets. These cuttings may be set in rows about 4 in. from plant to plant, and after they are well rooted, they can be transplanted to their permanent beds and set about 3 ft. 6 in. or 4 ft. apart, care being taken at the time of planting to spread the roots regularly over the soil and not to cover them too deep. As the bushes increase in size pruning becomes essential. The amount and quality of the fruit depend mainly upon proper pruning. It must be observed that all gooseberries bear upon the young wood of the previous year that is well ripened ; all, therefore, that is requisite in pruning is to remove gross shoots and FRUIT FARMING — BUSH FRUITS. 85 those young ones that are of a sickly character, leaving the bushes as open as possible for the hand to pass through them in gathering, and at the same time to cut back the healthy shoots left to from four to six inches according to the size of the bush. Any superfluous shoots should also be cut out close to the branches: The bearing wood of gooseberries, therefore, must not be spurred, it must be left from 4 to 6 and even 8 in. long, to yield fine fruit at every bud developed along this length. As small birds do great damage to gooseberry plantations, where they abound pruning should be left as late as possible. The Lanca- shire varieties of this fruit are generally the finest. The Old Red Warrington and Yellow Rough are, however, as much in favour as ever for market-garden purposes. Where green fruit is in demand, perhaps the Lancashire »are the best sorts to grow. Currants are of three sorts — red, white, and black, and they require different treatment and pruning. Red and white currants grown from cuttings should be trained into a cuplike form by careful pruning from their earliest growth. This troublesome process may be greatly facilitated by placing a strong wooden hoop in the centre of each bush, and training the branches upon it. When the bushes so trained have attained their proper size, the pruning for bearing purposes is easy enough. Let the pruner with his left hand hold the top shoot of each stem of a white or red currant bush in succession, and with a sharp knife in his right cut off within half an inch or so of the stem all lateral shoots. This is all that is required, except shortening each top shoot and leaving here and there a vigorous-growing lateral, wherever new stems may be required to keep the bush symmetrical. White and 86 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. red currants bear their finest fruit not, like the gooseberries, along the new wood, but at the junction of the new wood with the old, close to where the pruner's knife has been. Black currants, on the other hand, bear as the gooseberries on the new wood and, like them, the whole amount of pruning they require consists in removing superfluous wood, and cutting back the new shoots a little more or less according to the growth made. This pruning is done to strengthen the fruit-bearing branches, and also to keep the bushes in proper shape and size. Any ordinary garden soil suits white and red currants. Though they thrive best in a rich loam, they may still with profit be grown in a light sandy soil. This is not the case with black currants. It is in vain to attempt a profitable cultivation of these in any soil which does not retain a considerable amount of moisture ; in a suitable soil, however, and under proper culture, a larger return may be made from black currants than from any other sort of bush fruits. Of these different sorts of currants there are many varieties, some of which are very greatly to be preferred to others. Of white currants, the White Dutch and White Crystal are generally most esteemed ; there is, however, a variety introduced of late, known as the White Grape, which from our own experience we can recommend as a most prolific bearer. The leaf of this variety resembles the vine leaf. It is largely grown for Covent Garden market in the fruit grounds at Fulham and elsewhere. The best red currants are Knight's Early Bed, the Scotch Bed, Victoria and Bed Dutch. There is here also a new variety, the Giant Bed, the bunches of which are larger and the berries larger also than those of the ordinary sorts. The Giant Bed is a handsome fruit and commands the highest market- FRUIT FARMING— BUSH FRUITS. 87 garden prices. Its bearing qualities, according to our •experience, are far superior to any other sort. We must have a word or two about raspberries. Any good garden loam in a rather damp situation suits the .growth of them. Black currants and raspberries thrive well under like circumstances. New raspberry plantations are most easily made from the suckers which are yielded in abundance on the old beds. These should be carefully removed in the autumn with as much soil at the roots as possible, and planted, three together, in rows six feet apart and from four to six feet between each set of three roots. If the canes are strong, take well to the soil, and are not injured by the winter's frost, a crop of fruit may be gathered the next season, but if weak suckers only can be had, it will save time to cut them down at the time of planting to about six inches from the ground in order to ensure strong canes and a good crop the second year. Each year, raspberry bushes should be looked to early in -June and young suckers thinned out, leaving four or six of the best to each plant for bearing. The winter pruning consists in removing the dead or exhausted canes and re- ducing the number of living ones to three at each root. A raspberry plantation once made will continue in profit for a number of years ; a yearly dressing of good rotten manure, however, at the time of the winter pruning will be found highly beneficial. The best sort are Eed Antwerp, Pastolf, and Eivers' Large-fruited Monthly. Yellow raspberries are not so profitable as red. They are grown for dessert : Yellow Antwerp is perhaps the best. Though bush fruits are wanted everywhere, it is obvious that the sorts and quantity of fruit grown must be determined by the conve- 88 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. nience of a market for it. Fruit of this kind does not bear close packing and a long journey so well as orchard fruit. Green gooseberries can be packed in baskets and sent any distance, and to gather this crop green is fre- quently the most profitable way of disposing of it, but all other bush fruit must be sold ripe. The larger and finer currants, such as White Grape or Giant Eed, as well large ripe gooseberries of the Lancashire sorts, carefully packed in convenient-sized baskets or boxes lined with paper, will pay well at any good market when sold for dessert ; and so will raspberries in small quantities gathered with their stalks. But the ordinary produce of fruit bushes, sold for culinary purposes — pies, puddings, and jams, may h& made to command profitable prices without so much care and labour being bestowed upon it. Eipe gooseberries and currants can be packed in hampers, but if over ripe,, for them as well as for raspberries, tubs or large earthen- ware jars or pots can be used. Though for small occupations it may be desirable that, orchard fruit and bush fruit should be grown in the same enclosure with a view to ensure a steady return of profit- in the event of either sort failing in quantity or price, it is nevertheless quite certain that plantations of bush fruit alone are a very profitable investment. The experiment made by Lord Sudeley on a large scale at Toddington in Gloucestershire must convince the most prejudiced that when Mr. Gladstone called the farmers' attention to fruit- growing for jam as one among many other methods of alleviating agricultural distress, he gave sound and prac- tical advice. Lord Sudeley 's first plantation of different kinds of fruit was in extent three hundred acres ; since then he has added several hundreds more, and converted old PEUIT FAEMING — BUSH FEXTITS. 89° barns, no longer profitable as stowage for wheat, into jam factories, which give a very profitable return. What Lord Sudeley is doing on a large scale there is- reason to believe that others are doing in smaller degrees,, sufficient, however, to warrant a much more extended culti- vation of bush fruits than at present exists. In one large seaport town, with which we are well acquainted, an enter- prising greengrocer is doing a large trade in ' home-made jams.' These jams are made of the different sorts of fruit which are brought with vegetables and other things by the small growers into the local market, and they are bought, up by this said greengrocer as he can meet with adequate- supplies. Why should not every village shop be supplied with jams in the same way by small farmers who will culti- vate fruit for the purpose ? The profits of the trade are large- and no foreign competition can interfere with them ; for as- Mr. Gladstone remarks, sugar is cheaper here than in any other country. There are various recipes for jam making,, but none superior to those that will be found in ' Modem Cookery,' by Eliza Acton. The proportions of fruit and sugar are excellent, and the processes of making are more economical than are given in recipes elsewhere. They can. be used alike for large as well as small quantities. 30 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTEE IX. FRUIT FARMING — STRAWBERRY GROWING. I>~ certain parts of the country near any large towns where there is a ready market at no great distance, strawberry growing proves a very profitable industry. There are many growers in Kent and elsewhere who have from twenty to one hundred acres planted with straw- berries, and the same is the case in the southern counties of Scotland, for the strawberry plant flourishes equally well as in England as far north as Edinburgh. A fair average yield from these plantations is valued at about 50Z. per acre. The cost of cultivation cannot be excessive, considering that a plantation once made will last for several years, and that for many months in the year the crop requires little or no labour, and only a large amount for gathering, &c. during the short time that the fruit is in season ; the profits, consequently, must be large. Every- thing, however, depends upon judgment and good manage- ment. It is not every soil or situation that will produce -even a paying crop of strawberries. Light, sandy soils do not suit them. It is waste of labour to attempt the growth of them when such is the case. A rich loam or good workable clay is necessary to -ensure success with this particular fruit. Yield, size, and FEUIT FARMING— STEAWBEEEY GEOWING. 91 •quality all depend upon the nature of the soil selected. The plants, at all seasons, especially while the blossoms are developing fruit, must have moisture at their roots. A situation somewhat sheltered is also very desirable for a strawberry plantation : this shelter may often most con- veniently be given by the slope of the ground, and tall fruit trees or others in the neighbourhood. Strawberries are cultivated in two ways — different sorts are obtained by seed, and the same sorts are propagated by runners. ' The sorts in cultivation at present are numerous, and growers who intend making new plantations should be very careful in their selection. From 10s. to 20s. per 1,000 is about the cost of good runners of any but the very newest varieties. Runners are the fresh growth of the season, and those chosen for the formation of new beds should be the nearest to the mother-plant, and carefully removed as soon as they are well rooted, the ■earlier in the season the better, that they may be well •established before the winter. To secure the finest runners, two or three inches of vegetable mould, mixed with well- rotted manure, may be spread on the soil along the sides -of the old bed for the runners to root into it, and their position in the soil should be secured by garden pegs. The best time for removing the runners and planting fresh beds is about the first week in August. The usual plan with market gardeners is to plant in rows two feet •and a half wide, and about one and a half foot apart from plant to plant. In this way, it takes about 10,500 plants for an acre. Those who desire to save labour in weeding and "hoeing by use of the horse hoe, plant two and a half feet each way. However, hoeing by hand and hand weeding are greatly to be preferred. There are several other 92 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. methods of planting equally good ; indeed, circumstances alone can determine which is best in any particular case. In some instances, single rows with plants a foot or fifteen inches apart, or double rows at the same distances, may be adopted. Beds may also be planted in clumps of three or four plants each, six inches, or even less apart, and three feet between each clump. Strawberries may also be planted under fruit trees, in orchards or along the line of garden walks. In such situations they have the advantage of shade, which is so necessary for them in hot summer Weather. They do no injury to the trees, and are them- selves uninjured by them. To form beds in this manner the plants should first be set in rows, two rows of plants on each side the line of trees, and the runners from these may be allowed to spread so as to cover the whole bed ; those only being cut off which are disposed to wander too- far. Certain sorts, as the Small Scarlet and the Carolina, do remarkably well grown in this way. These beds produce a far greater crop than when left with separate plants, and they also last in bearing a greater number of years. Among the latest methods adopted with strawberries- are the following, which we have reason to know have proved eminently successful. The first of these is the ridge and furrow plan. The land set apart for a strawberry planta- tion is worked in ridge and furrow fashion, three feet from ridge to ridge, and in each furrow single plants are set in. double rows, quincunx fashion, about eight inches apart. The advantage of this plan is that by means of the ridges the plants are protected from cold, and by being set in furrows they receive a greater amount of moisture than when planted on the flat. They are more easily supplied FEUIT FAEMING— STEAWBEEBY GEOWING. 93 -with liquid manure. We have known enormous yields of Excelsior by this plan. The second is that adopted by Mr. Kynaston of Bala — one of our best and most experienced fruit growers. ' In a dry time,' says Mr. Kynaston, ' tramp the plot of ground intended for a strawberry bed as hard, if possible, as :a beaten road. For, 1st, soil so hardened checks excess of root growth, and, 2nd, it retains moisture much longer than loose soil does, an important consideration this for the strawberry plant, whose great natural want is water in abundance. 3rd, weeds grow both small and slowly in hard ground, and therefore can more easily be kept well under. Next, line out the well-trampled ground in rows two feet ;apart, and in these dig out moderate-sized holes also two feet apart from each other. Then half fill these holes "with good manure, and next put into each one of them three young strawberry plants (as far apart from each other as the limited space will permit) to form a clump. This done, finish planting with the soil previously dug out, mixed with a little lime. The only ground required to be occasionally stirred (a long-handled spud being the best tool for the purpose) is that within two or three inches around each clump, as by so doing roots gain air, and liquid manure is better absorbed. Then before winter sets in (say early in November) put pats of manure over the said clumps, leaving the hard ground round them perfectly bare. This protects the plants from frost, concentrates food where needed, and stops much indiscriminate waste of manure. In spring, give the plants some good liquid now and then (say once a week), until the fruit sets. The result will be fruit rich in colour, fine in flavour, and great in abundance. By this method of cultivation, strawberry plants throw out 94 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. large numbers of unusually fine runners, which must be-, nipped off as soon as they appear, to prevent the plants from exhausting themselves, except of course those.required. for propagating purposes.' In the last chapter upon Bush Fruits reference was made to the system of fruit farming introduced by Lord Sudeley on his Gloucestershire estates, and the esta-» blishment of jam factories, which are proving a most profitable investment. Mr. Charles Whitehead, in his admirable essay on ' Profitable Fruit Farming,' gives some valuable practical hints on the same subject. ' It occasionally happens,' he says, ' in some seasons, when there is a plentiful crop of fruit, that there is a glut in the few large markets to which it is consigned, when fruit either is sold at prices that barely pay the cost of carriage and commission, or it is spoilt and wasted. The estab- lishment of factories for making jam and jelly in the chief fruit-growing districts would obviate this. These would take the surplus fruit in years of plenty ; and there is a process now practised of making it into pulp, which is kept in air-tight vessels, unsweetened until it is required for jam, when it is sweetened and steamed in the usual manner. Pulp will keep for years if it is properly treated. There is no reason,' he continues, ' why the fruit growers of different localities should not combine to put up jam fac- tories, which are by no means costly, to which they might send their fruit to be made into jam, when it would not bring what they consider its value for immediate consump- tion. On large fruit farms, such as may be found in parts of Kent, Gloucestershire, and Worcestershire, a jam factory is almost a necessary adjunct, or at least an apparatus for turning fruit into pulp.' Where strawberry growing* IEUIT FAEMING— STEAWBEERY GBOWING. 95- is well and carefully attended to, either on a small or large scale, there is every probability of success. This fruit is a general favourite, though the supply at present is so- restricted that in many localities the taste of strawberries is hardly known in the families of the workpeople who constitute the great bulk of the consuming classes. It can be used for an infinite variety of purposes, and where good sorts are selected and. proper cultivation ensured the yield is large, certain, and continuous. No strawberry bed need be destroyed until it ceases to be profitable, and then the- rnnners it throws out will serve to replenish the stock. The sort recommended for- market are Keen's Seedling,. President, Excelsior, Eleanor, the old Carolina, Dr. Hogg,, add James Veitch. There are many others no doubt equally good, for the number of sorts is endless. It must be remembered that an acre of strawberries with any tolerable crop will give employment for a good many hands for three or four weeks in summer at gathering time, and that the crop must not be left to spoil for want of them. A gross return of 501. an acre, or even 401., gives ample means to bear all possible expense, leaving good profit. But the possibility of getting this requisite amount of labour at the time needed must be taken into consideration before entering upon this industry. 56 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. CHAJPTEB X. FILBERT GROWING. Though filberts under proper cultivation are grown upon bushes, they are not generally included under the name jof bush fruits. It is for this reason, but more especially for their importance, that we treat of them in a separate chapter. There are few small industries that give a larger Teturn of profit than filbert growing, especially cob filberts. "When a favourable soil and situation can be found, and some of the more choice sorts of cob filberts are selected for planting, it is almost incredible how large a return •can be made from an acre of ground. The soil best suited ixD the growth of nuts is a light loam, such as is usually considered to be a good flower garden soil; but indeed almost any soil except the two extremes, viz., a scalding gravel and a stiff clay, will suit them well enough. Soil is not so important as situation. To make certain of a crop of this fruit a sheltered situation is absolutely necessary, for exposure to high winds at the time of blos- soming is almost certain to cause injury more or less. With this caution as to protection from exposure to wind, the crop can by no means be considered as an uncertain one. Nut growers reckon six good years to one bad one, which is a greater proportion than can safely be given to jnost other kinds of fruit. FILBERT GROWING. 97 Mr. Cooper, of the Calcot Gardens, near Beading, Berkshire, who has paid great attention to the cultivation of cob filberts, and introduced many excellent varieties to public notice, says that ' there is no investment that can pay better on any soil.' As an evidence of this, in his printed ' particulars of produce,' he mentions, not as any- thing exceptional, the year's growth of 1,300 lbs. of cob filberts on half an acre of his ground, and of 1,700 lbs. in another plantation of three-quarters of an acre ; and states that the market value of these cob filberts was 71. the 100 lbs.; so that the crop on the half acre sold for 91L, and the three-quarter for 119Z., or 210L for one and a quarter acre of ground. In addition to this sum for nuts, there were further sums for apples and potatoes grown upon the same ground in the same year. It must be borne in mind that it is not every sort of filbert that will yield this quantity and quality, and in consequence com- mand the price above mentioned. Mr. Cooper in his list enumerates sixteen varieties of filberts, No. 1 being Webb's Prize Cob Filbert, and it is with this particular variety that the nut plantations alluded to are stocked. If the prices of the plants be any index of their quality, there are more choice varieties in the list than Webb's Prize Cob Filbert, for these can be bought for from 12s. to 30s. the dozen, while the Duke of Edinburgh, to which was awarded a first-class certificate by the council of the Boyal Horticultural Society in 1883, is priced at from 10s. 6d. to 21s. each plant. A well-sheltered hill-side is, no doubt, the best position for a nut plantation. The young plants may be grown from cuttings, suckers, or seed ; the first being generally 98 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. preferred. Plants at first starting should be trained to a single stem not more than one foot in height, and the branches as they advance can then be easily trained to their cuplike form by being tied to a light wire or wooden hoop, as recommended with currant bushes. All shoots rising from the centre must be carefully cut away during summer. By this means sunlight and air are admitted freely to the centre of the plants. It is the small wood of the previous year's growth that produces the fruit, and all this small wood is left at the winter pruning ; all gross and fruitless shoots being entirely cut away. Suckers also are removed at the same time. The pruning adopted is somewhat severe ; but it is necessary both for the production of fruit and to keep the bushes within due bounds. The proper pruning of nut bushes is a delicate and somewhat difficult operation requiring much judgment and experience. The owners of many nut plantations in Kent as well as elsewhere find it best not to take in hand their own pruning, but to employ professional men, who go about among the growers and undertake pruning, according to the size of the bushes, at so much for each bush, or at a set price for the whole plantation. Of course, anyone who takes an in- terest in the matter can learn to prune nut bushes, but pruning generally is quicker and better learned by closely watching the process in detail carried out by some skilful operator than by any other means. It may suffice here to remark that a perfectly trained nut bush is cup-shaped like the red currant ; but whereas in the currant the side shoots of the past year are pruned to very short spurs, those of the nut are left at their full length to bear fruit, the long vigorous branches of the bush only are shortened, each branch to an eye placed in the direction where new FILBERT GROWING. 99 wood will be required next year.. There is not much dif- ficulty up to this point ; it is when the nut bushes have made a few years' progress that judgment and experience are needed in bringing the wanton growth of nature under control of the artificial requirements of cultivation, in order to secure the largest amount of fruit in the smallest possible space. A full-sized well-trained nut bush ought not to exceed six feet in height ; its diameter, however, will frequently attain fourteen or fifteen feet. All filberts, like the common hazel, bear two sorts of blossom : the male, which shows itself somewhat earlier than the female, is a gracefully pendant catkin of a yellowish colour, and the female, which is small but of a bright crimson, is close seated in the young wood. Tolerably still weather is desirable at this time to fertilise the blossoms, after which the male flowers drop off and the female begin to develop the fruit. In the most approved plan of plant- ing, nut bushes are set about sixteen feet apart, and either standard apples and pears, or plums and damsons, are set with them. If the soil be good enough, this may be done to the extent of about forty standard trees to the acre, upon which at the distances indicated 320 nut trees may be growing at the same time ; and until the filberts have reached their proper size, or at any rate in the earliest stages of their growth, gooseberries and currants may very profitably be grown between the rows, also potatoes. This extra growth, however, must be done away with as soon as necessary, the standard trees, of course, being left ; for they add to the permanent profit of the soil, and serve as a useful protection to the nut. Mr. Cooper plants his choice cob filberts much closer than the usual plan adopted in the Kent plantations. ' I H 2 100 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. have put my trees,' he says, ' in squares eight feet three inches apart, and therefore it takes 640 trees to plant an acre.' As a farther detail of his plan he continues : ' Now my trees are getting to a good size, I have planted potatoes between them, and have had a good crop on the same ground for seven following years, and only manured once since the first planting, and over these I have apple, pear, and plum-trees, all in bearing order.' The soil must be singularly good that can produce such crops in succession with so little done to replenish exhaustion. The Kentish plan, which gives a dressing of manure every two or three years, is certainly better suited to ordinary soils. As with everything else in culti- vation, the ground upon which nuts are grown cannot be kept too clean. It will require an annual spade digging, or, what is better, forking with a three-pronged fork. And after this the use of the hoe two or three times during summer and autumn to clear away all weeds. Considering the enormous profit to be made out of filbert growing, it is somewhat strange that it should not be more generally undertaken. Wherever the hazel will grow, cob filberts could be grown. The hazel, though most extensively grown throughout the country in covers and game preserves, is almost worth- less. It positively yields no return except once in about seven years, when the cuttings are sold for peasticks, stakes, &c, and after paying expenses of cutting and binding leaves from 2s. to 5s. an acre as the average yearly rental of the land. From an acre of the same land, however, cropped with first-class cob filberts instead of common hazel, at least 1001. a year might be made after the first five or six years. The only difficulty about FILBERT GROWING. 101 nut growing as a small tenant's industry is the length of time that must elapse before any profit can accrue. It must take, at any rate, four or five years before a new plantation can begin to make any returns as far as nuts are concerned, and seven or eight years before the bushes will have arrived at full bearing. Still, this need not deter anyone who has a small piece of ground planted as an orchard, or with gooseberry and currant bushes, from plant- ing nut bushes also. These fruit crops, and, if space be available, a crop of potatoes with them, will serve to yield rent and profit also while the nut trees are coming to per- fection, and the time for full profit each year of course comes nearer. Where the value of land is so enormously increased by the permanent cropping of it, it is certainly desirable that the occupier should be the owner also ; still it is easy enough for a tenant, who is willing to undertake the outlay, to guard his own interest by a long lease and by compensation for improvement at the end of his term. The land, be it observed, is not farmed at a loss as a dead fallow ; even for four or five years the other crops ensure some return, though that return can bear no comparison with the value of the crop that is to succeed them. It must not be forgotten, too, that young nuts from the very first, even before they are large enough to bear fruit, do themselves yield some profit. The cuttings taken from them each year in pruning them into shape can be struck, and when well rooted, if the sort be valuable, sold or kept for future planting. The same may be said of the suckers, which sooner or later are certain to show themselves, and which must always be removed. Small freeholders, with land in a suitable situation, will 102 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. find the growing of cob filberts of good sorts a most profitable undertaking, and so will small tenants who have been careful to provide by lease for a long occupation. A fourteen years' lease will pay well ; but the option of renewal for another seven years at the end of that term will pay a great deal better. In flower farming, bulb grow- ing where the sorts are well selected may yield a larger return than nuts from an equal amount of land in cultiva- tion ; but in fruit farming there is no crop that can come up to the yearly return of a good cob filbert crop ; and there is most certainly none where the average return continues more steady, and the price is so little likely to fall. Not only is there a large and increasing demand for this particular fruit in the home markets, but an extensive export trade is developing itself, especially with America, where, it is said, the attempts to grow filberts of the first class have failed, and our cob filberts command the highest prices and are in increasing demand from their superior size and quality. In 1882, nuts to the value of 59,428J. were exported, and of these America took nearly one half. This sum is nearly one-third more than the value of the nuts exported in 1880, a most gratifying increase. Our imports of articles of food are so enormous and our exports so small, that nut growers may congratu- late themselves that they have secured, in addition to an increasing home demand, an increasing export trade not only with America, which always ' goes in for big things,' but also, as the customs statistics show, with several continental countries and our own colonies. 103 CHAPTER XI. FLOWER GROWING FOR CUT FLOWERS. A NEW industry under the above head has sprung up of late years, which, as it appears to take well with people of all classes, and is quite unaffected by foreign interference, bids fair to admit of a very large development. The use of cut flowers for the adornment of the person and the dwelling- house is certainly no novelty, but the growing of flowers for these and such like purposes, to be sold in the shops and markets of all large towns and cities, is a new thing with us, and very greatly on the increase. Out flowers are now used, and used too in a profusion never before thought of, on all occasions of joy, and of sorrow also. Our churches are richly decorated with flowers on all festivals. Cut flowers in grand display are to be seen at christenings, weddings, and at funerals. The senseless sugared orna- ments of the bride cake have been replaced by real flowers, and real flowers compose the crosses and the wreaths, the last tribute of affection for the dead. The prayer of the poet has gone forth, and is being most liberally answered : — Bring flowers, fresh flowers, for the bride to wear, They were born to blush in her shining hair : She is leaving the home of her childhood's mirth, She has bid farewell to her father's hearth ; 104 HOW TO MATTE THE LAUD PAY. Her place is now by another's side. Bring flowers for the locks of the fair young bride. Bring flowers, pale flowers, o'er the bier to shed A crown for the brow of the early dead I For this through its leaves hath the white rose burst, For this in the wood was the violet nursed ; Though they smile in vain for what once was ours, They are love's last gift. Bring ye flowers, bring flowers. Bring flowers to the shrine when we kneel in prayer ; They are nature's ofPring, then place them there. They speak of hope to the fainting heart, With a voice of promise they come and part, They sleep in dust through the wintry hours, They break forth in glory. Bring flowers, bring flowers. No one with his eyes open can doubt the great demand for cut flowers, or the increased and increasing value set upon them. Those who will take the trouble to grow them will easily find a market and very remunerative prices. Well-made wreaths and crosses command a large price, and so do ornamental bouquets. Even one or two bright flowers, with a small green spray, formed into a ' button- hole' — thousands of which are sold in such markets as Yarmouth and other large towns — will bring the grower and the seller a good return. They are bought by the market women at Is. the dozen, and sold at 2d. each. Though well stocked in the early morning, we have seen the Saturday's Yarmouth market cleared of these small bouquets before two o'clock. What a nice addition to his income may a small farmer make by giving attention to the cultivation of some few flowers ! If he happens to be a man of family, his children can attend to them, cultivate what is needed, gather the flowers, and make up the saleable bouquets. All that is required of him would be to send the flowers to market, FLOWER GROWING FOR CUT FLOWERS. 105 with his butter and eggs and other produce. As things now are, it is notorious that a farmer's garden is the worst- cultivated part of his farm. Par from thinking of growing cut flowers for sale, he is somewhat of an exception to the rule if he troubles himself to grow a few vegetables for his own table. Almost every small farm-house has a piece of garden ground attached to it, and under proper cultivation, with the means at command which every farm possesses, this garden might be made not merely ornamental, but profit- able, by the growth of flowers without interfering with the ordinary vegetable crops. Good flowering shrubs and perennial herbaceous plants are the easiest and most useful things to grow, and among shrubs, evergreens are to be preferred, for they yield foliage at all seasons. White flowers have a more ready sale, and generally fetch a higher price than flowers of any other colour. It may not be altogether scientifically correct to classify flowers according to their colours ; but, if we mistake not, this arrangement for our present purpose will be found extremely useful. Cut flowers are needed for so many purposes in the present day, that a knowledge of their different shades of colouring is very necessary for those who undertake to grow and arrange them. Every- thing for effect in a wreath, a vase, a bouquet, depends upon the proper balancing of colour. Where so much natural beauty exists, it is quite true that a handful of flowers, gathered at random, and tied up together and set in a flower glass, will look well; but most persons will admit that they will look much better when a little care and good taste have been bestowed upon them. Few of the fair sex are deficient in these 106 HOW TO MAKE THE LAKD PAY. qualities, and the wives and daughters of our farmers, who take any interest in flowers, will soon find out how to arrange them with the greatest taste, especially when they see, as undoubtedly they will, that their profit is dependent not altogether upon the beauty of the flowers they ' offer for sale, but upon their skill in arranging them. Our present purpose is to point out what they can grow to the best advantage ; and with this view it appears that we cannot do better than give short lists of selected, hardy flowering shrubs and plants, arranged according to their different colours under these four heads, White, Blue, Red, and Yellow. WHITE FLOWEES. We place white flowers first on the list because, as already mentioned, they are at present and are likely to continue most in demand. There are many beautiful shrubby plants bearing pure white flowers that can be grown out of doors in any situation, some of which might with advantage take the place of the sticky flowerless shrubs so often found about farm-houses. To select only a few : there are white-flowered Rhododendrons, Andromedas, Deutzias ; the well-known Laurestinus and Magnolias. Good plants of white seedling Rhododendrons can be bought from our best growers at 12.s. the dozen, and splendid named varieties lor 1Z. the dozen. Andromedas, Syringas, Deutzias, the Guelder-rose, and Laurestinus produce a pro- fusion of flowers ; the last mentioned, though the most com- mon of all, is perhaps the most valuable, for one large bush will supply cut flowers and an ornamental evergreen foliage for several months in the year. The Andromedas are very FLOWER GROWING FOR CUT FLOWERS. 107 ornamental, and, though perfectly hardy, they are very seldom seen in shrubberies and elsewhere. A. floribunda will be found the most useful, for it produces its delicate wax-like blossoms in the greatest profusion, and no one can fail to admire them among cut flowers wherever placed. The flowers are in perfection generally during the months of March, April, and May. The deutzia blossoms come on in succession to these in May and June. This shrub, the deutzia, is deciduous, perfectly hardy, and will thrive well in any light garden soil. Among the most valuable plants for decorative purposes are the magnolias, two varieties especially — If. grandiflora, an evergreen, bears large cup-like blossoms, and M. conspicua, a deciduous tree which produces a profusion of lily-like white flowers from March to the end of June. Single flowers of either of these will sell readily at from 3d. to 6d. each. Both of these should be grown against a wall or in a sheltered situation ; they do well together, the evergreen foliage of the one protecting the naked blossoms of the other. Of hardy border perennial white flowers the list is a very long one. Some of the most common will be found the most profitable to grow for cut flowers. Single and double white primroses, hepaticas, daisies, lilies of the valley, white pinks and picotees. The Trillium or wood lily of Canada, the St. Bruno lily, the Sanguinaria and white starch Hyacinth, though not so well known, will be found equally useful. There are white phloxes, white single dahlias, and marguerites innumerable ; the white Anemone ja/ponica, white Chrysanthemum also, and that large lovely herbaceous perennial, the Pyrethrum uliginosum, that will 108 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. yield cut flowers from September until the end of the year. Wreaths of white flowers, are always in great demand, and for them the different clematis, especially Clematis montana, should be grown. Of bulbous plants the following will be found most useful : White tulips of different sorts, also narcissus, especially Poeticus flore pleno, the sweet-scented double white : Snow-flakes of the spring and summer, snowdrops, and the clear white crocus. White cyclamen also, the hardy European variety, which may be grown in peat soil anywhere, will yield an abun- dance of sweet-scented blossoms. BLUE FLOWERS. In classifying plants that may with advantage be grown in small farm gardens for the sale of their cut flowers, under the three leading colours, viz. blue, red, and yellow, it becomes necessary to give to these three terms a very extended meaning : for instance, blue must include under it not only dark and light blue, but lilac and purple, indeed every shade in which a tinge of blue prevails ; so, again, red will have to take in not only scarlet and crimson but the different shades of pink ; while under yellow must be arranged flowers from the palest yellow to the deepest orange bronze. Of shrubs, properly so called, there are very few hardy varieties that bear blue flowers or even flowers of a bluish tinge. The Ceanothus and the Veronicas are the most valuable. Of the former G. azureus should always be grown, for its lovely spikes of blue flowers are sure to attract buyers ; and in a sheltered situation, the angle of a west wall for instance, the shrub is perfectly hardy, and FLOWER GROWING FOR CUT FLOWERS. 109 when it takes well to the soil it yields an abundance of blossoms. The shrubby Veronicas are often classed among cool greenhouse plants ; but, carefully treated as to situation and soil, they are quite hardy enough for out-of-door culture. The flowers are generally blue or shades allied to blue ; and most useful are these plants, for both foliage and flowers are good. They are very free flowerers, and in a mild winter blossoms may be gathered from them from early autumn until quite late in the spring in the same profusion as from the laurestinus. Under the head of Alpine plants are included some of the choicest and most useful of blue flowers, and, like all Alpine plants, they grow best upon rockwork. A well- constructed rockwork secures good drainage and at the same time an adequate supply of moisture, for moisture is always to be found under stones ; there is also protection from frost. The bright blue Plumbago yields its lovely blossoms freely upon rockwork, and so do the Hepaticas single and double blue. There are several sorts of Anemones bearing flowers from the palest blue to the deepest purple : all of easy culture and much in demand as cut flowers. Anemone wpennina is a most profuse bloomer ; Gentiana acaulis also must not be omitted. Among other useful border plants there is a host of Delphiniums embracing every shade of blue ; of Campanulas also there are many varieties. The blue Salvia is good in nosegays, and of easy culture from seed sown in a little heat in April and planted out early. Mr. Jackman's list will supply numerous most magnificent blue Clematis. Those who have no trellis work to be covered and but 110 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. small space for trailing plants will do well to grow several clematis in a bed together, placing bundles of sticks or wire netting for them to run over. In this way from early and late varieties a long succession of flowers can be produced. The single blue Violas are very effective in bouquets, and it is almost needless to add that so also are Violets. Bunches of the common wayside violet are readily sold in town markets, while the cultivated sorts, such as the double Russian and the large single Czar, are among the most profitable flowers to be grown for sale. It may be as well to remark that several of the classes of plants most valuable for decorative purposes are entirely unrepresented by blue varieties. No one up to the present time has produced a blue rose or a blue dahlia, though a handsome sum awaits the fortunate discoverer. RED FLOWERS. The list of flowers of red colour and the shades of red suitable for the purpose in view is a very long one. The selection made will include only some few which from easiness of culture and profusion of blossom will give but little trouble and at the same time yield a good profit. The following shrubs, as well by their foliage as by their flowers, will be found to answer well for decoration : — Escallonia macrantha and Escallonia rubra bear elegant bunches of blossoms and have also a rich dark green foliage. These and the Pyrusjaponica flourish well under protection of a wall. There are also two or three Veronicas with reddish-tinted blossoms that are tolerably hardy in sheltered situations. More hardy than any of these are the Red Ribes and Weigelas or Diervillas, as they are now FLOWEE GKOWING FOE CUT FLOWEES. Ill generally termed. D. rosea and D. floribunda are the best varieties. These last-mentioned plants can be placed in shrubbery walks and at the back of flower borders : almost any soil except a stiff clay suits them, and the only pruning they require is to be kept in shape after they have ceased flowering and finished their growth of new wood. 1 There are several pretty Alpine plants yielding red flowers in great abundance that can be grown, as recom- mended in the case of blue flowers, upon rockwork. The two Hepaticas, camea and splendens, are early in bloom and very prolific ; the Potentillas also do well among roots and stones. The best reds are P. Bainsi, P. grandiflora coccinea, M. Douder, and M. Rouillard ; the strawberry-like leaves of these plants are also very ornamental in bouquets. There is a dwarf pink phlox, the scarlet Mimulus, Sanguinaria camea, several sorts of Primula sinensis, especially P. atro-vosea plena, and several members of the bellis or daisy tribe suited to the same position — all well worth cultivation when red cut flowers are needed. Of border plants it is almost unnecessary to call attention to the hundreds of beautiful named varieties of roses, from the delicate maiden's blush to the darkest crimson, for almost everyone who undertakes to grow any flowers would grow roses — perpetuals, of course, are the most useful. Other plants strongly recommended are the scarlet Aquilegias, canadensis and arctiaa, the scarlet Lychnis, Aster cocdneus, tall border phloxes ; the best of these, perhaps, are William Sanderson, Becky, Comte Lembertyne, Eugene Tanner, and Princess Ghykze. The 1 The wild myrtle of Tasmania (Mitraria coecmea), perfectly hardy though very little known, may be grown with advantage for its foliage and flowers. 112 HOW TO MATH? THE LAND PAY. Chelones and Pentstemon will also be found useful. To these must be added clove pinks and sweet williams, and that good old-fashioned favourite, the mule pink. All these herbaceous plants give no trouble — anyone can grow them. They like a good soil and a little rich manure given to them once a year. Most of them are propagated by a division of roots. Bulbous and tuberous-rooted red flowers, though not numerous, are very handsome and much in demand. What more attractive than flowers of the double scarlet Anemone ? Three or four rods of land planted with these would pay well. The semi-double raised from seed would make a large return, for when well treated they flower twice a year, in spring and autumn. For packing when gathered as cut flowers they should not be fully blown, for they open in the water and preserve their freshness best in this way. The European hardy Cyclamen may be grown with advantage where peat soil and limestone, or old mortar, can be had. G. gr cecum flowers in the spring, and G. europceum in the autumn ; a succession of blooms in this way may be ensured. Another invaluable plant is Schizostylis coccinea. It begins to flower in autumn, and in a mild winter in a sheltered situation it will yield flowers for cutting quite late in the following spring. YELLOW FLOWERS. Yellow flowers abound in the spring. They are the first to show themselves. Before the frost and snow have left us, the winter Aconite and the bright yellow Crocus are FLOWER GROWING FOR CUT FLOWERS. 113 to be seen in our gardens, and the Celandine in oiir Hedges and waste places. They are all useful for decorations ; even the wild flower is not to be despised, blooming as it does thus early in the spring. Taking first, then, as we have done in the case of the other colours, yellow-flowered plants of a shrubby cha- racter, the foliage of which will also come in useful among cut flowers, there are the Coronilla and the Cytisus, shrubs hardy enough under the protection of a wall when the winter is not very severe. The common Laburnum, which is a cytisus, is very showy, and may be turned to a good account when large nosegays are in demand; also the Genistas, or brooms, of which there are over fifty different sorts, all hardy, and several bearing yellow flowers : again, there is the Corchorus, a good old-fashioned plant that yields a large amount of flowers ; the common Berberis, and that very ornamental variety the B. Da/rwinii : the blooms are a bright orange, and the foliage small, finely shaped, and of a shining dark green colour. Another useful plant there is — an evergreen, Linum arboreum — very dwarf, but a pro- fuse flowerer when it takes well to the soil. Yellow flowering herbaceous plants are so numerous that it is really a difficult matter to make a selection. It should be remarked that yellow flowers are not only more numerous, but that they are generally found to be more hardy than flowers of any other colour. They are also more patient under hard treatment. They can resist longer than others the evil influence of an impure atmo- sphere. Witness the number of yellow flowers that grow wild, and look even fresh and bright amidst the smoke and dirt of the coal fields of South Staffordshire and elsewhere. One of the earliest and most useful of herbaceous 114 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. varieties is the Doronicum, or leopard's bane. It follows close upon the Aconite, and produces an abundance of flowers. The following list is recommended to those who wish to grow such yellow flowering herbaceous perennials as are best adapted for cut flowers : — The alyssum, aquilegia, caltha, chrysanthemums, cheiranthus, digitalis, buphthal- mum, lathyrus, gaillardia, potentilla rudbeckia, the single sunflower, Scabiosa lutea, the soKdago or golden rod, and those pretty little plants Viola biflora and lutea. Of yellow flowering bulbs there are several. The jonquils are all yellow, and so are several of the narcissus or daffodil family. A piece of garden ground from a quarter to half an acre in extent, stocked with the different flowering shrubs and plants already mentioned, would produce a grand display ; and it is understating its value to say that from 252. to 301. a year would readily be made out of it by cut flowers arranged as bouquets, and as wreaths and crosses, in the neighbourhood of some fashion- able watering-place, or a good market town. An outlay of 51. would go far to procure all the different garden stock mentioned. The shrubby plants are the most expensive, but any large growers would supply these in mixed quantities by the dozen at 4>d. or 6d. each ; and as regards herbaceous perennials, they are increased so rapidly by division of roots that 2s. per dozen will give a good profit to the grower for most sorts. Indeed, every well-furnished garden, in order to keep things within bounds, must throw away yearly as many offsets of perennials of all colours as would stock several small gardens. In this matter, a landlord, without cost to himself, can generally help his small tenants. Beyond those here given in the different lists under the FLOWER GROWING FOR CUT FLOWERS. 115 heads of white, blue, and yellow flowers, there is an infinite number of others equally useful, and perhaps equally profitable. Roses, especially the tea roses where the soil is favourable for them, are a source of great profit. Pinks, carnations, and picotees are also a very ready sale, and so are single dahlias. It must be borne in mind that the value of cut flowers depends very greatly upon their fresh- ness and the care with which they are packed, and unpacked also. They should be gathered when the sun is off them, in the evening, placed in water, bunched if necessary, and packed in boxes or in baskets the next morning : either as single specimens or as nosegays, they may be laid upon each other as closely as possible, the stalks having been gently wiped on being taken out of the water. The baskets or boxes should be quite full, so that there is no possibility of shaking. Should any flowers show signs of flagging from long- continued packing, they may speedily be revived by putting the stalks into boiling water to cover about one-third of the length, and leaving them until the water is cold. The moistened part of the stalk must then be cut off, and the flowers set in cold water. It may be useful to add that cut flowers can be kept in water a much longer period than usual, if their stalks are trimmed and the water is changed every few days ; or if a small quantity of pow- dered charcoal be put into the bottom of the vessel that holds them, no change of water will be required. i 2 116 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTER XII. FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING FOR DISTILLATION, FOR MEDICINAL AND OTHER PDRPOSES. The growing of certain flowers and plants for distillation, for perfumery, for medicinal and other like purposes, offers another remunerative method of cultivation for 'the occu- piers of small quantities of farm land in favourable situations. The land so cultivated throughout the whole country may not be of any ■ great extent compared with many other modes of cropping ; but it must be remembered that every acre of land that is taken up with any fresh produce yield- ing a better profit than wheat, is not only itself of benefit to both owner and occupier, but tends at the same time, by diminishing quantity, to add to the value of every other acre, however cultivated, because the price of all necessary produce must always to a great extent be dependent upon scarcity and abundance. This is undeniably the case with all those articles of produce which are not affected by foreign competition, and up to a certain point it is true of all others. It is true even of wheat ; the price of wheat, as everyone knows, from the unlimited extent of foreign im- portations, is far less under the influence of home-grown quantity than any other crop. No one, however, can doubt that if only half the usual acreage of wheat were grown in this country, some influ- ence would be seen in prices, at any rate during certain periods of the year. FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING. 117 The number of flowers and plants in use for perfumery and medicine is very large. Mr. Eugene Bimmel, in an appendix to his most interesting ' Book of Perfumes,' gives the names of some sixty or seventy plants which he tells us form the ' principal materials in use in per- fumery : ' many of these are medicinal also. In medicinal botany, however, the list of plants is far more numerous than this. It is true that the great majority of the plants useful for both these purposes require a climate far different from ,our own. They can be cultivated to perfection only in such parts as Southern Europe and India, Turkey, Algeria, South America and the Tropics. Still, as we shall presently have to point out, there are several that can very profitably be grown in this country, and a few also — and these by no means the least important — which are generally allowed to be better, and certainly command a higher price when home grown than when imported. Flower farming for distillation, as carried on in the South of France, is a most extensive and valuable in- dustry. Along the shores of the Mediterranean between Cannes and Nice, which are distant from each other about twenty miles, there is a large tract of country running in- land as far as Grasse about ten "miles from the coast-line, entirely devoted to the growth of flowers and aromatic plants. Both soil and climate are there suitable to the growth of vegetation of this sort ; and the entire space is laid out in flower farms of different sizes, and, what is of absolute importance, with laboratories within convenient distances. To these laboratories the large and small cultivators of this district, and others in the neighbourhood who can grow suitable -produce, send their supplies, and find a ready market. 118 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. As a general rule, the larger landed proprietors of the district do not appear to let their farms at a fixed rental, but find it more to their advantage to arrange with the owner of some neighbouring laboratory to work the farm and its produce, reserving to themselves a royalty or share of the profits, generally a third. The principal flowers cultivated in this large area are orange blossoms, roses, jasmine, violets, cassia, geraniums, the tuberose and jonquils. There are others, but these are the most important. Some idea of the extent of growth may be had from the statistical account of the district, which places the average annual yield of orange blossoms at 1,475,000 lbs. and of roses at 530,000 lbs. We naturally wish to know what sort of a soil it is that is so marvellously adapted to the growth of flowers, and fortunately the information is ready at hand. M. Septimus Piesse, the celebrated perfumer, who is also an expert chemist, has made a careful analysis of the soil of this district, and from his account the proportions of ingredients in every 1,000 parts of soil are as follows : — Silica and sand . 866-00 Silicate of magnesia . . 008-50 Carbonate of magnesia . 007-00 Alumina . 030-70 Silicate of alumina . 013-00 Sulphate of lime . . 006-80 Carbonate of lime . . . 006-80 Potash salt . , . 004-80 Soda salts . 006-70 Phosphate of lime and magnesia . 005-60 Carbonate of iron . 010-50 Carbonate of copper . . 001-70 Organic matter . 002-30 Manganese and iodine traces . — Loss during analysis , . . 016-60 1000-00 FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING. 119 Useful though it may be to know the constituent parts of soils suited to particular sorts of vegetation, still, where the growth of aromatic plants or flowers is concerned, soil is not all that must be taken into account. The con- dition of the atmosphere has a great deal to do 'with successful cultivation. Sunlight and warmth, together with the absence of all injurious influences, such as smoke, fog, &c, are necessary to ensure the fullest amount of benefit. There are many opportunities in our country of proving this. Among other things, the old-fashioned white China rose is found to withhold its blossoms under the influence of the impure atmosphere of cities and towns, where its twin sister the pink variety generally does well. Some time since we gave a bunch of roots of the Leucojum vemum to aTriend at Pulham, who had admired the flowers flourishing in our garden in Norfolk in early spring. The Fulham soil was in high cultivation, as good, if not better, than our own ; but in the Pulham atmosphere these early snowflakes diminished to half their proper size, and seemed ready to die, when we were requested to take them again for change of air. The remedy answered. We kept the roots apart from all others to see the effect of change. After a year or two they completely recovered, and threw up blossoms as fine as ever. Almost everyone must have noticed also the effect of warmth in developing the scent of plants. Violets, gathered out of doors in winter, that are almost scentless when taken from the bed, will give out their delicious fragrance after a short stay in a warm room. So also the fragrant chehnonanthus, a hardy shrub flowering without its leaves in mid-winter. Let anyone take a handful of its blossoms, and he will find but little scent in 120 HOW TO -MAKE THE LAND PAY. them as he stands by the bush to gather them ; but after a few hours in a warm room the scent will be almost over- powering. We have not been able to learn whether these blossoms, so rich in perfume and so abundant, have found their way to the laboratory, but they seem well adapted for it. It is not only by distillation, properly so called, that the perfume of different plants and flowers is extracted ; there are three other processes in use — viz. expression, maceration, and absorption ; both of these last-mentioned processes are founded on the affinity which all fragrant particles have for oily and fatty substances, in which they more readily become incorporated or fixed than in anything else. Interesting though it may be to know something of the different methods by which a commercial value can be given to different plants favoured by nature,' as possessing sweet perfumes or medicinal virtues, it is somewhat beyond our purpose to enter further into this subject. The plants themselves that are likely to prove useful to the occupiers of land in this country, and, being suitable to our soil and climate, may afford a pro tcmto substitute for unprofitable wheat, may with greater advantage claim our attention. It has already been stated that there are certain aromatic plants greatly in demand that can be cultivated here quite -as well as in foreign parts, and some of them with even superior results. Lavender and peppermint are the chief of these. There is no lavender in the world equal, we are informed, to English-grown lavender, and certainly none that commands so high a price. The consumption of lavender for distillation is very great. Formerly, a large quantity was used for sachels, or ' sweet FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING. 121 scent bags,' for scenting linen in drawers and wardrobes — a purpose for which it is now largely grown in America; here, however, this is a lapsed industry, which might with much advantage be revived. There are several parts of the kingdom in which lavender is grown. At Mitcham in Surrey, though' much of the land once devoted to its cultivation has been built over, there are still some three or four hundred acres to be seen, and large distilleries at work during the flowering season, which no doubt would use up more material if it were grown. At Hitchin in Hertfordshire, at Market Deeping in Lincoln- shire, and several other places, lavender is also grown. The sort in cultivation is Lavandula vera, and it is propagated by slips, which may be detached, with a portion of roots adhering to them, from the base of the old plant. These slips may be planted out at once, in autumn or early spring, where they are intended to grow. However, where a new plantation on a large scale is to be made, the better way is to take cuttings from the young wood early in autumn, and insert them in pots or pans in a close frame, where they will soon strike root. These cuttings may be stored for the winter, and set out in rows safely in the spring, or, if the season be favour- able, they can be planted before the winter sets in. A good plantation of lavender will last in profitable bearing three or four years, and even longer. The lavender should be cut and dried as soon as the blossoms have expanded, and taken to the distillery with the least possible delay. A sandy loam is the best soil for lavender, and a sloping or somewhat sheltered situation is desirable. The next plant in demand is peppermint (Mentha piperita), for English peppermint is also greatly preferred 122 HOW TO MATTR THE LAND PAY. to foreign. This plant is extensively grown at Mitcham and several other places, and ranks next to lavender in commercial value. It will grow in almost any garden soil, and can be propagated by seed and the division of roots. There are two other varieties of mint that enter largely into consumption, both of them, as the above, natives of our island and perfectly hardy ; one of them is commonly known under the name of pennyroyal (Mentha Pulegmni), and is used for medicinal purposes, and also for flavourings of confectionery, and the other is spearmint (Mentha viridis). This is the sort so commonly grown in gardens and used for mint sauce. As a dried herb it is in demand everywhere. For this purpose it should be gathered as soon as the flowers are developed, and hung up to dry. It is also, as the two other sorts, used by distillers. All the mints are of easy cultivation ; the last mentioned, if now and then carefully dressed with a little fresh soil or well- rotted manure, will yield a crop for many years : the Mentha Pulegium succeeds best when transplanted every spring. There is one other plant that can be classed with the four above named as offering good remuneration to the growers ; this is rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). This plant yields a powerful essence, which with us is chiefly used for scenting soap. In France and'Germany it forms one of the chief constituents of Eau-de-Cologne. Rosemary is well known in England, and much more might be made out of the growth of it if the matter were taken up with any spirit. It is an evergreen, quite hardy, and easily propagated by slips or cuttings in the spring. Slips torn from old plants with a heel will readily root in the open ground in a light sandy soil and shady place ; but FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING. 123 cuttings are more safely treated under glass : pieces of the young wood three or four inches long should be selected. When these are well established, the growth taken for distilling purposes forms a useful pruning for the plants. In addition to those already mentioned, there are other plants, the produce of which is perhaps not so much in demand as the above, but quite enough so to encourage the growth of them. The chief of these are Caraways, Cori- ander, Dill, Angelica, Chicory, Horehound, Liquorice, Saffron, Tarragon. The Caraway (Carum Carui) was formerly extensively grown in Essex and Suffolk, and, from the price the seed now commands, 52s. to 53s. per cwt., there is every reason for growing it again. The Dutch export it largely and find it a very profitable crop. The seed, 12 lbs. per acre, is sown in spring : the plan recommended is to drill it just after the barley or oats are drilled across the drills of the corn. Drilling is desirable, because the caraway requires to be hoed, and in Holland this is usually done after the corn crop with which it is sown is harvested, and again the following spring. Sheep are fond of it, and are occasionally run over it after harvest. The seed is fit for cutting in June or July the year following the sowing of it, and another seed crop may be taken from the same plants the next year if they be allowed to stand: 12 cwt. per acre is said to be a fair average crop, and at the present price per cwt. there are few crops to equal it in value. In Arthur Young's time caraway and coriander (Goricm- drum sativum) were grown together on the same land in Essex and Suffolk. In his ' Agricultural Survey of Essex ' he says ; ' Some old pasture land, a rich clay for choice, was 124 HOW TO MATH?. THE LAND PAY. ploughed up in the spring, and 10 lbs. of caraway seed, 10 lbs. of coriander, and 12 lbs. of teazel were sown together on the newly turned up soil, and harrowed in; as the plants appeared they were carefully weeded, and repeatedly hoed. The coriander was ready for harvest in July, and was threshed out on a cloth in the field, the produce being frequently 24 cwt. per acre, worth 16s. per cwt. At about the same time the following year the caraway was reaped, producing 20 cwt. at 20s. per cwt. In the autumn of the same year the teazels were cut, their produce varying greatly from 31. to 121. per acre.' Verily farmers in Arthur Young's time appeared to have been more alive to their own interests than they are in these! Teazels, though very valuable, are not so much in demand as they once were. But caraways and coriander are very much dearer than in those times; and a good year now of this double cropping would not merely pay rent, but leave a large profit that would go far towards purchasing the fee-simple of the land the crops grow upon. Infor- mation as to the cultivation of the teazel will be found in Chapter XVI. Dill — a name commonly associated with dill-water — is the Anethum graveolens of botanists, a biennial plant, a native of Spain : it will, however, grow equally well in this country, and if the seed is sown broadcast and plants left to ripen seed, a crop will be produced in abundance every year without further trouble. Angelica (Arcliangelica officinalis). — We remember in days gone by seeing this plant largely grown in the fields at Mitcham and its neighbourhood. It is a plant of hand- some growth ; the flower stalks three to five feet high, and the foliage a bright shining green, very luxuriant. It is FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING. 125 grown from seed sown either in spring or autumn. It is a strong grower, and plants should not stand closer than three feet between each. The flowers are distilled, and the stalks and stems, that are in use for confectionery, for candying, should be cut in May. The plant is said to be a biennial, but when not allowed to flower, it will stand for several years and yield its crop of stalks. Horehound (Marrubium vulgare) is a native of Britain, and will grow almost anywhere, from seed, cuttings, and by division of roots. It is useful for medicinal purposes, as everyone knows, and is considered profitable where such plants are grown. Liquorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) is a deep-rooted peren- nial much cultivated in Spain, and since the time of Queen Elizabeth grown in England also. The soil that suits it best is a deep sandy loam, trenched deep. For a new plantation side roots with eyes of old plants should be used either in October or early spring. The plants are set in rows three feet apart, and about eighten inches from plant to plant : as the plants do not rise much the first season, a crop of onions or beans may be taken. After three summers' growth, the roots may be raised and either sold at once to the druggists or stored as carrots until wanted. The crop is a very valuable one, and it needs to be so, a.s it occupies the ground three years. The expense of lifting is also heavy, for the roots go down into the soil a long way, and have frequently to be drawn out by means of ropes. Saffron. — This is the autumn crocus (Crocus sativus) : it is planted in rows six inches apart and three inches from bulb to bulb. The flowers are gathered in autumn (September), prepared and dried and pressed into cakes. The yield is small the first year, but aiterwards it reaches 126 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. about twenty-four pounds to the acre : fresh planting should be carried on every fourth year. Tarragon (Artemisia Bracunculus). — There is no diffi- culty about its culture. The young shoots, just before they come into bloom, may be gathered for flavouring vinegar or dried for winter use. The list of useful plants is by no means exhausted. There are several others worthy of notice : Anise (Pimpinella Anisum), Henbane, Belladonna, Stramonium, also Chamo- miles for their flowers, and Poppies for their large heads of seed. These two are calculated to yield a good return. Of the chamomile (Anthemis ndbilis) there are two sorts — viz. the single and the double flowered. Both are grown, but the latter from its weight is the most profitable. The flowers are ready as soon as they begin to expand, and they are gathered as they become fit and are dried imme- diately. The chamomile is propagated by division of roots, or by offsets, which are pricked out in rows nine or twelve inches apart each way, in early spring, and if kept well watered they soon take hold of the soil and cover the bed. Poppies, grown for their seed heads, are of the large white- blossomed kind. The plants are raised from seed, which is fresh sown every spring, in drills twenty or twenty-four inches apart. The crop requires no further care beyond an occasional thinning and cleaning until the seed heads ripen and are gathered in August. Soil, situation, and the convenience of a laboratory in the neighbourhood can alone determine how many, and which, of the plants and flowers here mentioned can be profitably grown. Some of them, as lavender and pepper- mint, will find a market when grown anywhere within easy reach of a distillery ; of several others it may be said that FLOWER AND PLANT FARMING-. 127 of late years they are not so much cultivated as they used to be. This, however, does not prove that the demand for them is less ; for the price paid to foreigners for essential oils and other like articles has greatly increased with our diminished cultivation of the necessary plants to make these things ourselves. We in this country ceased to grow such plants because wheat brought our farmers a greater profit. Now that the cultivation of wheat is profitless, it would seem only sound policy to use, at any rate, some portion of our land for flowers and plants useful for distillation and such like purposes. With regard to this industry, it must not be forgotten that a distillery in the neighbourhood is absolutely necessary to the profitable growth of all the most valuable plants from which essential oils and extracts are obtained, for their value is greatly deteriorated by packing and trans- mission.. 128 HOW TO MAKE THE T.AXT) PAY. CHAPTEE Xni. BULB GROWING. There is probably no department in floriculture that creates so much interest at the present time, and that offers so fair a prospect of increasing development, as the culture of bulbous plants. As evidence of this, reference need only be made to the numerous trade catalogues of bulbs, which in time for autumn planting are every year put into circulation by our large florists' firms ; and to the immense sums of money which, according to the Custom House returns, are every year sent out of the country to purchase ' Dutch bulbs.' Catalogues of ' Dutch bulbs ' are paraded before the eyes of English customers, and a large trade is in this way kept up, as if our own soil were entirely unsuited to this industry, which proves so profit- able to our foreign neighbours. There is, without doubt, a far greater extent of land in the Low Countries suited to the cultivation of this class of plants than is to be found in England ; but, if we mistake not, a certain peculiarity in the Dutch character — that patient industry in which we in this country are somewhat deficient — has nearly as much to do with success in bulb culture as the nature of the soil. If our people would take up bulb growing with the same energy as the Dutch, and BULB GROWING. 129 ipersevere in the hope of success, there would be no neces- sity for the importation of these Dutch bulbs at all, as far :as a suitable soil is concerned. Near the sea coast in many parts of England there :are thousands of acres very similar in soil to the soil of Holland, in which the hyacinth, which is looked upon as the most important of these bulbs for commercial purposes, is grown. The soil of Holland is sandy, presenting a well- •■drained surface to receive the bulbs and keep them sound, while water stands at from twenty inches to two feet below the surface, attracting the roots of the bulbs downwards, ■and under the influence of sunshine promoting a vigorous .growth. Wherever soil is found answering these conditions hyacinths and most other bulbs may profitably be grown. The Dutch plan with hyacinths and bulbs generally is this : they propagate by seed and by offsets. Seeds are raised in the usual way ; the more tender sorts in pans with •a gentle bottom heat, the hardier sorts in light soil in some warm situation in the open ground. Not all bulbs will •ripen seed, but all will form offsets : these show themselves -at the axils of their scales, which are the outside coverings •of the bulbs themselves. Though not many sorts of bulbs -develop more than two or three of these, still one clove in .a rudimentary state is said by botanists to exist at the base •of every scale. The common garlic shows these cloves ■developed and in unusual number. It is the exhaustion •caused by flowering which prevents such development in other bulbs : by removing the flower stem in its early growth all bulbs may be made to develop offsets more freely than they do. The Dutch take advantage of this in increasing their stocks. In October choice bulbs selected for propagation K 130 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. are either cut transversely at the base to about one-third their depth, or they are scooped or hollowed out to the same depth. Experience dictates to a skilful grower which method is best with any particular bulbs. Each bulb so operated upon is then planted in a prepared soil four inches deep and six inches apart. By this process each bulb operated upon will form eight or even twelve small bulbs or offsets in the cuts or hollows made, and as these shoot out their tender leaves in the light soil they give to the bed in which they grow somewhat the appearance of a bed of spring onions. In the summer, as soon as the leaves have died down, these tiny bulbs are lifted carefully by the hand, dried, and cleaned for planting in the autumn in fresh soil at three or four inches apart. By the end of the following season's growth they will have attained the size of a walnut, and after passing through the process of drying and cleaning, they must be planted in the autumn again a little farther apart than the previous year. During the third year's growth each bulb is expected to put forth a small spike of bloom, but no sooner is it developed than it is cut off and thrown upon the ground. This operation answers two purposes: the strewed flowers settle the soil about the roots, and the bulbs, having no blossoms to sustain, develop a large increase in foliage and consequently in size also. The process is repeated in many cases a fourth and a fifth year. This is the grand secret of Dutch success in bulb culture, giving to their roots, especially to their hyacinth roots, the size they attain ; their brightness being due to the sandy soil in which they are grown, and to the careful drying and clean- ing which they undergo before being sent to our markets. BULB GEOWING. 131 The Dutch are also very skilful in hybridising and raising bulbs from seed. The choicest flowers are selected and hybridised artificially. Seed is sown, as already mentioned, in pans and a gentle heat, or in drills or beds in a warm situation and light soil. With the young bulbs so produced the same process of cultivation is followed as just described in the case of offsets, and as soon as flowering takes place a careful selection is made in the hope of securing a few new and valuable varieties which are kept for stock, the remainder being disposed of in the usual way. As an industry hyacinth and bulb culture generally labours under this disadvantage : there is a long time to wait before any adequate return can be made from the capital and labour employed. Undoubtedly, however, a very large profit can be derived from an acre or two of ground as soon as it is sufficiently stocked and in a state to make any return. Planted at a distance of six inches apart in rows and four from bulb to bulb, about 200,000 roots can be grown upon an acre of land, allowing plenty of room for pathways. Though upon the most approved method of culture it takes five years to produce the highest-priced hyacinth roots for market, there are many other sorts of bulb equally valuable, and even more valuable, that can be made marketable in less time ; offsets of Daffodils and Scillas, &c, make saleable bulbs after the third year. There is so great a variation in the prices of all bulbs that it is impossible to give anything like a fair average ; but from our own experience, extending over many years, as a grower of choice sorts of Daffodils, &c, we have become convinced that a good living could be made out of x 2 132 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. a few acres of suitable soil devoted to bulb culture by- anyone who would give his attention to cultivate the sorts of bulb most in demand. From small beginnings made many years ago we have now long borders of several choice varieties of Daffodils or Narcissus, Jonquils, Snowflakes, Fritillarias, Scillas, &c, in rows about six inches wide, around all beds upon the lawn and along different walks in the flower and kitchen gardens. The soil is a rich deep garden loam on a sandy subsoil, and our method of cultiva- tion, which will be stated presently, seems to suit this class of plants. At any rate, our bulbs will bear comparison in size and quality with any imported samples of the same sort, and, being English grown, they command a better price. We are very proud of our display of these early choice spring flowers, and are careful never to let it down ; but there is always, under proper cultivation, a surplus of some sort every year, which finds a ready market, realising from 11. to 31. and even more a rod for the ground occupied — a very profitable return from that quantity of land though it be carried to account only once in three or four years. We have no experience of the profits of hyacinth growing, for our own soil is not sufficiently sandy for the production of saleable bulbs of this class. There are, however, hun- dreds of acres on the Norfolk coast where there would be little doubt of success if the attempt were made. Bulb growing, even if all the roots annually sold in England were home grown and not imported, could not occupy a very large area of the land compared with other methods of cropping. Still, in the neighbourhood of the fine old Dutch town of Haarlem, there are farms varying in extent from one to 300 acres devoted to the cultivation of this particular class of plants. BULB GROWING. 133 We have before us the catalogue issued by one of the largest of these Dutch firms, Ant. Eoozen and Son, succes- sors to the late Baron von Pallandt, whose bulb farms are at Overseen, near Haarlem. It is a closely-printed and double-column pamphlet of upwards of seventy pages devoted entirely to Root plants. The circulation of this catalogue gives some idea of the extent to which the industry is carried on, and of the easy way in which foreigners carry away money from England, because we in England will not take the trouble to grow what our customers are anxious to buy. Though hyacinths require a certain peculiarity in soil, almost all other bulbs may be successfully cultivated in any light soils. Our plan is this : we plant bulbs of, say, the ordinary sorts in October ; the soil selected is a light loam in .good heart, but not enriched with fresh manure, which in our opinion frequently rots bulbs that come in contact with it. The soil is well dug, and the bulbs are set four inches deep, and according to size from three to six inches apart, and generally in two rows four or six inches apart, on the borders of beds. As soon as the bulbs begin to grow in early spring, a coating of well-rotted manure, beaten fine, is placed on the surface of the ground about them for the rain to wash its goodness into the soil. No fresh manure is thus allowed to lie near the bulbs, which, of course, are under the sur- face; plenty of foliage is produced, and the size of the bulbs increased by the supply of this surface nourishment. During growth no bulbs are allowed to ripen seed, but as they are grown for ornament they are all allowed to flower ; but both flower-stalk and foliage are left to die naturally, and not removed, as is so often done, before the juices have had time to settle down and replenish the 134 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. bulbs. The natural dying away of the foliage is more important than of the flowers : these may be gathered if needed, but green foliage should on no account be cut off or injured in any way. All bulbs may be raised as soon as the foliage has died down. They should be dried gradually by exposure to air and sunshine and cleaned, the fibrous roots being rubbed oflj and care also being taken that the outer coating is not injured. Thus prepared they are in a state to be sold. The lifting of bulbs and replanting of offsets should be done once in every three or four years. 135 CHAPTER XIV. VEGETABLE FARMING. Many a small farmer, who now sends poultry, eggs, and dairy produce to market, will find that with a little additional trouble a good increase of profit may be had by combining with these the sale of a few useful vegetables. An acre or two of ground set apart for market-garden purposes on any farm within an easy distance of a good market will yield a far greater return from vegetables than from any ordinary crop. On land where corn crops at the present prices can only be grown at a loss, a few well-selected vegetables will leave a large profit. There is always this advantage in growing vegetables on small ikrms : whatever is sent to market is sold at market-garden prices, and that which is not required for market, and which fails to realise a remunerative market price, can always be consumed by the lean stock, pigs or poultry, on the farm. It may be said that there are at the present time many of these small industries in the neighbourhood of every large city and town, and that from them the markets derive their supplies. Yes, but not all their supplies, for ' raw vegetables,' to the value of nearly half a million, are imported into this country every year : last 136 HO"W TO MATH?. THE LAND PAY. year France alone sent to us vegetables to the value of" 229,1862. These imports prove that there are not enough growers of vegetables here to meet the demand for them. The fact is, the number of growers is restricted because- small farms are not to be had. There are plenty of men among the better class of farm, labourers, who yearly swell the tide of emigration to the- colonies and elsewhere, every way qualified to undertake^ the cultivation of small market-garden farms, if only they could meet with them. Many of these have quite sufficient capital at command for small beginnings, and industry enough to advance to larger occupations, to the benefit - of themselves and their landlords. Such men want only the opportunity in this country, which they seek and are- sure to find elsewhere, to render us independent of foreign supplies altogether. In their hands the land would be- made to yield its proper increase ; the food supply of the- country would be brought to equal the demand made upon it ; and it may be, for there is nothing but want of proper- cultivation to prevent it, that the country itself would export, instead of importing, land produce. If the Southi of France and the Channel Islands can send us vegetables- and fruits, because their supplies come on earlier than we- can grow them, why could not our later produce of the- same sort find a market with them, if we had any to- spare for export? At present we are a long way from exporting; the requirements of our own markets must- first be made up. In calling the attention of small farmers and others to- the cultivation of vegetables, it will be well to arrange- such as are generally grown under three heads — viz. per- manent crops, root crops, and green crops ; and of these to- VEGETABLE FARMING. 137' select only such, as are sure to find a market, and will be- likely to obtain the most profitable prices. The permanent kitchen-garden crops are Globe Artichokes, Asparagus,. Rhubarb, and Seakale : the last three being best worth growing. Of Asparagus there are several sorts, but none superior to the Old Giant. Seed can be sown, but seed- lings yield no profit under three years. It is better,, therefore, to buy good three-year-old stocks at 4s. or 5s.. the hundred. The site chosen for asparagus beds should be an open space with full advantage of sunshine. A light rich soil is- essential, and also deep trenching. In a stiff clay, beds, must be dug out four feet deep and artificially made. The most convenient width for beds is either three feet with two rows, or four and a half feet with three rows, the plants, being set not less than one foot apart. In this way, about 170 or 180 stocks will be required for every rod of ground. The roots should be well spread out at the time of planting,, and the crown buried about two or three inches. A new bed even of three-year-old stocks must be cut sparingly only the following year, and no cuttings should ever be- made after Midsummer Day, by which time every stalk should show at any rate one seed-bearing stalk, not necessarily to bear seed, but to ensure growth for another season. As soon as the seed begins to ripen, the stalks should be cut down, the surface forked over, and the beds well dressed with a good coating of manure. A sprinkling of salt two or three times in the course of the year will prove very beneficial. In March the surface should be forked again, and raked fine. Rhubarb is in great demand, and meets with a ready -sale everywhere. Early forced rhubarb commands a higk. 138 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. price. Under good management, plants of any of the early sorts can be forced at little or no expense by using the pots under which the earliest seakale has been grown. To .keep up a supply two sorts of plants are needed, the Eoyal Albert for early use, and Myatt's Victoria, — a very large variety — for the chief supply. Rhubarb plants may be raised from seed, but as seedlings do not produce stems fit for use until the third year, it is a great saving of time to buy two- or three-year-old plants. They must be set in rows, the Royal Albert two feet, and Myatt's Victoria not less than two and a half feet, from plant to plant. Rhubarb requires a rich soil, and the later sorts will do well in a .somewhat shady situation. The rows of plants should have .an annual top-dressing of well-rotted manure given every autumn. By this means the beds become ridges in pro- ■cess of time, greatly to the benefit of the rhubarb. The rows should be according to the sorts, four or six feet apart. We have a ridge of Myatt's Victoria, — planted -originally on the flat — which is now, after fifteen or sixteen years' growth, two and a half feet high, and bears pro- digiously. In gathering rhubarb the stems should be care- fully pulled away from the roots, and those of the same length tied together in sixes or fours for market. New beds may be formed from old roots, which can be cut into as many pieces as there are eyes, saving a portion of the root to •each, and planted as before directed. Seakale, the last of the permanent crops, is somewhat •expensive at the first, for it requires an outlay for seakale pots to blanch it. Like celery, it is unwholesome if not blanched ; but when blanched under pots it is most nutri- tious, and deemed a luxury. The pots, which cost about 2s. 6d. each, will, of conrse, when once bought, last for VEGETABLE FARMING. 139 years, and they may be used for forcing rhubarb as well as seakale. In forming new beds of this vegetable, it answers best, as in the case of asparagus and rhubarb, to buy young plants, which should be set out in May in clumps of threes, one foot apart, and two feet between the clumps. Double rows, with two feet space between them, are the most convenient for blanching and cutting. The beds must be kept free from weeds, and each year a portion of the litter with which the pots are covered must be forked in about the roots, and a little fresh soil thrown over them before the pots are put on in October. Horse litter, dead leaves, and the sweepings of grass can be used for covering. The seakale, being a marine plant like as- paragus, is benefited by an occasional sprinkling with salt. If forced early, it fetches at market a high price. A good ■crop of one year will pay for the pots, and, carefully cut, the beds will last in bearing very many years. The root crops which generally enter into consumption are ten in number — viz. Beet, Carrots, Celery, Jerusalem Artichokes, Leeks, Onions, Parsnips, Potatoes, Salsify, and 'Turnips — all of them in demand and profitable for sale at market. Red beet requires a rich soil. Carefully selected seed, •of a very dark red sort, should be dibbled in May in rows one foot apart, and from eight to ten inches from plant to plant. As soon as the plant comes up, a free use of the hoe, especially in dry weather, is essential. The roots when taken up in October may be sold at once, or if stored they must be kept from frost by a covering of straw and mould. The leaves maybe cut off, but not so close as to cause bleeding. Hourly carrots are a very profitable crop. The soil in which carrots are grown should be light and rich, but not 140 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. enriched with fresh-manure, for if so they will ' fang.' The-- seed is sown in drills about nine inches apart. The- earlier the better, but the time must be regulated by the- season and situation, for the seed will not germinate kindly in cold ungenial weather. There are many varieties, but none better than the Early Shorthorn and James' Interme- diate. These fetch the best prices, for they are the most suitable for the dinner-table. Of late years carrots have caused a great deal of trouble- to growers, and have risen in price in 'consequence. The tops die off before the roots have gained their full size, and not unfrequently hardly a sound carrot is to be found in a large bed. This mischief is caused by the carrot-fly, which pierces the ground and lays its eggs at the roots of the young carrots. The remedy is to keep the ground as solid as possible, and to sow thin in order to avoid thin- ning, which loosens the land and facilitates the ravages of the fly. We have successfully applied this remedy for some years. The early carrots do not keep long ; they make, the highest price; but the whole crop should be marketed as soon as possible. The Altringham, Long Red, and Long Surrey may be stored, as they sell best in winter. Celery causes a good deal of work ; but notwithstand- ing this it is a profitable crop, especially when the soil suits it. Large, crisp, well-blanched roots are always dear. The soil makes all the difference: in some soils, roots of from 5 lbs. to 7 and even 8 lbs. are grown without, any large quantity of manure. There are two distinct, sorts of celery, red and white : the former is the hardiest,, but the latter most generally preferred. For the earliest celery in open trenches, which will come into use in August VEGETABLE FAKMING. 141 and September, sowings should be made in March, in boxes ■placed in a gentle heat. The plants must be forced on and .set out early in June. In April another sowing may be made in a cold frame ■or under a hand-light, and as soon as the seedlings can be handled they may be pricked out in an open border on a bed prepared for them in this way : select a piece of hard ground, level it, on this put a layer of well-rotted manure three inches deep, and three inches more of good loam ; prick out the plants in this bed six inches apart. Shade -and water them well, plant them when strong enough in trenches two and a half feet from centre to centre and the plants nine inches apart in the trenches; if preferred, double rows six inches apart may be set in wider trenches. This sowing will come in August and September, and sow- ings may also be made in May and treated in the same way for winter use. Jerusalem artichokes. — This most valuable vegetable ■deserves a far wider cultivation than it gets. It will grow .almost anywhere. In a rich light soil the yield is enormous, ■and what cannot be sold at market will prove profitable food for pigs. Indeed it pays well to grow these artichokes for pig food only. Leeks are not much in demand in England, the .stronger-flavoured onion being preferred to the leek. Onions are everywhere in demand, and prove, in suitable soils and under proper cultivation, very remune- rative. The price has risen greatly of late years, for the ■onion as the carrot suffers from disease — the onion maggot : this is caused by a fly which lays its eggs at the roots. The best preventive is thin sowing, and keeping the ground as firm as possible : a rich soil is necessary, but 142 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. not fresh manure. Every onion bed should be manured the previous autumn. The White Spanish and James's Keeping are the most marketable varieties. The Giant Eocca grows a large size, but in certain soils it is thick- necked and misshapen, and the roots split. Such, at any rate, is our experience of this variety. Parsnips are a very desirable crop. They generally sell well, and are also profitable when consumed upon the- farm. The preparation of the soil and general cultivation are the same as for carrots. The Hollow Crowned and Jersey Marrow are the best varieties. Of potatoes little need be said, except that the early varieties are the most profitable for the market-garden farmer. This crop is always in favour with small occupiers, and now that the yield is generally better in consequence of the disease having somewhat abated, it is to be hoped that potato growing will prove more remunerative than it has done, and lessen the necessity for the foreign sup- plies, which at present amount in value to the enormous sum of one and a half millions. There is nothing equal in flavour to the Ash-leaf Kidney, but it is a bad bearer. The Moss and the Lampstone Kidney are more profitable, but still better are Myatt's Prolific and Rivers' Royal Ash-leaf. For a late variety the York Regent has never been surpassed. Many of the American varieties are large croppers and yield large tubers, but they are very deficient in flavour. A good potato crop is undoubtedly profitable. Kidney potatoes early in the season ought to make, at any rate, 10s. a rod, and the later varieties 5s., with an average of J or 1 sack a rod. Salsify. — This root requires to be better known. It is very hardy and of very easy culture. It is seen in VEGETABLE FAEMING. 14& private gardens, but not very often met with in public markets south of the Tweed. Turnips. — Bunches of white turnips nicely washed are always marketable, and return a far better price when sold than when consumed upon the farm. The green crops in general cultivation are : Broad Beans, French or Kidney Beans, Scarlet Runners, Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, Cabbages, Cauliflowers, Kale, Peas, Sa- voys, Spinach, to which may be added Tomatoes and Vege- table Marrows. These crops can hardly be considered so necessary to a housekeeper as root crops ; still, from being looked upon more as luxuries, they command better prices and are all more or less profitable to grow. Where vegetables are grown at all, some sorts of green crops must be grown to maintain that succession and cropping which is essential for the productiveness of the soil. Broccoli and potatoes form a better succession than potatoes and onions; and so with other things, every alternate year a root crop should be taken off the same piece of land, and not unfrequently in this way two crops may be made to follow each other in more rapid succession in the same year. For instance, Early Ash-leaf Kidneys planted in February can be cleared off before the end of June or beginning of July. Let cauliflower plants and early winter broccoli be set in May between each second row of these potatoes — a dressing of manure being given at the same time ; these plants will fruit from August to December, and even if the broccoli occupy the ground longer, there will be plenty of time to grow onions or carrots on this same ground the following spring. This double cropping makes market-garden farming very profitable ; but it can only be successfully carried out 144 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. where the land is in good heart and there is plenty of manure. Tomatoes always sell well : large quantities are imported from France and find a ready market, giving to foreigners a large sum of money yearly, which with a little trouble our farmers might retain for themselves. Tomatoes ;are easily grown. They do not require a wall ; a roughly constructed wood trellis will answer all the purpose. There :are many varieties of tomatoes : the cluster varieties are in demand for garnishing and to be eaten raw as fruit ; but the large brilliant red sorts are most valuable. ' Sutton's Earliest of All ' is one of the best. Plants of this raised in a gentle heat in February, transplanted against trellis in May, and slightly protected if necessary, will ■continue in good bearing until the frost of winter destroys them. Each plant should be trained to three stems and laterals pinched off to ensure fine fruit. Tomatoes do not require a very rich soil, but plenty of moisture and liquid manure two or three times a week until they have made their growth and show signs of fruiting. All tomatoes "too late in the year to ripen in the open air should be gathered before the frost touches them, and placed in some warm situation under glass to ripen. These late tomatoes, ■coming in with the game in autumn, sell well. Vegetable marrows. — An enormous amount of good food is obtained by growing marrows, pumpkins, and such like vegetables. AH of them are in demand at market, and .are profitable also as food for pigs mashed with fine pollard or barley meal. The plants require plenty of moisture, and do best when set in trenches. They can be stored for winter use in any dry outhouse. A .visit to any good market-garden ground in the neighbourhood of London or Paris would soon convince VEGETABLE EAEMING. 145 the most sceptical that vegetables pay well both landlords and tenants. It is stated by Mr. Middleton that an acre of land so cultivated has been made to return the astounding sum of 2201. per annum. Mr. Middleton says he had the account from the market gardener who occupied the land, and that the items were as follows : — Eadishes, 10Z. ; cauli- flowers, 601. ; cabbages, 30Z. ; celery, first crop, 50Z. ; second crop, 40Z.; endive, 30Z. : total, 220L The land was favourably placed for the sale of vegetables, and no ex- pense was spared in cultivation. An abundance of manure, constant tillage, and a rapid succession of crops would seem to be the three great essentials. In the grounds about London the whole surface of the soil seems at times converted into a hot bed. Every crop is forced to perfection with marvellous rapidity, and cleared and sold as soon as its proper growth has been attained. The market gardens in the neighbourhood of Paris are even closer cropped than our own. Mr. Eobinson's account will be read with interest : L In addition to an abundant watering and rich manuring, the Parisian market gar- deners,' he tells us, ' owe a great deal of their success to a close system of rotation, eight crops per year being fre- quently gathered from the ground; were it not so the cultivators could not exist, so limited is the ground that each possesses, and so high the rent of it. A considerable portion of the surface of one garden I visited,' he con- tinues, ' was devoted to cos lettuce, and very fine speci- mens of it. Beneath these there was a dark green carpet of leaves, very close to the ground — the leaves of the scarolle (a large-leafed smooth endive), which forms an excellent salad, and is, indeed, one of the very best of all salads, and not yet sufficiently known in England. The 146 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. young plants have plenty of room to grow among the beds of cos -lettuce ; and the moment the cos is cut for market the scarolle has full liberty, and with abundance of water soon makes a wide head. Then, perhaps, some young plants of another vegetable are slipped in at regular intervals in the angles between four plants of scarolle, which crop will be vigorous and half way towards perfection when the great smooth endive is ready for the market. As an illus- tration of the cropping, the cultivator described to me that of a portion of his ground for the past year. In the earlier spring the ground was cropped with cos lettuce, and from between them a crop of radishes was gathered ; cauliflowers were planted early among the cos, and as they approached maturity the ground was, of course, wholly occupied by them. When they were cut in May or June an oppor- tunity occurred of giving the ground that thorough culture and preparation which such a course of heavy cropping demands. Then a crop of spinach was sown, and in the spinach cos lettuce ; as soon as the spinach was cleared off a crop of endive was planted alternately with the cos. Then small cauliflower plants were put in, yielding a fine crop in the autumn, and after them a small quick crop like corn salad.' Many useful hints are contained in these remarks which our small farmers may turn to a good account. They have at command two great essentials — the land and manure; they want beyond these only energy and enterprise. There is one other green crop, useful alike for the market garden and the farm, that must not be left un- noticed : this is the cabbage. Of this vegetable there are many sorts, but for a small farmer who grows for market •■'■' ' Vegetable farming. 147 ■and for home consumption none are better than Enfield Market or Carter's Heart-well. They are good for table and for the feed of stock. As a field crop alone, and to be used only on the farm, Sutton's Early Drumhead and Sutton's Improved Large Drumhead are to be preferred. Plants of the former, set in rows twenty-four inches apart :and twenty-four inches between each plant in April or .May, will be fit to use in September", October, and Novem- ber ; and plants of the latter, in rows thirty to thirty-six inches apart, and the same distance between the plants, will come in for winter and spring use. L 2 148 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTER XV. SUGAR-BEET FARMING. Whether the growth of beetroot for the manufacture of" sugar will prove a profitable industry or otherwise, depends- mainly on two considerations : first upon the price of im- ported sugar extracted from the sugar-cane, and secondly upon the distance at which the beet is grown from the- factory in which it is to be used. Beet is a heavy com- modity, and the carriage of it is an important matter, for it must of necessity greatly affect the price. Just at the present time, the price of colonial sugar is lower than it has ever been in living memory, and does not afford much encouragement to those who would turn their attention to beet-sugar factories to compensate in some degree for the- low price of corn. However, it does not necessarily follow that West India sugar must always continue so low ; and should the price rise, there is little or no doubt that home- made sugar from beet would come into demand, and that, on lands within a reasonable distance of a sugar factory, the growth of beet would be found very remunerative. As- it is, our Continental neighbours find it worth their while to extract sugar from beet, not only for their own con- sumption, but for exportation also. Among the general imports of articles duty free, in the SUGAK-BEET FABMING. 149 year 1883, is included beetroot sugar unrefined, from Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, France, and Por- tugal, to the value of 8,236,602Z. It is these immense imports of beetroot sugar which have brought down the price of the West India produce and which serve to depress the trade. But if the foreigners can grow beet at a profit for the purpose, with the heavy expenses of transit upon the manufactured article, why cannot we grow our own beet and manufacture from it sugar for home use, at any rate, to the extent of the eight millions a year which we ■&re now spending upon others for the same article ? It has been objected by those who look for objections •everywhere, that our soil and climate are unsuited to the growth of sugar beet. Such, however, is not the case. 'There are sugar factories in Lincolnshire and Kent, Eadnorshire, Nottingham, Yorkshire, Suffolk and else- where, in England ; and M. Leplay, a well-known authority •on such matters, who analysed roots grown in the neigh- bourhood of some of these factories, found them to contain ■one per cent, more saccharine matter than four-fifths of the 'Continental samples submitted to him for analysis. As our readers are aware, there are many sorts of beet, •or, as it is frequently termed, mangel wurzel, all of which 'Contain saccharine matter and are valuable in proportion to the amount of it. But that which was originally termed :sugar beet, and is known on the Continent as such, is a rather small and whitish root, very compact, in texture somewhat resembling the swede turnip and heavy in pro- portion to its size. Chaptal, who was himself a practical ;agriculturist and a manufacturer of beetroot sugar, as well :as a good chemist, tells us that this smaller beet — roots weighing from one to two pounds — was preferred by him 150. HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. for the purpose of sugar-making. Since his time, no doubt,, great improvements have been made in the cultivated varieties of this most valuable article. ' The nature of the soil and the care in cultivation will, in all probability, be found to turn the scale in favour of any particular variety. Large coarse-growing roots do not necessarily produce the heaviest crop upon the ground : for small round beet can be sown in drills somewhat closer together, and the plants can also be left nearer" to each other. There is another point connected with- the cultivation of beet which it will be well to bear in mind. Of all root crops it is the least exhausting to- the soil. Beet may follow beet on some lands in succession for many years. We have ourselves had full opportunity of verifying this. Some years ago, in the village of Tottenham there was-' a small field of about an acre in the occupation of a dairyman, who year after year grew upon it beet or mangel wurzel for his cows, and who, to our knowledge, continued the growth of it to the end of his tenancy of twenty-one years without any apparent falling off in the size and quality of his roots. Another instance is that of a field of some twenty acres, the property of a large farmer in Essex, who, when we visited his farm some time ago, pointed to this field as having grown a crop of beet in succession for some twelve years, and who, from the con-^ venience of its situation near the homestead for carting- the crop and manuring, expressed his intention of continu- ing so to cultivate the field until he found any reason to make a change in the crop. At the time of our visit the> growth of beet in this field left nothing to be desired. ' These facts are mentioned for the encouragement of SUGAR-BEET FARMING. 151 farmers who occupy good beet-growing land in the neigh- , bourhood of sugar factories, or who may find it to their interest to club together under the Limited Liability Acts, and to start a factory for themselves with a com- petent manager. It would be useless to engage in this particular industry unless an adequate and constant supply of the raw material could be ensured. Apart from the quality of the soil, the best situation for a beet-sugar factory ; would of course be near some line of railway from which a siding might be made for the conveyance of the roots along the whole course of the line direct to the factory itself. By' this means, in the event of the supply of the immediate neighbourhood from any cause falling short, the factory could still be kept at work. Speaking some short time since at a meeting to pro- mote this particular industry, Mr. Biddell, the member for West Suffolk, remarking 'that the troubles of the landlords were in these days only equalled by those of the tenant, said that he had come to the conclusion that they wanted what the doctors would call an alterative. Whether this sugar industry,' he continued, ' would have the desired effect, he could not say; but, at any rate, it was an industry well worthy of attention. Wherever they went on the Continent, they would see beet- root growing, and the manufacture of beetroot sugar was enormously increasing. The roots are grown in a soil similar to our own, and if the foreigners found it to their interest to give up growing corn, he did not see why they should not follow their example in the East of England. Many people seemed to think that to grow beet requires a warmer climate than our own. That was not the case ; the fact being that beet does not flourish in a warm 152 HOW-TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. climate. They might feel sure that the manufacture of sugar from beet was a profitable industry, otherwise it would not have developed to such an enormous extent.' In Mr. Biddell's opinion, the land in the Eastern Counties was peculiarly suited to the growth of beet from the large amount of phosphate contained in it, which, in his experience as a grower of between 1,000 and 2,000 tons a year, was essential to the growth and quality of the crop. At that same meeting, Sir Lyon Playfair explained how it was that we in England could manufacture beetroot sugar at much less cost than most other people. There has been discovered in this country, chiefly about the Mendip Hills, a large amount, indeed hundreds and thousands of tons, of a mineral called strontia, formerly exceedingly scarce, the use of which when properly prepared facilitates the extract of sugar from the juice of the beetroot and brings it into a solid form. This the professor con- sidered would give our sugar manufacturers great advantage over foreign competitors. Owing to the discovery of these immense stores of strontia also, not only is the sugar more easily extracted and utilised, but certain salts are found remaining in the refuse which are of very great value as manure, and which constitute precisely that sort of manure which is required to revigorate the land and enable it to bear another crop of beet. The cultivation of sugar beet is the same as for the ordinary farm mangel wurzel crop. The sorts generally preferred are White Silesian, with green top — ditto with red top — and Vilmorin's Improved Sugar Beet, which is generally used in France. There is also another variety well spoken of by Mr. Sutton of Reading, and said to con- tain full 25 per cent, more saccharine matter than the other SUGAR-BEET FARMING. 153 ■•sorts. Seed varies in price from 9d. to Is. per pound, and -about 12 lbs. should be sown to the acre. The land should be well tilled and well manured, also finely pulverised at the sowing time : but manure should not be placed too close to the seed, nor should the seed be buried deep. 'The seed is best drilled on the flat, or on balks two feet apart, and the young plants left single about one foot from each other in the rows. Eepeated hoeings by hand and horse hoe are needed to secure a good crop. The best time for sowing is said to be the last week in April or the first week in May ; but the state of the weather and the nature of the soil must be taken into consideration. Beet seed will not vegetate at a low temperature ; but in favourable-growing weather, it is not many days before the young plants show themselves above the soil ; on the other hand, should the weather be cold and dry, and the surface •of the soil become hard and parched soon after sowing, it may be necessary to stir gently the top soil with a fine rake •or very light bush harrow, to enable the young plants to push their way through. This operation is one requiring great care. The custom of the factory will, in all cases, regulate the mode of storing and preparing the roots for use. The roots, before they can be used, must of course be perfectly clean. This is done in some cases by washing, in others by paring them with a knife. By this latter method, one sixth part is left upon the land to be fed off by pigs, or to rot as manure. When thoroughly cleaned, it is reckoned that five tons of roots produce about four and a half hundredweight of coarse sugar, which gives about 160 lbs. of refined sugar, and 60 lbs. of inferior lump, with a remainder of molasses. Beyond this, the residue of the roots, after extracting the 154 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. juice, is estimated to consist of dry fibre and mucilage equal to about one fourth of the weight of the clean roots used. This residue, mixed with cut hay in the proportion of 2 lbs. of the former to £ lb. of the latter, forms a most nutritious food for sheep and cattle. This result is attained by the old process of extracting the sugar as used on the Continent : by the use of strontia, a greater value of sugar is gained, and, consequently, there is less- value in the residuum. 155 CHAPTER XVI. CHOPS JUST OUTSIDE THE ORDINARY METHOD OF CROPPING- THE LAND PROFITABLE FOR GREEN FOOD, SEEDS, ETC. Hitherto what is usually known as the four-course system has been generally regarded as the most approved method of cropping the land. It is a system of farming easily carried out, and certainly well adapted to serve the in- terests of both landlords and tenants as long as wheat can maintain a fair market value. The minimum price at which wheat can he profitably grown under this system is by no means a settled point among farmers themselves ;. nor is it possible to fix a price, for the yield per acre is an important factor in such a calculation, and this will differ materially on different farms. It is obvious, therefore,, that the very existence of this long favourite system depends upon the wheat crop. If the price of wheat falls- below a certain limit, and the quantity grown per acre fails to compensate for the diminished price, this particular- system no longer answers ; a farmer must look elsewhere than to his wheat crop to enable him to pay his landlord: a fair rent and to secure for himself a reasonable profit. This is precisely how the case stands with us at pre- sent ; and from the experience derived from several years past there seems but small hope of improvement while* 156 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. "this four-course system continues to be rigidly observed. Foreign competition has reduced the price of wheat to a .most unremunerating level, and foreign competition is not likely to become less hurtful in future ; while from some •cause or causes, of which no satisfactory explanation can be given, the yield of wheat per acre, in spite of all efforts .at high farming, has lessened rather than increased. The past seasons, no doubt, are responsible for much of this diminution ; but may there not be other causes at work ? .and among these a latent weakness in the four-course system itself which brings wheat crops too close together, ;and which after its adoption for a long term of years is leaving the land ' wheat-sick.' The fact is admitted with regard to the growth of red ■clovers. On many farms where in years gone by a crop of red clover could be grown every fourth year, mixed seeds must now be sown, for there is no certainty of a good red •clover lay in less than eight or twelve years. If such be true of clover, may not the yield of wheat be influenced by the same cause ? At any rate, whether under the influ- ence of price, or of yield, or of both, it seems absolutely necessary that less land should be given to wheat which does not pay, and room made for other crops that can be turned to a better account. On farms of all sizes, and -especially on large farms, this can readily and effectually be done by extending the course of cropping to seven or -eight instead of four years, and making grass the most important crop on the farm instead of wheat. This is the plan recommended so strongly by Messrs. Sutton & Sons, of Reading. We have seen it in opera- -tion, and it has been, wherever adopted, followed by marked success. It is always a hard matter to move farmers PROFITABLE CEOPS NOT USUALLY GROWN. 157' out of a groove in which they have long been accustomed to work ; but that something must be done to meet pre- sent deficiencies and, indeed, to stay further ruin to the most important industry in the country, is now self-evident .. Landlords and tenants have an equal interest in the matter. Mr. Martin Sutton's ' alternative,' the laying down of the- land to grass with properly selected seeds for two, three, or four years instead of one, is a remedy that interferes very little with the present system of farming, while it is very easy to show that it has, under present circumstances, great advantages over it. Land in grass lessens materially the cost of labour on a farm, while it enables the farmer to keep more stock, and gives him the great advantage of fattening off-hand for the butcher whatever stock he may himself breed, and selecting his own time for selling ; thus avoiding a loss, so frequently and so truly complained of in all arable districts occasioned by ' buying in ' stock dear and selling cheap under pressure of want of summer grass- keep. It may be quite true that more meat can be grown on an arable than on a grass holding ; but this does not necessarily mean benefit to the farmer. His interest lies in the amount of profit he makes in turning his stock inta meat; and when the risk and expenses of arable farming are set against ' the alternative ' system, it is pretty certain on which side the balance of profit will be found. In extending a lay of grass to four years, the proportion of land for roots need not be interfered with, it is the acreage of wheat only that is decreased. There may be the ordinary regulation quantity of land for roots or for any other crop that can be advantageously grown on any portion of it, and the only ob- jection that can possibly be urged against this system is the 158 HOW TO MAKE THE LAUD PAY. •diminution of wheat straw upon the farm and the small •quantity of farmyard manure in consequence. This objec- tion, however, is far more apparent than real. The land ■does not suffer ; it receives from the increase of stock an ■equal if not a larger amount of dressing, which is spread •over the land by the animals themselves without the 'cost •of carting and of labour. Moreover, by remaining under .grass for a term of years instead of one, a reserve of fer- tility from atmospheric influences is ensured, which there is little hesitation in asserting will be of far greater benefit to the crop when the land is again ploughed for wheat, than the heaviest dressing of farmyard manure. In carrying out this arrangement the most important point is that proper seeds are selected — not merely that the •seeds are themselves good, but that the mixture of them is suitable for the soil in which they are intended to grow, and that their growth is calculated to last the term of years Tequired. The selection of seeds, whether for permanent -pasture or for a short term of years, involves an amount of botanical knowledge which is not common among agricul- turists, nor, indeed, often found except among those who have made the grasses an especial study as a matter of business. We would strongly advise any persons who may wish to avail themselves of this remedy for the present depression to state the nature of their soil as clearly as they can, and the term of years they contemplate, to some seedsmen in ■whom they can place confidence, and leave the selection to them. This is the plan most likely to secure success. "We adopted it ourselves with Messrs. Sutton, of Eeading, a few years agof in laying down some permanent pasture, and we have every reason to be satisfied with the result. PROFITABLE CEOPS NOT USUALLY GEOWN. 159 In the ' Farmer's Year-Book ' issued by this firm for 1885 will be found their special prescriptions for one, two, three, and four years' lay. Their essays on 'Pastures' may also be consulted with advantage. The cost of seeds for one year's lay, according to these prescriptions, varies from lis. 6d. to 16s. per acre, for two years' lay from 13s. 6d. to 16s., and for three or four years' lay from 17s. 6d. to 20s. • per acre. These seeds are all sown with barley or oats in the usual way. Beyond this alteration in the -ordinary course of cropping there' are the following crops, some of which may, as occasion serves, profitably be grown, either in place of wheat or 'otherwise. Buckwheat (Polygonum Fagopyrum) is chiefly valuable for sowing round game covers. The seed is excellent for -poultry feeding. The young plant is rather tender, so that the first week in May is quite early enough for sowing. Two bushels of seed are allowed for an acre ; the yield is un- certain, varying from four to seven quarters an acre. Buckwheat requires the same preparation of the land as barley, and is harvested in the same way. It makes good ■ensilage when cut fresh for the silo just as the seeds of the upper flowers are turning brown. 'We have tested the value of this crop as ensilage,' «ays Mr. Woods, ' and compared it with its ordinary value as a seed crop. The result is as follows : an acre cut for the silo weighed eight and a half tons and produced eight tons of ensilage, which,' taking the value at cine-third that of hay, gives a return of 101. 13s. id. From this deduct '51. 17s. 7 d. on account of incidental charges, rent, and interest, and the balance is U. 15s. 1 9d. ; The harvested •crop, which yielded- four quarters of grain per acre, was •.sold at 32s. per quarter.' 160 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. Cainary. — The seed of this plant (Phalaris canariensisy forms a considerable article of commerce. It is grown largely in some parts of Kent, and, if well protected from birds, it yields from three to five quarters an acre, and is a. very paying crop. It should be grown in an open country free from hedges, and in a good rich soil. It is best sown in drills eight or nine inches apart, and the growth and yield are much improved by a free use of the hoe. When reaped it is left in heaps, or ' wads ' as they are termed r and exposed to the dew. This does no injury to the seed, while it serves to soften the husk, which is very hard, and renders threshing more easy. The plant grows like a strong grass with an oval spike containing the seed at the extremity of the stem. Chicory (Gichoriwm Intybus). — This plant is valuable for several purposes. It can be grown in fields as a pasture or herbage plant like clover and other grasses, or, like field carrots, for its roots, which, when dried and ground, are either used as a substitute for coffee or mixed with it_ As a market-garden plant also it can be grown for salads. Under the name of Barbe de Capucin the blanched leaves. of this plant are very largely used in France and Belgium for the latter purpose, and there is little doubt that if they could more easily be procured they would soon be in demand with us also. Of the value of chicory for feeding purposes Arthur Young, who first introduced the plant into this country in the year 1780, speaks most highly. ' It is of such consequence,' he says, ' for different purposes on the farm, that in various sorts of soil the farmer cannot without its- use make the greatest possible profit. . . . Upon blowing sands, or upon any soil that is weak and poor and wants- rest, there is to plant equal to it.' The most important PROFITABLE CEOPS NOT USUALLY GKOWfr. 161 "iise of chicory in the present day is the preparation of a powder from the dried root to mix with and form a substitute for coffee. The seed should be drilled in April as carrot seed is drilled, in a deep, light, rich land, but not in land fresh manured. When the young plants are fit to landle they can be weeded and thinned like young carrots ; the roots will be ready in September. The process of preparation is this : As soon as they are taken up they are cleaned and stored ; when required for use they must be carefully scraped, split when very thick, •and then cut crosswise into pieces two or three inches long. These pieces are then dried in a properly prepared kiln, and after this they are packed in bags and sold to the merchants. Both in the raw and ground state chicory imported into this country pays a duty, the former 13s. 3d per cwt., and the latter 2d. per lb. When mixed with coffee the mixture must be declared. Before it is fit for use it must be cut in small pieces, roasted, and then ground. In France and elsewhere on the Continent, the labouring ■classes grow their own chicory and use it largely instead of coffee. Though bitter when used alone, the drink is wholesome, and the taste thought by many persons to be •extremely grateful. Comfrey. -^-The rough or prickly comfrey (Symphytum ■asperrimum) is a most valuable forage-plant. All cattle have a liking for it ; and so great is its yield on good land that as much as thirty tons an acre of green food have been gathered. It is propagated by seed and by division of roots. Seed should be sown in a bed early in the spring of one year, and the plants set out the spring following. 'They are very strong-growing, and on a good soil require M 162 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. to be from four to six feet apart. It is the leaves that are? eaten, and they are produced in great abundance. Plants, once established, kept clean and manured, will remain in good bearing for several years. There is hardly any green crop more profitable where the land is limited and one or two cows or horses have to be maintained. Lucerne (Medicago sativa). — This is another valuable forage-plant — more valued on the Continent than with us, probably from the expensive way in which we in England generally grow it. With us lucerne is sown in drills- twelve or sixteen inches apart, and after each cutting hoedl to keep down weeds ; and by this means the crop is kept upon the land ten or twelve years. In France and on the Continent generally the seed is sown broadcast, and after three or four years, when the crop begins to get foul, the land is broken up and a fresh sowing is made, about 20 to 28 lbs. of seed to the acre. The best time for sow->- ing is during the month of April. As soon as the crop is six inches high it may be mown, and this should always be done in time to prevent flowering. On good ground, when grown on the Continental fashion and no hoeing required, cuttings can be made every month or six weeks to the beginning of November. After the last cutting a dressing of rotten manure should be spread over the plants. The price of good seed is Is. 2d. per lb. The Continental method of cultivation, therefore, is more profitable than our own, for though the crop does not last so long upon the land, more frequent cuttings can be made, and there is no expense of hoeing. Maize. — The Zea Mays of botanists has only of late years been introduced into this country as a green crop for feeding purposes ; but it bids fair to become one of th& PROFITABLE CROPS NOT USUALLY GROWN. 163 most important. As a grain or corn crop it will not answer in our climate. The seed cannot be sown early enough in spring to ensure the ripening of it before the • winter comes on. There is a well-defined Jine in Europe north of which maize cannot profitably be grown as seed, and our island is outside of this line. Still, as green food, there are few plants that can yield more. The safest time for sowing^in England is the middle of May. The land, to ensure a good crop, must be naturally fertile, or made so by the application of manure. A light, moist, and warm soil is the best. The seed, which should be well selected, can be dropped in the furrows after the plough, or drilled or dibbled in like wheat. As each plant covers, or ought to cover, a large space, the distance between the seed-rows, according to the quality of the soil, may vary from twelve to sixteen inches. Drilling and dibbling are best, as the seed should not lie deeper than two or three inches. Mr. Woods of Merton, than whom there is no better authority on such a subject, speaking of maize grown for ensilage, says : — • ' We selected a piece of land, valued some fifteen years ago at a rental of 28s. an acre, including tithes, on which in 1882 we grew a crop of mangold. In the middle of May we ploughed in some good farmyard manure — 15 loads to the acre. On the 28th we drilled in common flat maize, purchased in Watton market, at the rate of six pecks to the acre, with the rows twelve inches apart. The soil being very dry, a fortnight passed without the least sign of germination. But no sooner had the plant ap- peared above ground than the growth proceeded with marked rapidity. When cut for ensiling, on September 6, it had reached the height of from seven to nine feet. m a 164 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. 'Some years ago we grew a crop of maize on the Merton Home farm, which attained a height of five or six feet. Its weight was calculated at 10 tons per acre. I was told at the time that this was an under-estimated weight ; and it would now really seem to have been so. Last year's crop weighed no less than 28 tons to the acre. Much of this excess of weight may of course be attributed to the more vigorous growth of the plant, and to the greater height to which it attained. Some of the stems were as much as five inches in circumference. A point which re- quired some consideration on our part was how best to cut such a bulky crop in the field and carry it to the chaffing machine. We adopted a very simple plan. Men were employed to chop it with reap hooks as close down to the ground as possible ; and to facilitate carriage they were provided with cords about four feet in length, to each of which an iron ring is attached. The maize was laid across these cords in armfuls, as caught in falling, and the bundles were alternately reversed. This latter plan greatly aided the operation of the chaff-cutter, as the flaggy parts and the rough stems of the plant were well intermingled, ob- viating the cutting all at once of the stronger material, and equalising the distribution of the finer and coarser parts within the silo. We used one of Richmond and Chandler's ordinary two-knife cutters ; but removed ODe of the knives from the wheel, as we found the work to be much better done with a single knife. In filling the silo we took into account the nature of the material, and em- ployed extra treaders and rammers, so as to ensure its being compactly stored. The silo was filled and closed the same day, and covered and weighted. When the silo was opened the contents were found to be perfectly cool, PKOFITABLE CBOPS NOT USUALLY GEOWN. 165 and so far as we could judge they had been ab no time subject to any great amount of heat. , Along the side of the ensilage, at the top of the silo, in the form of a tri- angular band, was a portion which had become mouldy ; but this deterioration was very slight indeed, the band being only 3 in. by 3 in. It is also a noteworthy fact that whenever we have cut out a fresh section of the en- silage, which we have done about once a fortnight, the exposed surface has not shown the least indication of decay, and the quality of the bulk has been sound through- out. Owing to the undoubted modification of the con- stituents of the maize, due to the action of the silo, the woody fibre of the stems and knots was wholly changed in character, and could be easily pressed in pieces with thumb and finger. This I regard as an interesting fact when taken in connection with a trial of feeding cows on green maize chaff which was made at Merton some years ago. The cows at first ate this chaff very unwillingly, and when they had become accustomed to it they suffered in a par- ticular way, which I ascribed to " the indigestible nature of the woody fibre forming the outer rind of the stalks." This objectionable feature in maize is wholly removed by ensiling it.' Mr. Woods tried the value of maize as ensilage against swedes, and gives his opinion as follows : — ' Although I should not for a moment,' he says, ' think of recommending the superseding of turnips, swedes, or mangold by maize, it may nevertheless be instructive and interesting if I just mention the result of a trial we have made as to the relative value of a crop of swedes and a crop of maize, grown side by side on the same land and treated precisely alike. Alter being topped and tailed 166 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. ready for consumption, the swedes were weighed and gave 18 tons to the acre. We put their value at 15s. per ton, which would be 131. 10s. for the acre. The cost of culti- vating, manuring,. and preparing for stock, with rent and tithe, was 81. 19s. 3d., which leaves us a nett balance of 4sl. 10s. 9d. On the other hand, an acre of the maize cut green weighed 28 tons, and produced 26 tons of ensilage, which, at one-third the Value of hay, would represent a money value of 34Z. 13s. 4d. Deducting 14Z. 3s. lOd. on account of all incidental charges, we have a nett return of 20Z. 9s. 6d., thus showing the large balance of 151. 18s. 9d. per acre in favour of the ensiled maize as against the swedes.' Mustarrd. — There are two sorts adapted to field culture : Sinapis alba, the white mustard, and Sinapis nigra, black mustard. Both are annuals ; the former flowers in June, and ripens seed in July, the latter is earlier. Mustard is rather an exhausting crop, but with land in good heart it is very profitable, as it comes off early enough for a second crop of something else the same year. Black mustard is the mustard of commerce : the seed is generally sown broad- cast, twenty pounds per acre ; the yield from three to four quarters ; the price varies considerably. Rape is one of the Brassica tribe, Brassica Napus, a biennial plant of a turnip-like character. Its leaves form good sheep food, and the seed is used by the oil-cake manufacturers. It thrives best in a deep rich and rather dry soil, but with good cultivation it may be made to grow anywhere. It is cultivated as the turnip, to be fed off with cattle on the land, or if left for seed and the season be favourable, from forty to fifty bushels and more per acre can be secured. Seeding the land costs very PROFITABLE CEOPS NOT USUALLY GEO WN. 167 little ; 6 lbs.' of seed, at 4>d. per lb., sown broadcast, is quite sufficient. Saintfoin. — This is a perennial, and, on 'a dry deep calcareous soil, it is a most profitable crop. It may be treated and used as clover and other artificial grasses, and it has this great advantage, that it will continue in profit for feeding, hay, or seed from eight to ten years. It is far too little cultivated, even in those parts of the country where the chalky loam and light, sandy, gravelly soils are found for which it is so well suited. Arthur Young says of it : ' On soil proper for this grass no farmer can sow too much of it ; on poor light sandy soils there is no more pay- ing crop than saintfoin.' The seed should be sown early in spring — broadcast, about four bushels to the acre. The best practice is to feed and not mow the first year. Spurrey (Spergula arvensis). — This is another plant that poor land farmers will find very profitable, for, either as fresh fodder, hay, or ensilage, it is a most nutritious food for all sorts of stock. The growth is so rapid that seed may be sown and the crop cut in eight or nine weeks in spring or autumn: cows and sheep are especially fond of it. Accord- ing to Von Thaer, the milk of the former is enriched by it, and the mutton is preferable to that of sheep fed on turnips. It has been tried for ensilage, and with the most satisfactory results. Mr. Woods sums up his account thus : ' Seed costs 45s. per cwt., which is at the rate of 5s. lOdL per acre ; and the total expenditure per acre on account of seed, culti- vating, ensiling, and other expenses, amounts to 21. 8s. 6d. In its natural state the spurrey weighed five and a quarter tons, and when ensiled five tons per acre, valued as against i.ay at 41. per ton — i.e. at one-third the value of the hay, the .spurrey was worth 61. 13s. 4by Mr. Stratton: ' 1. More profitable. ' 2. Far less risky, being virtually rain-proof. ' 3. Being generally a new crop, it is an entire change for the land, and therefore desirable. ' 4. However strong the land may be, flax will not lodge ; seriously, unless pulled down by bind weeds ; so that on land where barley would certainly be too heavy, flax may be grown without any danger of that kind. ' 5. Birds do not touch it at planting time, though, when ripe, finches are fond of it. '6. It may be planted later than spring corn, thus affording time to clean the land. ' 7. It may be grown on land that cannot be depended upon to produce malting barley. 192 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. ' 8. I believe it is practically proof against wire worm. ' 9. Rabbits and hares do not eat it, though they will occasionally cut roads through it.' We have quoted largely from Mr. Stratton, for he is an authority on the subject that may safely be relied upon ; but we have by no means exhausted the interest of his paper, which should be carefully studied by all landlords as well as tenants interested in the profitable cultivation of the soil. As before stated, there is no difficulty in finding a ready market for linseed anywhere ; and if farmers are desirous to benefit by this new industry, let them inquire at the different paper mills in their neighbourhood whether flax straw will be taken, and at what price per ton : at 41. 10s., or anything over this, it will give them a much larger profit than they can get from corn. However largely the cultivation of flax is extended, there is no fear that we shall grow too much of it and lower its price by over-production. Beyond what the paper mills may re- quire, there is the large sum of eight or nine millions of pounds paid by the linen and linen yarn mills for fibre which our farmers can grow quite as well as the foreigners, who now reap all the profit. At the present time, accord- ing to the ' Agricultural Returns, 5 there are not quite 9,000 acres of land under cultivation of flax in England, Wales, and Scotland. Mr. Stratton concludes his most valuable paper by saying, ' I contribute this paper in the earnest hope and sincere conviction that British farmers and manufacturers of linen and paper should turn their serious attention to the production of flax in this country, and that by so doing the restoration of agricultural prosperity would be considerably assisted.' Let any farmer, large or small, who is assured of his market, give up to flax one FLAX GROWING-. 193 fourth of the acreage which he would otherwise devote to wheat. By this means he will not only secure on that portion of his farm a much larger return, but from the longer interval in cropping, he will, without doubt, increase his yield when the flax land next comes for wheat. Much of the diminished yield of wheat, of which there is so great complaint at the present time, is to be attributed to the too rapid succession of that crop on the four-course system. - Every farmer knows, or ought to know, the capabilities of his own land best, and act accordingly. The following rotation may, we think, in most cases very profitably be used. Turnips, fed off upon the land ; flax ; barley, with seeds as recommended by Sutton and Sons, of Beading, for three years' lay ; wheat. This rotation gives wheat every seven years, and the prospect, we may say the certainty, of a larger yield of wheat than upon a four-course shift — which must compensate in some degree for diminished prices. 194 HOW TO MAirT: THE LAND PAY. CHAPTER XX. ENSILAGE. The method of converting grass and other green crops into a highly nutritions and valuable food, under the name of ensilage or silage, has recently been introduced into this country, and bids fair to supply a want long felt by the English farmers. It is often a very difficult matter, and especially so in wet seasons, to secure a crop of hay of such quality that farm cattle can feed upon it with benefit, and what is not needed for consumption can be sold at a profit. Mouldy hay, as everyone knows, is very injurious to all stock — a sure cause of disease with horses — and even, if not mouldy, inferior or badly fermented hay is wasteful, for cattle generally reject it and tread it under foot. The waste of grass made into hay in wet seasons, and consequent loss to the farmer, is enormous. The uncertainty and anxiety attending haymaking in England has long been proverbially known as hay-fever, which periodically attacks everyone whose livelihood is in any way dependent upon this occupation. Whatever, therefore, offers a remedy for this evil, and renders grass farmers independent of the weather in such cases, cannot but be regarded as a great benefit, a source of relief and profit peculiarly grateful in times of distress. s ENSILAGE. 195 In Holland and Germany ensilage Las been practised for many years. The Germans, as all travellers know, feed themselves on green vegetables converted by fermen- tation into what is called sour-kraut, and it is by a some- what similar process of fermentation that this most valuable food for cattle is made of grasses and other crops cut in a green or growing state. Mr. Henry Woods, the inde- fatigable steward of Lord Walsingham of Merton Hall, Norfolk, and other eminent agriculturists, have done much to make the process known. Mr. Woods, in an admirable lecture which he delivered on the subject before H.E.H. the Prince of Wales at South Kensington, expressed the opinion that ' the silo is destined to become a most important factor in British agriculture,' an opinion which is being rapidly verified ; among others, Lord Tollemache has taken up the matter warmly in the interest of his tenantry in Cheshire. At Pickforton Castle he has erected several large silos for the preservation and storage of grasses on farms in his own occupation, and, having proved in his own case the great benefit of ensilage as food for stock of all sorts, he has made a liberal offer to construct silos for all his tenantry who are willing to pay 5 per cent, interest upon the outlay, which offer has been very generally accepted. Silos are by no means expensive structures. ' Though silos may vary in their form and character,' says Mr. Woods, ' according to the circumstances of particular farms, there is no occasion to lay out large sums upon them. A simple oblong structure, thoroughly air-tight and water-tight, is all that science requires for the success- ful storage of ensiled fodder.' There are variations in detail in the making of ensilage, but the usual process with materials ordinarily used is this : o 2 196 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAT. The crop, whatever it may be, meadow grass, artificial grasses, green oats, spurrey, maize, &c, is mown in the usual way, and, without regard to weather, carted at once to the silos in which it is to be packed. This is an enclosure of four sound walls of brick or other material, the most eligible situation being the inside a large barn. Crops such as oats and maize that have much substance in them must be chaffed by passing through a cutting engine before they are put into the silo, but with more tender substances this process, though strongly recommended, may be omitted, as they admit of close packing without it. The material, whether chaffed or not, is packed into the silo in layers, each layer being well trodden down or rammed with weighted wooden rammers, especially at the sides and corners of the building, and over each ton of material so packed, about 15 lbs. to 20 lbs. of salt should be sprinkled. When a silo has been filled and thoroughly trodden down, the top must be boarded over, covered with a thick layer of bran or sawdust, and weighted heavily. As fermentation begins at once, a considerable sinking of the mass will be found after a few days, when the silo must be opened, filled up, and covered in again as before. To obviate the inconvenience and also the danger of letting in the outer air by uncovering, Mr. Woods has introduced into the Merton silos a most ingenious contrivance which, as the merit of it belongs to him, we will describe in his own words. ' This contrivance,' says Mr. Woods, ' is what I may describe as a super-silo, an oblong box of the shape and size of the silo of two-inch deal thirty inches deep and without bottom or lid. The sides and ends, which are in separate pieces, are of proper length to enable them to be fitted by ordinary bolts and clamps to the wooden coping ENSILAGE. 197 of the walls of the silo proper, the sides being strengthened against lateral pressure by a few iron struts. This simple arrangement may be adjusted in about twenty minutes, and, what is most important, during the time the work of filling may go on. When we have filled to the top of the super-silo with chaffed material thoroughly well trodden down, then,' says Mr. Woods, ' we put on a cover of cross- tied boards in three divisions and spread over them a layer of bran about five inches deep — bran being the most cleanly and useful of all air excludents, and weight them.' The proportion of weight advocated is about 70 lbs. to the square superficial foot, and it is applied easily in this way. A number of boxes are filled with stones carefully sifted. The boxes are uniform in size, 24 inches by 10 inches and 18 inches deep, holding about 2 cwt. of stones each. Bach box is provided with an iron rod or handle, by means of which it can be attached to a pulley and raised easily into its proper position.' Mr. Woods' super- silo so weighted will have settled down to the level of the silo proper after a few days, when the covering will be allowed to remain undisturbed, and the boards, of the super-silo may be removed. Though but a very short time has elapsed since the first silo was set to work in this country at Merton Hall, the making of ensilage has spread with such amazing rapidity that there is no part of the country in which it is not being carried out. All who have made trial of it have acknowledged the benefit. The practice is not always the same. Silos are not in all cases constructed on a uniform plan, nor are they worked in a uniform method. One general principle, however, pervades all these constructions — they must be so arranged as to ensure a gradual but 198 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. thorough fermentation of the materials used, and the com- plete exclusion of all outer air. Large barns, of which there are several on almost every estate, useless for present farming purposes, can readily be made available for silos. The most inexpensive and stoutest material is clay lump, after the Suffolk fashion. Three silos capable of holding about 28 tons each have been built of these lumps on the Merton estate at the cost for material and labour of 61. each silo. "With regard to the beneficial effects of the process, we cannot do better than quote the opinion of the well-known analytical chemist, Mr. Francis Sutton, of Norwich. He describes it as a 'partial digestion.' The woody fibres being softened, the changed condition of the plants renders the food more easy of assimilation. It is, in fact, more nutritious than the fresh grasses ; with less stimulation of the gastric juices there is less demand upon the constitu- tion, and therefore, less detraction from the benefit derived. The green material put into a well-appointed silo continues in a fresh and wholesome state, and is subject to slower changes than occur in the field. So long as active oxygen, or in other words atmospheric air, is kept out, decay will not take place, and without decay there is no deterioration. By the application of sufficient pressure the air is in the first instance expelled, and it is subsequently kept from permeating the mass by the slow but constant evolution of carbonic acid gas. Low temperature, of course, is of im- portance. If the process is to produce its full beneficial effects it is obvious that care will be required in its man- agement.' Where is care not needed, if anything is to be well done? The chances of success, however, between good ENSILAGE. 199 hay and good ensilage are all confessedly in favour of the latter. This process also enables the farmer to turn to a good account herbage which hitherto has been deemed worthless. Not only good and useful produce, such as meadow and upland grasses, clovers, oats, maize, and buckwheat cut green, &c, can be profitably ensiled, but the coarse grasses in drift ways, woods, and hedges may be turned to a good account and made into nourishing food. Mr. Woods, after remarking that of late years many poor, cold, and damp clay lands have gone out of cultivation through the difficulty of finding tenants to take them, continues : — ' In these instances the land has not been sown with grass seeds, but has fallen into a condition which is the inevitable result of that kind of loose cultivation and management to which men are compelled to resort who find their capital diminishing. Common couch and other coarse grasses having got the lead, it would cost a small fortune to clean these soils and render them fit to grow corn, or to properly lay them down to grass. But the silo will convert these coarse grasses into useful cattle fodder, and give some return, even though the cultivation is re- stricted to the stubbing up of thistles and obnoxious weeds. Of course,' adds Mr. Woods, 'I do not for a moment suggest that ensilage of such grasses will equal in value that of grasses of finer quality ; but it is not too much to assert that even common and ordinarily worthless grasses become in a degree more valuable through the change which they undergo in the silo.' The silo consequently prevents waste, which is one main cause of agricultural distress. The land in England does not produce its proper supply of food for man and beast, and very much of what 200 HOW TO MATH? THE LAND PAY. it does produce is wasted. Another great advantage of ensilage is that it can be made in small quantities as well as large — of quality quite as good in an 18-gallon cask as in a large and expensive silo. Old wine and sugar hogs- heads would seem very suitable for the purpose, for by means of them small farmers could utilise all their spare green stuff — much that is now wasted — and either use it for stock-feeding themselves during the winter months together with their root-crops, or sell it and send it by rail or road to town dairies, where food is always in demand. Without cutting their good grasses, which in favourable seasons may perhaps be more profitably made into hay, small farmers may be able to collect a sufficiency of the coarser grasses to fill during the season several of such casks in succession, and so convert the contents into en- silage. Mr. Baker, of Hargrave Manor, Kimbolton, tells us that he has used paraffin casks for the purpose, having first cleansed them by burning a wisp of straw inside after the head has been removed. These casks are generally air-tight and very cheap. Care, however, must be taken in cleansing them ; as soon as the flames become so fierce that the wood is in danger, the casks must be turned with their faces to the ground to extinguish them. It may be well to give Mr. Baker's description of his method in his own words : — ' To fill the casks,' writes Mr. Baker, ' I throw in clover by handfuls, ramming it down. The heads of the casks are not replaced, but the clover is weighed down with lumps of iron about 2 cwt. to each cask. In the course of a few days the clover settles down very much, and owing to the bulge of the casks a space is left at the sides wide enough to admit the hand. This space is ENSILAGE. 201 filled with sawdust in order to exclude the air. After a few weeks, when the mass has finally settled down, the weights are removed, and three or four inches of sawdust spread over the top of each cask, and upon the sawdust about the same thickness of sand.' Upon this part of the subject, viz. cask-made ensilage, Mr. Woods' experience and advice are far too valuable to be omitted : — ' For the sake of farmers in the low -lying Fen lands of Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, and elsewhere, I ought not to pass over a particular set of experiments on which we entered with the object of ascertaining if it were not possible to turn to better account than at present the rich crops of brank, Italian rye grass, and similar fodder grown on such lands. What an advantage it would be if from these sources we could provide the cowkeepers of London and the large towns with the means of providing grass- milk and butter during the winter season ! There is no reason why this should not be done. Two years ago we put a quantity of chaffed grass and other material into casks, ramming it down compactly, and weighting it and covering it with bran, as in the silos. The result was so satisfactory that last year we extended the experiment, using casks of various sizes. The ensiled material con- sisted of maize, oats, brank, spurrey, and common grass. The casks were filled at different times between July and September ; an operation easily, economically, and expe- ditiously performed. When opened in the present year the contents were found to be sound and good. Where railway facilities exist it may be possible to develop a profitable trade in cask-made ensilage. If it pays the Great Eastern Eailway Company to convey sea water in 202 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. small casks at a nominal charge merely for domestic pur- poses, surely this and other companies [would willingly carry and deliver these ensilage casks to cowkeepers at a reasonable rate. Ensilage thus made and stored would also be an undoubted boon on board steamships carrying cows for the production of milk during a voyage. A 60- gallon cask, such as we used amongst others at Merton, will contain 31 stone of ensilage, or a quantity sufficient, with a little hay or hay chaff and maize meal, to feed a cow nine or ten days, and the animal would require much less water than when fed on dry food — a most important consideration on board a ship. Of course care must be taken that the cask is air-tight. This may be secured by bring- ing a hanging-lid and clasp-fastening into use immediately after compression, whatever mechanical appliances may be used in subjecting the contents to the necessary pressure. There is, therefore, no doubt that on well-conducted principles, with the aid of artificial pressure, crops may be ensiled in casks available for the use of cowkeepers resident in large towns.' Not only could our farmers, if they would study self-interest and take some trouble about the matter, develop a profitable trade with cowkeepers in our large cities and towns, but every horsekeeper throughout the kingdom would find it to his interest to become a purchaser of ensilage. The trials that have already been made with ensilage as horse food are quite enough to establish its value, and if sufficient supplies in casks or some other convenient form can be procured, there is little doubt that a large and increasing consumptive demand will be called forth. It should never be forgotten that as much with articles of food as with other things, supply and demand ENSILAGE. 203 should be looked upon as correlatives — supply quickens de- mand, quite as readily as demand creates a supply. From the accounts we have received it would appear that ensilage is not made to supersede hay as horse food, but that a certain amount of ensilage is given daily with chaff to farm horses and also to carriage horses, with great benefit to their condition. This appears to be the practice of Lord Tollemache, Mr. Woods, and many others. It has already been stated that wherever there is a barn or other building that can be utilised for the purpose, a silo to hold about 28 tons, provided clay lumps are used instead of brick, can be built at a total cost of 61. Let us now take into consideration the cost of making ensilage as compared with making hay, and the value of the crop when made of the same material in each case. Mr. E. Blunt's account is this : — ' Five acres of an average crop of clover will produce forty tons of ensilage or ten tons of hay. The cost of making, stacking, and thatching the hay will be 15s. per acre. Taking the value of the hay at 4Z. per ton, the value of the hay crop, deducting expenses, would be 361. 5s. The cost of making ensilage, including a fair charge for use and depreciation of silo, is found to be 4s. 6d. per ton or 91. Adding therefore this sum of 91. to the value of the crop of hay (361. 5s.), you have,' says Mr. Blunt, ' 45L 5s. as the value of the forty tons of ensilage, comparing it with hay at 41. per ton.' This shows a large balance in favour of the ensilage, quantity and feeding quality being taken into the account. 204 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTER XXI. BEE-KEEPING. It is generally admitted that this branch of rural industry, considered so important in many countries abroad, is too little attended to in our own, and yet there is no part of the world where it can be more profitably carried out. With us, flowers in rich luxuriance abound everywhere. They are to be seen in highly cultivated gardens from earliest spring to latest autumn : our wood- lands, heaths, and hedgerows are also rich in wildflowers : water is plentiful in ponds and brooks and rivers, even in the driest seasons, so that there is hardly any limit to the extent to which bee-keeping might be taken in hand. Some efforts have been made of late to awaken attention to this profitable employment, but the quantity of foreign honey imported, as well as of foreign wax, amounting in money value by the last Custom House returns — the former to 62,359Z., and the latter- to 91,142Z., shows too plainly the gain made by foreigners, and the loss to our own people from want of attention to this one industry. Our small farmers, as a rule, pay no regard to bee-keeping, and yet the crop is one that pays well ; it is all profit, for the bees themselves do all the work : they require only to be housed, and occasionally attended to. We may see now and then in a cottager's garden two or three hives of bees ; BEE-KEEPING. 205 but in a journey of many miles through the most inviting districts, we shall hardly meet with a single garden where bees are kept in any quantity, or managed on any system likely to make them answer. This is not the case on the Continent. We have seen hives without number in out-of- the-way parts in the Austrian Tyrol, and elsewhere. Germany, Southern Russia, and Poland, all profit by bee- keeping. Poland especially so. In Poland, the small farmers and small landed proprietors turn bee-farming to a most profitable account, possessing as some of them do from 100 to 10,000 hives, and collecting on these larger farms, as we have heard, some 200 barrels of honey of 500 lbs. each, besides wax. Now why should the British farmer be so far behind the farmers of other countries in this matter ? Bee-keepers in Poland follow this plan. They use no other material than wood for the construction of their hive : boards of oak or pine one and a half inch thick, and thoroughly seasoned, are joined closely with wooden nails or pegs. These hives are from 3 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. in height, and conical in shape, 8 inches in diameter at the top, and 20 inches at the base, increasing at the bottom 2 inches for every half foot beyond the minimum of 3^ feet. The top of the hive is a round lid, let in about an inch deep, with a projecting coping, and a handle to raise it where necessary. The upper part of every hive is firmly and closely corded round with rope the thickness of the finger, which renders it impervious to rain and weather. A triangular opening, about 6 inches from the bottom, admits the bees, and a door at the back of the hive 18 inches long permits the keeper to inspect the hive and remove the honey. The top of each hive is covered with a large clay pan. 206 HOW TO MATTR THE LAND PAY. In all farms in Poland there will be found an orchard generally sheltered from the north by the farm buildings, or forest trees, and a portion of this orchard is used as the bee-garden. "When the larger landed proprietors go in for bee-keeping, the position selected for the apiary is often at the foot of some hill on the borders of a forest, the space of ground being inclosed with a wooden fence some six feet high. Within this enclosure, such hives as we have described are set in rows, in quincunx fashion, 5 feet apart. The turf is pared off for 2 feet from each hive, and the surface strewed with sand, clean moss being placed round the bottom of each. The enclosure, if possible, is selected with a south-east slope. When the time for the honey harvest has arrived, which must always be early enough to leave the bees time to get a fresh supply for their own winter support, a new hive is provided for each colony of bees, and in the evening, when the bees are all at home, the new hive being smeared with honey, the bottoms of both are opened and joined together, and as the hives are all made to a scale, and fit close, not a bee can escape. Smoke is then introduced at the top of the old hive, and by this means the bees are driven into the new hive and secured, so as to be set again in their proper standing places. The honey extracted thus is of two qualities ; that from the early spring and summer flowers is of a light colour, that from the later flowers is of a darker hue ; these two are kept separate, as the darker honey is considered the richest and commands the highest price ; the wax is prepared by bleaching, and there is a good demand for it for candles for the churches, &c. Poland, by all accounts, has honey enough for its own people and a great deal to spare. Where it all goes to, BEE-KEEPING. 207 we have no means of ascertaining, but we do know from our own Import Statistics that Poland last year received of our people a large sum for honey and wax. Take another case : across the broad Atlantic, but not many days distant from our own shores, lies the island of Cuba, 'the queen of the Antilles,' as she is called. This island is in area about one-sixth less than England, yet so great is its produce of honey, that above what is consumed in the island, honey and wax to the value of 130,0002. have been exported in one year. It must be borne in mind that bee-farming has one great advantage over every other kind of stock-keeping. Whatever profit is derived from bees is gained with scarcely any outlay of capital, and with the smallest possible expenditure of time and trouble. Chickens, pigeons, rabbits, pigs, &c. &c, all require a daily outlay for food of some kind, as well as to be provided with houses to live in. Bees want nothing but hives : give them these, and they will find their own food ; and as long as they are managed kindly and r properly, they will also store up a large surplus, which we may take for our own use, and if we choose, turn into money. Year after year, the same work on their part will go on, as indus- triously and cheerfully as if all the profit belonged to themselves, unless we follow the foolish plan of destroying these industrious workers, in order to rob them of the small share of honey which they require for their own support in winter. Most persons have heard of, and many no doubt have read, a little book by Mr. J. W. Pagden, ' Seventy Pounds a Tear : how I Make it by my Bees.' The experience of almost everyone who has kept only a few hives on any of the depriving systems in use in our own country, of which 208 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. we shall presently have to speak, will readily confirm what Mr. Pagden says.. We keep three or four hives for the supply of our own table, and from four small supers, last year, we took 32 lbs. of beautiful virgin honey, leaving the bees for their own use during winter all the honey they had collected in their four skeps. These four hives then gave a profit of from 20s. to 30s., for the honey could have sold at that price. From five to ten shillings a hive, according to the season, is a fair average of yearly profit, where the bees are all preserved to work again another season. To destroy the bees, as is too often done, is both wicked and wasteful, and ought not to be tolerated in any civilised part of the world. We have spoken of the system of bee-keeping generally adopted in Poland, and we believe also that in Southern Russia somewhat the same plan is adopted, and we desire now to call attention to the improved systems which have of late years been making some progress, though at present a very slow one, among our own people. With us, there may be said to be three prominent systems for the manage- ment of bees. We mean, of course, systems of management whereby these industrious little creatures may be deprived of their surplus honey and wax, and themselves saved from destruction. The first is the super-hive system, which consists of placing boxes, or small hives or glasses, as may be preferred, on the top of stock hives ; the second is the collateral system, wherein the boxes or small hives are placed at the side of the stock hives ; and the third is that now generally known as the bar-frame system, which con- sists in fitting the hives, or supers, or side-hives, as the case may be, with movable bars, so arranged that layers of comb can be suspended from them, and when filled with BEE-KEEPING. 209 honey one or more bars can be removed and empty- bars put in place of these to be filled with comb and honey- in the same way. Now all these improved systems are based upon the importance of lowering the temperature of stock hives by giving room, either by supers, or side-hives, or removing bars, and in this way increasing the amount of honey, and diminishing the natural tendency of bees to swarm. The merits of these three systems have of late been fully set forth by their respective advocates ; all of them are found to answer, and as every one of them cer- tainly answers the humane end and object of profit, which we have in view, it hardly comes within our province to give a preference to any. All the best hives adapted to these different systems will be found at Messrs. Neighbour and Sons,' in Regent Street, London. The cheapest and most simple form is the Straw super-hive : which is the hive we have in use. It consists of three parts and a floor board. The largest hive is the stock hive, the one standing upon that is the super, for depriving purposes, and the third is a straw top for protection from the weather. Glass supers can be used with these hives, and large glasses filled with virgin honey can be sold readily at a very high price. The second system is the collateral, or, as it is some- times called, Mr. Nutt's system. Under this arrangement three wooden hives or square boxes are placed side by side, communicating with each other by apertures which can be opened or shut by means of a tin slide. The bees are placed first in the centre box, and when this is filled with comb and honey (which is allowed to remain for the use of the bees), first one side-hive is opened for them and then the other, and as these are filled, they are taken p 210 HOW TO MATTE THE LAND PAY. away, cleared of honey and wax for sale or nse, and then put back again to be refilled. By means of a ventilator these side-boxes can be kept at a temperature below the generative heat, consequently no bees are bred in them, the queen being always in the centre hive. Bees are easily managed on this system, but there is one objection to the hive — the stock hives and depriving hives being in a line, far more standing room and covering are required than when these are placed one upon the other. The third, or bar-frame system, which is the most recent invention, is generally now preferred. The advantages are, first, a greater facility in taking the honey ; secondly, when bees are not rich enough to spare a whole box, just one or two bars, as they can spare the honey, may be taken from them ; and thirdly, when hives are found to be of unequal strength for winter supply, provided the boxes and bars, as they should all be, are reciprocally adapted to each other, one or more bars can be removed from a strong hive and given to hives not so well provided. The bar- frame hives are best made square in shape, of wood only, or wood and straw. Those who adopt this system will find it desirable to have all their hives and all the bar fittings of their hives made to one scale. To start a bar- frame hive with a new swarm, the following plan may be adopted. Eemove all the bar frames from a stock box, and place the box on a floor board near where the swarm of bees has settled ; hive the bees in a common skep, and then tumble them out at once into the empty stock box on the floor board, and immediately slide over them another stock box (properly prepared for the reception of the bees by having small pieces of guide comb fixed to the bars), raising the front of the lower box half an inch from the BEE-KEEPING. 211. floor board with a wedge or stone. Fix a crown board on the top of the bar frames at once, and in about fifteen or twenty minutes remove the hive to its permanent stand. Take away the empty bottom hive in the morning or when most convenient. Let the newly-hived swarm work until the stock box is nearly full. Then was the bars, or fix in a proper position on them small pieces of guide comb, in one of the honey boxes or supers, set this over the stock box, and draw out the slides from the crown board. If the season be favourable, the bees will soon take possession of the honey box and fill it, perhaps, in ten days. Honey should not be removed, however, until the combs near the glass window are sealed. The taking of this is a very easy operation. On a sunny day, when most of the bees are out working, draw one of the top slides on the honey box and give two or three whiffs of tobacco smoke ; this will cause any bees that remain to retreat into the stock hive. Insert at once the crown-board slides, then gently lift the top hive full of honey, carry it a short distance and put on another empty honey box in its place, and again remove the crown-board slides. Keep any bees there may be confined in the honey box for half an hour, then raise the box and they will fly back to the old hive ; if not, repeat the operation until all have left. We have thus given a sketch of the three systems which seem in favour with the few persons who keep bees in England, and we would strongly advise any who wish to begin the industry to study well the third system them- selves. All three systems are put forth in direct opposi- tion to the old-fashioned skeps, which they meet on their own ground, and which they have beaten at all points as to humanity, convenience, comfort for the bees, and profit p 2 212 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. for their owners. With, regard to square box-hives, nothing more is required to make them perfect than what every- one can give them. In sunny weather they mnst be shaded, and in winter they mnst have some additional protection — old sacking or a few haybands can be bound ronnd them, as is frequently done in the case of straw skeps. Groggan's felt is an inexpensive and serviceable covering for such hives. Whichever of these three sys- tems of depriving be adopted, it will be found of the greatest advantage in point of economy to have all the hives in use made of the same dimensions, and all bars and boards, &c, in the case of bar-frame hives, made on the same scale. We repeat our conviction that those who make trial of the third system will have every reason to be satisfied. The system is so easily carried out. In taking the honey from the combs there is a little machine called the ' honey extractor.' By means of it centrifugal force being applied, all the honey can be dislodged from the different bars, and the comb left so clean and in such perfect order that it can be used again, thus saving the bees a great waste of labour. There are also many other useful contrivances to facilitate the keeping of bees on the humane systems which need not be dwelt upon here, as they will be found fully explained in Mr. Neighbour's catalogues, and in that most useful pubKcation, the ' Bee- keeper's Journal.' Before closing these remarks, it may be well to answer a very common objection that appears to lie against bee-keeping, and more than anything else to interfere with the general practice of it. Nature has armed these little insects, with the exception of the drones, with a weapon defensive and offensive also, in the shape of a sting, and because they can sting, too many persons BEE-KEEPING. 213 take it for granted that they must do so. The fact is, that those who keep bees and have most to do with them are rarely, if ever, stung. They are naturally quiet and in- offensive, and only put forth their stings under excitement. Confidence and gentleness are the secret of success in dealing with them. I have seen a cottager's wife fresh from the washtub, .without any protection for her bare arms, head, and neck, hive a swarm of bees and stand quietly in the midst of them to ascertain whether the queen were secured. Pew things tend more to irritate bees than breathing upon them. The operator should avoid this as much as possible. Tobacco smoke is the best means of keeping bees quiet. But all operations with bees can be most safely performed with a bee-dress. There are dresses sold on purpose at a cheap rate ; but all that is really re- quisite is something to protect the face, the neck, and the hands. Woollen and thick leather gloves tied round the wrists will do the latter, while a perfectly efficient head- dress can be made to protect the head and neck out of the skirt of an old thin muslin or net dress, which should be fashioned like a Garibaldi shirt, the neck being large enough to fasten round a stiff broad-brimmed hat by means of an elastic cord, inserted in the collar band. Who will think anything about the sting of a bee, which a dabbing with hartshorn will cure at once, and which may never take place, when he remembers that the profits of bees may be made to pay the whole rental of a small farm — that half-an-acre of land is more than enough for the standing room of hives that shall yield a clear profit of 70L a year ? 214 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. CHAPTER XXII. FISH FAKMDfG. It may be asked, what can fish farming have to do with the subjects dealt with in the present volume — with industries connected with the land and its cultivation ? The answer must be, nothing certainly with those industries themselves ; but much, very much, of interest to some few of those whose chief employment might be with the land, and who would have time and taste for this additional occupation. There are in different parts of this country, as on the Con- tinent, many small farms by the side of rivers, and especially in the Lake districts and in Wales, where every facility is afforded for the hatching and rearing of fish : and there seems no reason why the occupiers of some of these farms so situated should not turn their attention to the breeding and hatching of fish, as well as to the hatching and rearing of poultry. Of course it is not everyone who has an aptness for such an employment, but for those who have this par- ticular industry will be found to yield a very considerable profit upon a comparatively small outlay. We have watched the process both in this country and abroad, and been surprised at the quantities of fish reared, and at the inexpensiveness of the process and of its appliances. The Fisheries Exhibitions held of late have made most persons acquainted with f the process; but in directing further FISH FAEMING. 215 attention to the subject we can hardly do better than quote at length a most interesting article which appeared in the Standard in April, 1884. The account given is of a very- large establishment involving a capital of some 12,000L, and calculated to yield twenty per cent, upon this outlay ; but it is not the less instructive because of its extent, for the same process can be followed on a much more limited scale with proportionate profit : — ' Artificial trout breeding is by no means a novelty. The late Mr. Frank BucMand, as also Mr. Francis Francis, worked at it more than twenty years ago. The Sunbury breeding-ponds were established for a specific purpose — that of attempting to restore the Thames to its traditional position of a trout and salmon river. The Stormontfield establishment was designed to strengthen the piscicultural resources of the Tay. Each of these schemes had a distinct purpose in view — that of aiding Nature's operations in particular waters. But the idea of establishing such a thing as a general fish farm, whereat ova, small fry, or store fish, as the case might be, should be bred as articles of commerce for export to all parts of the world, as well as for the home market, is a comparatively recent venture, and may be said to be, even at this date, more or less upon its trial as a subject for investment of capital. Pisciculture may be said to have received a new impetus through the national interest which has attached to the late Fisheries Exhibition ; and with this view we here relate the principal experiences and experiments of the Howietoun system, for the benefit of the country gentlemen who may be ambitious to breed trout for the supply of their own waters, or even for the public market. ' Howietoun commenced operations a decade ago, with 216 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. spawning about half a hundred fish. The stock fish for breeding now amount to more than forty thousand, and the " eyed ova " exported are in excess of six millions per annum, exclusive of some five hundred thousand small fry, also the annual produce of the farm. The entire establish- ment covers some eleven acres, the hatching-houses being a quarter of a mile distant from the ponds and feeding and' packing houses. The ponds which store the fry are outside the fenced enclosure, and are terraced one above the other, the turf between them being " kept " like a lawn. There are fourteen of them. Those of earlier construction are in the shape of the letter U, or of the two prongs of a tuning fork. The later ponds are simply rectangular. The original idea of the U-shaped ponds was that the channel of the " fine " stroke of the U should shelve gradually in depth, from two feet at the junction to a few inches at the upper end, so as to allow the weaker and smaller of the fry to escape from the stronger ones. But this precaution, which entailed considerably more expense of excavation than a plain rectangle, was found to be unnecessary, and need not be copied in any new estabUshment. Each pond has machinery for isolating it from the water supply, and for draining and emptying it separately from the others. The fry are fed with pounded horseflesh. The flesh is placed in a perforated zinc canister mounted on a long pole. This, when drawn by hand through the pond, dis- seminates tiny particles of flesh, of the size required for the fry to mouth. Three horses a week are the supply in the summer when the youngsters are well on the feed ! The fry in stock last summer were about two hundred thousand. This spring they will be " yearlings," and, as such, fit for sale to stock trout fisheries. FISH FARMING. 217 ' Adjoining these unfenced ponds is the fenced enclosure where are kept the stock fish for breeding, and where stand the spawning sheds and packing houses. At the north end lies the largest pond, with a summer-house in the centre. Here are kept the oldest fish, eight-year-olds, some three thousand in number. At right angles to them, four abreast, lie in terraces eight other ponds. Each of these contains stock fish of some particular year, and of some particular class. There are three classes of stock trout — the Salmo Levenensis (Loch Leven trout), the Salmo fa/rio (brown or brook trout), and Salmo fontinalis (char). Of the latter variety there are two sorts — the American and the Struan. In these ponds, which are ten feet deep, one square foot of surface is allowed for every fish twelve inches in length, or a quarter of a square foot of surface for every six-inch fish, and so on. These stock fish are fed with " clams," a coarse shell fish that is found in the Forth. During the months of July and August the clams are spawning, and while this state of things lasts the fish are supplied with mussels. When the fish are well on the feed, as in the summer months, the appearance of a human being on the turf by the side of the pond at once produces a rush of fish by hundreds in his direction. A swirling wave denotes their advent. A handful or two of clams thrown in will collect the inhabitants in still greater numbers, and then, as the basket is emptied by handfuls, the surface of the pond is churned up by a rush of fish, snapping at the morsels the instant that they reach the water, and turning somersaults as they dive down again. So ravenous are they, and so little fearless of man, that they will rush at a hand if it is placed in the water with food in it, and Will even snap the fingers and draw blood 218 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. in their confiding greed. While they congregate under the bank, a large landing-net thrust down deep and over the shoal will ladle out for inspection the best part of a hundredweight of fish, any one of which would make the mouth of an angler water. The water supply for these ponds is brought in a * lead ' from a neighbouring brook. In the bed of the lead, close to the enclosure, is a cavity, leading to a conduit tunnel. Over this cavity is laid a screen of perforated zinc, which bars the entrance of leaves, sticks, &c. The stream, in running over this screen, sends down as much water as the screen will admit, and the over- flow passes on down the channel of the burn. From this screened conduit there branch off other conduits to each pool. ' Following the course of the lead for a few hundred yards, we come to the hatching house, a large brick structure, built in and against the hillside, and partially underground. Here, in two floors, are laid the hatching boxes, two hundred and eighty in number, each capable of hatching fifteen thousand ova of S. fwrio or Levenensis or as many as thirty thousand Fontinales. The water supply is taken from springs in the hillside, and herein lies one of the most important secrets of pisciculture. Purity and absence of sediment are all-important in the water supply for hatching; equally important is it to secure an equal and normal temperature of flow. Spring water is purer and more equable in temperature than burn water. The springs, when struck in the hillside, are followed for some feet underground, and the cavity filled with stones. The various springs are then conducted, still underground, to a collecting cell, lined with Portland cement, and thence by faucit pipes, guarded by glazed spigots, to the conduits which lead the supply to the hatching troughs. The FISH FAKMING. 219 main desiderata in a hatchery are ventilation, light, and protection from frost. Smoking is not allowed on any account within the precincts ; the fumes are most pernicious to the vitality of the ova. The average supply of water required during incubation is not less than ten gallons per minute for every hundred thousand Loch Leven ova. Char (fontinales) ova will do with one-fourth of that amount ; while salmon ova require one-third more than Loch Leven. ' The hatching boxes are of wood, charred inside, the charcoal face of the wood acting as a disinfectant. Inside the boxes are placed glass " grilles," and on these, side by side, the ova are laid for incubation. Each batch of ova, when laid down in a hatching box, is entered in a book. The record states firstly, the class of ova; secondly, the number ; thirdly, the date of laying down ; fourthly, from week to week, or even from day to day, the " casualties," i.e., defunct ova, which are eliminated from the grilles ;. and fifthly, the date of hatching. The hatch of the thousands in a box takes place almost simultaneously. "Within twenty to thirty minutes a grille of " eyed " ova has been transformed into aleveies — from the moment of the appearance of the first youngster liberated from his cyst. " Aleveies " are simply a small fry that have not begun to feed. The umbilical sac has not yet been absorbed. When this process has been completed, the young fish, no longer obtaining nourishment from internal sources, begin to cater for themselves. Having so far described the apparatus, we may sketch the process of artificial spawning and of incubation. The spawning season is in November and December — sometimes even later: all fish are not ready to spawn at the same date. The water is run off from a pool, and the fish left with just sufficient depth to keep 220 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. them alive. They are then ladled out in a hand net, and carried to the spawning shed a few yards off. One pair of hands superintends all the actual spawning. It is not every hand that can handle a strong kicking fish without letting it fall, and at the same time without crushing it. To handle and nurse a grand fish, or even any stock fish, without injury, requires as much skill and patience as that of a nurse to a new-born baby. " Ripe " female fish are selected first, those that are not yet ready to spawn being returned to the water. A very few seconds suffice for a fish to be stripped of her ova, and she is then returned to the water. When a gallon of ova has been obtained thus, male fish are sought for. These are handled so as to " milt " them over the ova till there is a sufficient supply. Then the contents of the bucket are stirred by hand for a few seconds, until milt and roe are properly blended. In twenty minutes from this process a change has come over the ova. They become firm and gelatinous, and are ready for transfer to the glass grilles of the hatching-house. The ova of fish vary according to their age in size", e.g. the eggs of eight-year-old Loch Leven female trout will hardly run thirty thousand to the gallon ; while those of four-year-old fish run nearly fifty thousand to the gallon. The best results are obtained when the male fish is rather smaller than the female. With a normal temperature of 45° (Fahrenheit), the period of incubation will be seventy to eighty days. At the end of about six weeks, the ova begin to disclose the " eyes," two black spots, which eventually become the eyes of the aleveies when hatched. The boxes have to be daily watched, and all dead ova removed, lest " lymes," or fungus, should spread from them to those which retain vitality. FISH FARMING. 221 ' The principal business done in a. hatchery consists in the transfer of " eyed " ova that are within a few hours (a day or so) of being hatched to waters that require to be stocked. These ova are packed in boxes constructed to carry a series of trays one over the other. Moss is laid at the bottom of a tray, then a layer of swansdown, then of one thousand ova, then muslin. On the top of this a similar rotation of moss, swansdown, ova, and muslin, till there are three layers in each tray. For foreign transit the boxes are cooled with ice. For home transport ice is not required, unless the weather is too warm. Winter is the proper time for transport of ova. The eyed ova, on arriving at their destination, should be laid down in a carefully-constructed " redd," or spawning bed, over which a good supply of pure water should flow. Of these ova 99^ per cent, may be expected to hatch in a very few days, if the water is free from sediment, and if there is no frost to crush the eggs with coatings of ice. A good trade can also be done in the transport of partially-eyed ova ; these can be supplied from a hatchery at about half the cost of ova that are on the point of hatching. Of course, a larger mortality may be expected among such partially-eyed ova, for they are sooner removed from the personal superin- tendence of the original hatchery, and are, moreover, no longer supplied with perfectly pure spring water of the normal temperature of 45°. At the same time, since Sal/monidce do not all spawn at the same date, the clearance of a crop of eggs at an earlier date enables the fish-farmer to lay a second crop of ova down on the vacated grilles ; and thus to use the hatching trough twice over in a season. The ova that are hatched on the premises are transferred, by the time that they absorb the umbilical sac and cease 222 HOW TO MAKE THE LAUD PAY. to be " alveies," to the small fry ponds above described. These ponds are thirty feet by six feet in superficies, and contain about one hundred cubic yards of water. At first the customary stock for such a pond was the contents of three boxes— say forty-five thousand eggs, and of these, by the time that they became yearlings, for sale, and were in length some four-and-a-half inches, about fifteen thousand would be alive. It has now been found that this supply was rather an overstocking of the water, and that the same results might be obtained by putting in the hatched con- tents of only one-and-a-half boxes to each such pond. The supply of horse flesh for the fry, when they are well grown and on the feed, is about two pounds per diem for every six hundred fish. The young fry will not bear much handling. A very slight injury superinduces a fungoid growth. When they are sold they are best transferred in lots of about fifteen thousand, as estimated from the produce of hatching boxes, with a liberal allowance for casualties en route. The fish are sent in forty-gallon zinc tanks, into which they are poured from the rearing-boxes. When they are once turned into the ponds of a breeding establishment they are best left there to grow until they reach the yearling stage. February, March, and April are the months for transport of fry (just after they have been hatched) ; for " partially-eyed " ova the months for trans- port are from November to the end of February. Yearlings can be moved in any of the cold months, from the begin- ing of November to the end of March, under ordinary circumstances of weather. As illustrative of the profits which future fish farmers may expect to make, we may mention that " partially-eyed " ova command per 100,000 the following prices : — Fontindks 601., Levenensis and Fario FISH FARMING. 223 45L each ; and these prices are nett, and not inclusive of cost of transport and of an attendant to accompany the cargoes. If ova are sold in smaller lots— say of 15,000 at a time — prices are 10 per cent, higher; while sample lots of 1,000 at a time are 50 per cent, higher still. Pry are usually sold in lots of 5,000, for which Fontinales com- mand 71. 10s., and Levenensis and Fario 5L each. " Sample " tanks of the same contain only 1,000, and are at double the price. "Yearlings " fetch 151. per 1,000 for Fontinales, and 101. per 1,000 for Fario and Levenensis ; samples of 100 at a time, double those prices. Two-year- old fish fetch 100Z. per 1,000 ; but only millionaires can afford to be so impatient that they must needs import fish fit for the table. ' These figures, like the market returns of grain to a farmer of cereals, show the prices to be obtained for pro- duce ; but they by no means disclose the full profits to be made by fish farming. Howietoun breeds only for sale for stocking waters, and not for table supply ; but any fish- breeder who would add large " stews " to his establish- ment, over and above his store-ponds of stock fish, might rear fish for market for the table by the ton, and so largely add to the profits of his business. There seems to be no reason why fish should not be farmed for the table as much as eggs or poultry. At Howietoun they are farmed more like game, as a commodity for the supply of sport to piscators. ' The average pisciculturist will, in all probability, be content at first to confine his attention to breeding pure- bred fish of one sort or other, especially of one sort only. As to how far he may look for a profitable return upon his capital, we may cite a few figures from the Howietoun 224 HOW TO MAKE THE LAND PAY. balance-sheets. The capital there sunk hardly amounts to 12,000Z., in all sorts of construction of works, in plant, and so on. Much of this outlay represents costly experience purchased hy experiment. Again, no sooner has the busi- ness begun to repay its outlay on one scale than there have been enlargements for a further development. How- ever, calculating all outlay sunk in the works of Howietoun from the first, the return on capital is still more than 10 per cent. ; and this with the big hatching-house compara- tively new and its commercial productions hardly yet fully felt. A similar farm, if now constructed, with the benefit of the dearly-bought wisdom of its pioneer, would, in scientific and careful hands, be quite capable of earning 20 per cent, and upwards upon its capital. It is there- fore clear that pisciculture presents a field for enterprise which is by no means fully appreciated, and which may be turned to pecuniary as well as to more scientific advan- tage. There is no reason why hundreds of brooks and pools should not be turned to commercial account by stock- ing them with Salmonidce for the market. But if fish farming shall become extended as an enterprise, all security for breeders should be provided by legislation, otherwise the public will not find Salmonidce materially cheapened as a food supply, and pisciculturists will in many waters be ruined. This security should be a law forbidding a riparian owner to turn in predaceous fish of certain sorts — especially pike. Half a dozen of these cannibals will soon breed and ruin the trout culture of a stream. Most historians trace the introduction of the pike in England to the reign of Henry "VTL If so, the wondrous falling off of the Salmonidce. in too many of our rivers can be well understood.' INDEX. ACB Acres of land in orchards, 70 Alderney cows good for dairy, 14 American bacon and hams called by English names, 39 Angelica, cultivation of, 124 Apple congress, 69 Apples imported, 69 Apples, sorts worth growing, 74 Articles of food, amount paid to foreigners for, 3 Arthur Young on the growth of caraways and coriander, 123 Arrangement of flowers according to colour, 105 Asparagus, cultivation of, 137 Atmosphere, effect of, on flowers, 119 Aylesbury ducks, 53 BACON, Cobbett's recipe for, 42 — how cured in America, 37 — value of imported, 34 — Wiltshire, how cured, 41 — Yorkshire, recipe for, 40 Bar frame system of hives, 209 Barn-door fowls, 46 Bee-dress, 212 Bee-keeping, 203 — industry neglected, 204 Bee-keeping in Poland, 205 Bees, 70Z. a year by keeping, 206 Belgian hare and crosses, 59 Belladonna, 126 Blue flowers, 108 Blunt, Mr., experiment in cow- feeding, 13 Brewers' grains as cow food, 12 Buckwheat, 158 Bulb-growing, 128 ■ — secret of Dutch plan in, 130 Burton's recipe for growing mush- rooms, 176 Bush fruit, 83 large sums realised from, 84 Butter, export of, from Channel Isles, 14 Butter factory, Lord Vernon's at Sudbury, near Derby, 25 Butter factories in Sweden, 23 Butter-milk cheese, recipe for, 40 Canada, fruit growing in, 69 Canadian hen-house excellent, 47 Canary, 158 Caraways, cultivation of, 123 Carrots, 139 Q 226 INDEX. CHA Chamomile, 126 Changes of fashion, effect of, on manufacturers, 5 Cheddar cheese, 30 Cheeses from Holland and America, IT Cheeses, manufacturing, 29 Cheshire cheese, 29 Cherries, sorts to grow, 75 Cherry orchards in Russia, 79 Chickens, young, how to manage, 49 Chicory, its value for food, 159 Comfrey, how to grow, 160 Continental plans worth following, 18 Cooper, Mr., on filbert growing, 97 Co-operative fanning, 21 Cow-sheds in Holland, 10 Cows, cost of feeding five, 13 — Durham and Suffolk polled, 15 — heifers in milk or in calf, number of, 9 Crops outside ordinary farm crop- ping, 154 Curd, 30 Currants, white, red, and black, cultivation of, 85 Custom House returns of imported articles of food, 3 Daisy farms in Holland and Bel- gium, 9 large increase needed in this country, s Dairy farming, neglect of, 7 profits of, 16 Dairy factory system, description of, 20 Dairy of one hundred cows, money return for a, 16 FIL Damsons in hedgerows, 82 Dill, 124 Distilling scents and essences, the- process described, 119 Distilleries must be near at hand, 127 Does poultry pay ? 44 Double cropping on vegetable farming, 143 Durham cows, 15 Dutch bulb-growing, 129 — patient industry of the, 128 Early marketing of poultry most profitable, 49 Eggs, imported, value of, 44 Ely paper mills, consumption of flax straw at, 187 Ensilage, advantages of, 193 — as cow food, 12 — in casks, 199 — materials for, 200 — of five acres of clover compared with five acres of hay, 202 — process described, 193 Eugene Eimmel's 'Book of Per- fumes,' 117 Factory system explained, 20 Factory for beet-root sugar, 147 Farms, small, greatly needed, 27 Farms without milk, butter, and cheese, 17 Fashions affect manufacturers, 17 Fattening poultry, how managed, 49 Fattening, recipes for, 49 Feathers, how to sweeten and make fit for use, 50 Filbert growing, 96 INDEX. 227 Filbert growing, in Kent, 100 Filberts, export trade in, with America, 102 — sorts of, most profitable, 97 — suited to small freeholders and long leaseholders, 101 Fish farming, 222 Flax growing, 185 — more advantageous than wheat, 190 Flax straw for paper-making, value of, 187 Flower farming, for out flowers, 103 for distillation, 116 Flowers, white, red, blue, and yellow, 106 Flower farms in France, 117 Food for rabbits, 61 Foreign competition, injurious ef- fects of, 1 Fowler, Mr. J. K., on ducks and , 53 Galium vernm, a substitute for rennet, 30 Garlic, cloves in, 129 Geese, Mr. Fowler's advice re- specting, 54 Gibb, Mr., of Canada, visit of, to Eussia, 79 Glass supers for hives, 208 Gloucestershire cheese, 29 Gooseberry plantations, 84 Goslings, how to manage, 55 Grass farmers made independent ol weather, 193 Gross returns from rabbit warrens, 65 Grass seeds, Mr. Sutton's selec- tion, 2 Guernsey cows, 14 Hams, value of imported, 34 — Yorkshire, recipe for curing, 40 Handling young fish, 219 Hatching and rearing fish, 214 Henbane, 126 Hints on butter making, 28 Hives, different sorts, how man- aged, 207 Hog-packing at Chicago, 37 Hogg, Dr., on bush fruits, 81 Holland, soil of, for bulb growing, 129 Home-bred stock most profitable for grazing, 9 Honey imported, value of, 206 Houdans to be preferred, 46 Howietoun's fish-breeding esta- blishment, 215 Hj acinth growing in Holland, 129 Imposts of orchard fruits, 69 Incubators, 51 — Carbonnier's generally used France, 52 — Mr. Barnes' success with, 51 Introduction, 1 Jam factories, Lord Sudeley's, 88 profit of, 89 — recipes for, in ' Modern Cookery,' 89 Jenkins' hints on butter making, 28 Jersey cows for dairy, 14 Jerusalem artichokes, value of, 141 Jonquils, 131 Kinds of poultry, 46 King Leopold's boast, 4 228 INDEX. KYN Kynaston, Mr., growing, 93 on strawberry Lancaster's, Dr., opinion of milk, 7 Large barns easily converted into silos, 197 Large returns from flax growing for the paper mills, 188 Lavender, cultivation of, 121 Lay of grass for a course of years, Mr. Sutton's plan, 157 Living animals, price of impor- ted, 7 Liquorice, cultivation of, 121 Long, Mr. James, on dairy fac- tories, 20 Maize, profitable growth of, 161 Major Morant's rabbit hutches, 58 Malt-cums good cow food, 12 Market gardens round Paris, 1 44 London, 145 Milk and soda, 18 — not to be had in country villages, 8 — pans, best sorts of, 15 — profitable sale of, 18 Mint, varieties of, in cultivation, 122 Model dairies in Holland, 10 Mushroom beds, how to make and how to spawn, 173 — growing, extent of, 170 in France, 171 Mr. Cooper's plan, 177 — spawn, how to make, 176 Mustard, white and black, cultiva- tion of, 165 Narcissus, profitable cultivation of, 131 Neglect of poultry, 44 Nettles, chopped, good for poultry, 48 Nielson, Madame, what she has done for Denmark, 22 Old rabbit warrens, defective con- struction of, 64 Orchard fruits, 68 Orchards, how to renovate, 72 — how to plant and pay for new, 73 — selection of trees for, 76 Osier growing, 179 Osier-ground, how to plant, 181 Osiers, local names for, 182 — • sorts of, 181 Ostend rabbits, 57 Packers' business in the United States, 37 Paraffin oil for dressing fruit trees, 71 Parsnips, cultivation of, 141 Pears, best sorts of, for orchards, 74 Peppermint, cultivation of, 121 Piesse's analysis of best flower farm soil, 118 Pig farming in Amei ica, 36 profits of, 35 Pike destructive of other fish, 224 Plums, good sorts for orchards, 74 Ponds for young fish, 215 Potato growing, 142 Poultry fanning, 43 — house and yard, 46 — imported, value of, 43 INDEX. 229 Prickly comfrey, its use and value, 49 Profits of dairy farming, 16 Protection waited for in vain, 4 Pullets, most profitable time for selling, 49 Quarries, old stone, useful for mushroom growing, 171 Babbit farming, two systems of, 57 — hutches, 57 — warrens, 62 Babbits, extraordinary yield of, 60 — ' for profits and powder,' by Mr. Lloyd, 59 — wild, increasing price of, 57 — sort of, to keep, 63 Becipes for fattening poultry, 50 — for cheese making, 29 — for jam making, 89 Bed currants, 86 Bed flowers, 110 Bennet, how to prepare, 32 Bent, inutility of lowering, 17 Boot crops, profitable, 139 Bosemary, cultivation of, 122 Eouen ducks, 53 Bhubarb, profitable growth of, 137 Saintfoin, a valuable crop, how to grow, 165 Salsify, 142 Saltpetre in milk pails, 27 Salt pork, American, trade in, and value of imports, 34 Sausage making by steam, 39 Scarolle, a valuable salad plant,. 145 Scotch lady's recipe for butter- milk cheese, 31 Seakale, 138 Silos inexpensive, 196 Soda and milk, 1 8 Soil suitable for strawberries, 91 Spurrey, how to grow, and the value of, 166 Stall-feeding cows, 1 2 Stilton cheese, recipe for, 31 Strawberries, cultivation of, 94 — sort of, best to grow, 95 Stratton, Mr., on flax cultivation, 188 Strontia, its use in extracting sugar from beet, 151 Super silo, Mr. Wood's invention, 195 Sutton, Messrs., of Beading, valu- able plan suggested by, 155 Swede turnips, and hay, values of, compared, 12 Tares, a very profitable crop near large towns, 169 Tarragon, cultivation of, 125 Teazel growing, profits of, 167 Thirty-eight millions paid to foreigners for what we can grow ourselves, 3 Tollemache, Lord, and his Cheshire farms, 194 Trapping rabbits, Norfolk plan, 66 Tree cabbage of the Channel Isles, 14 Trout, artificial breeding of, 214 Turkeys reared in Ireland, 55 — profitable where space to keep- them, 51 230 INDEX. Useful hints to small farmers on flower growing, 103 — on vegetable growing, 146 Vegetable fa rmin g, 119 — marrows, 144 Vegetables, how classified, 136 — imported, value of, 136 — marketing of, 146 YOU Wax, value of, imported, 206 White currants, 86 Wire netting for rabbit warrens, 64 Wives of farmers best managers of dairies, 8 Woods, Mr., best authority on en- silage, 194 — experiments with maize grow- ing for ensilage, 162 Waebenee's, an old, experience, 67 Washy grasses not good for rabbits, 59 Waste places made to pay rent, 59 Watercress growing, 183 — profits of, 184 Wayside fruit trees on the Con- tinent, 81 Yabdmen living on imported foods, 17 — fattening imported stock, 17 Yearly value of a cow in profit, 15 Yellow flowers for cutting, 112 Yorkshire bacon, 39 — hams, recipe for, 40 Young chickens, how to bring up, 48 lOSTOH: PBE5TBD BY SPormswooBK asd co., sbw-bteket sqoabb iSD PABLIA1EK5T STEEET BOOKS FOR THE COUNTRY. The SCIENCE of AGRICULTURE. 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