The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-07-03 00:00:00

PROMOTION. Sergeant-Instructor Street. of E accordiug to season • then light.), forked over
Company, Ist D.R.V., to be Battalion Sergeant- between the rows, and in a few days earthed up for
Major, vies Sergeaut.ldajor Watts, deceased. development. 1
ACOIDZIAT TO • WITMOUTH MAM.—On Saturday Except for experimental purposes there are really i
night last. at the Assembly.roome, Westonimper- only two worts of potatoes which the Jerseyman finds I
Mare, during theiserformance of "Robert Mectlze lg. profitable to plant—to wit. the Ashleaf (Myatt's
by Mr. Frank Williams' Dramatic Company, his etas. Prolific) foe early crops, the " fluke " for later ones.
man, a native of Weymouth, named George Palmer. Circumstances of weather scientific cultivation, and
had to fire off • pistol, which, unfortunately, exploded so on, favouring him, he will obtain an average harmed
In his hand, severely shattering it. The doctor gives of 10 tons per acre of the form-r, and about double
very little hope of his finger being saved, that quantity of the latter tuber—no insignificaut
EICTISIONR TO Wermorrre.—On Monday last about return, we repeat, 0, lucky Cuannel Island
11.500 excureioniste were brought In by cheap trains on agriculturist!
the Great Western Railway. One excursion was from The very earliest new potatoes sent from St. Helier
Wolverhampton and Birmingham, and brought about are at the end of March or first week in April. They
400 paitile. This train left Wolverhampton between have been grown ender glass' that goes without say-
-10 and 11 on Sunday evening, and arrived in Wey- , lug, for it will be quite the b-ginniog of May before
mouth at mix o'clock Monday morning. The fare for 1 outdoor crops are dug. But to witness the acme of
all the distance there and back, about 400 mile*, being the outpour, that scene we tried t depict, from the
only 51. The return journey commeoced at 650 in the I first week of June to the middle of July must be
evening, and the train was timed to reach Wolver- pitched upon.
hampton about half-past one on Tuesday sunning. I It is in truth • sight worth In-king upon, the potato
The Midland and South-Western Railway ran an harvest in Jereey. Crowds of Pr,nch labourers have
excursion also from Birmingham, bringing about 100 come over from Normandy and Brittany ; have dig-
persons. A Great, Western excursion from Bath and tribute,' themselves over the island, and may be seen
Bristol brought about 400, and one from Reading in blue blouse*, sabots, and cheap very coarse straw
about 250. Under the skilful supervision of Mr. J. hats, known as liworpam-piabs (we wont vouch for
P. Collett, the various excursions were dispatched correct spelling of the quaint word), digging, gather'
with unerring punctuality. INC. Packing, and storing the newly-raised toothsome
Scour role THE PROPARATION or THE GOSPEL vegetables in carte near at hand, for conveyance either
AMONGST THE Jawa.—A meeting In all of this society to the stores of the "middle unto" or direct to the
was held on Wednesday evening in the Gloucester- steamers in harbour. The wage of these foreign
street Schoolroom. 'rhe attendance was very small, labourera is good, and the cider of the country is not
there being scarcely 30 persona present. The Rev. J. unknown to their parched lips as a free gratin for no-
Wood occupied the chair, and be was supported by the thing pomp Wirt while engaged in the Suds. No
I Rev, P. Jaffe, a Jewish Missionary, the Rev. J. wonder the poor Norman or Breton peasant loves to
Lewis, and the Rev. J. Trafford, M.A. After singing take a trip over to the great and pretty potato g irdens
and prayer by the Rev. J. Lewis, the Chairman in of La blanche, as he calls Jersey.
the course of his remarks. regretted the small attend. A word or two in conclusion anent the preeervation
1 Inc. of his Weymouth friends, lie was happy to say of the potatoes for planting. In August or September
that there was something dens In Weymouth towards they are collectel and placed, eyes uppermost, in hand-
helping forward this mission, and so they had such • boxes, each hold', g from fills, to 71b. These are stored
meeting as that. He hoped, as far as their means in dry well-veutilated sheds of • its during the winter
would allow, they would make some contributionito and allowed t ..prout, so that at the time of planting
this work. The Rec. P. Jaffe then delivered au address, )asbefore said, in February) each sprout may b about
mostly consisting of anecdotes of conversions which bad one Inch in length, and the thickness of one's little
taken place whilst be wan • missionary at Nuremburg. finger. They are then ready for the soil.-
Previous to these, the rev, gentleman explained how
much easier the Jews were of aCCONI to the missionaries
of late years than they were formerly; how many of
them now hat New Testaments to whet they had for.
; and how futile had been the efforts to convert
them in past years. The Jewl.l Sion had lived 2,000
years in Christian countries, but what had the Chrietian
art, the Christian refinement. and the Christian culture
done towards converting the Jews? Notla.cg. It was
only He, the Messiah, who IFIPAI elate to lead the Jews
to salvation. They had yet to learn that the Jams
whom they had so long despised was their long-looked
for Messiah and Saviour, the Redeemer of the world.
The rev, gentleman gave an instance id how difficult
It was for s young Jew to become • Christian; how
In many CMOS he was brutally treated, disinherited,
and cast out of his home as a reprobate, because he
had renounced the Jewish faith. The remainder
of the rev, gentleman's address consisted of anecdotes
of his missionary tours, amongst them being several
remarkable conversions. The usual votes of thanks
terminated the meeting.

THE NEW POTATO TRADE.
It never could have entered into the heads of the
moot astute of railway pioneers that a cross railway
from Ohippenham to Weymouth—designed with a
view to cad off the °antral line of the South-Western—
oould ever make a large and prominent traffic out of
foreign new potatoes. Still lees that it might be made
a strong competing line with the Brighton and South-
Westrrn in the early foreign market garden trade.
The extent of this trade may have made itself
, apparent to some few of the Weymouth and Chippm-
ham passengers when their trains were shunted to
allow a special, la len with nothing but French or
Channel Islands produce. The Cherbourg route has
also made an enormous addition to this trade, but for
the present we speak only of the vegetable trade
with the Channel Isles. This traffic between Jersey
and Southampton and Jersey and Weymouth linearly
equal. Potatoes intended for the London m ,rksa go
principally via Southampton, whilst those intended
for Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, and the large
centres of population—the Midland. an I the North,
are sent via Weymouth by the Weymouth and
Channel Islands Steam Packet Company. The cow
Pony at the present time have two of their own boat*,
the paddle steamers Brighton and Aquila, running
between the Islands and Weymouth. but these prove
totally inadequate to meet the requirements of the
traffic, so that they have to hire 'alto • little fleet of
powerful screw-steamers through a firm of ship
brokers in L 'radon. This year the company have
hired the five following weasels :—Ethel, Fitzgerald,
Fairport, Dena, and Ransoms, the last-named vessel
being entirely devoted to bringing potatoes from
Guernsey. In past years the company have found
this one boat sufficient to bring the potatoes from
Guernsey, but this year they have been obliged to
charter a soma' for this island. Each of these
steamers make about three passages a week, between
the Islands and Weymouth, whilst the company run
boats see making extra passages. At Weymouth
eighty-lee men are engaged in unloading the steamers
and placing the baskets upon the railway truck., this
being thirty-five over the ordinary number employed.
This does not include the steamers' crews, who
take no part in loading or unloading. Inspector
Pithers, of the Great Western Railway, super-
intendencla the work of transferring the cargoes
from the holds of the steamers to the railway truck',
and them are conveyed by the little pilot engine to the
railway station, where they are male up into special
trains and dispatched by our hard-working and
energetic stationmaster, Mr. J. P. Collett, at such
times of the day as not to interfere with the passenger
traffic if possible. At the present time airs special goods
trains, conesyuig p6tatea, leave Weymouth daily for
all parts of the G.W. system. Each train averages
about 98 trucks, From the commencement of the
season down to the present time there have arrived in
Weymouth from the Channel Islands about 100,000
packages of potatoes,_ averaging from 3,500 to 4000
packages per day. The unloading and transferring
go on at the Quay at all times of the day and night.
In Jersey the potatoes are brought to St. Helens
principally in large waggons by the growers. There is
a railway round the Island, but the potatoes conveyed
! by these means are trifling. At St. Heliers potato
merchants buy them of growers and take them to the
Quay for shipment to English salesmen.
The following account of
POTATO OULITRI IS MUST

I. from the Gardener's Minnick :—Tbs cultivation of
early potatoes for the London and provincial markets
engages the attention of the farmer of the Channel
Islands, but him of Jersey mora particularly. Liter-
ally and metaphorically he gets the fruit of his labour
to the salesmen in England before the glut from
Cornwall, Devon, France, and other sources reaches
them. For this happy attainment two things aid him
materially; one the equability and mildness of the
climate of his habitat, free as it generally is from
severe wintry frosts. and piercing spring easterly gales;
the other the high state of the fertilisation and care-
ful husbandry to which he subjects his weakened and
overwrought "oil.
From the 'piers east and west of the harbour of St.
Helier, 10, 12, and often more steam croft, all of fair
size, and considerable tonnage, and swift after their
kind, are lashed; each has its Blue Peter flying; each
is sailing Englaniwards—to London, id stithempton,
Weymouth, Newhaven, the Humber, elsewhere—the
selfsame day or night; each is being loaded, haste,
post-haste, with newly-dug potatoes, packed either in
6irrolg, of baskets, or hampers ; and each has ite
string of carts or waggons, which have brought down
the tubers from country farms and homesteads, wait-
ing their turn of clearance. There is, so to speak,
systematic confusion ; cranes are creaking, steam
whistles are shrieking, and the jabber of Jersey,
French, and thelingo of maritime English, make them.
le/rives heard.
I Temporary office', flying the colours of their age
for the corresponding potatoeboats, as they are called,
have soddenly swung into agates:toe, and many
' another proof and sign le visible of energy and mer-
cantile activity. Se, indeed, them used to be, when
ft is understood that upwards of 4LOoO toas of early
potatoes were shipped hence during the short mason
of 1882. And as to the question of money recoup, the
baby Jerasymen sold his crop for more than £300,000,
realising at the earliest out-put of it 1.30, and the last
from £8 to £lO per ton. '0 Agricola fortunati," !sc.,
as Virgil has it.
But do not let it be assumed that with little or no
labour has the agriculturist we are talking about arrived
at the perfection of the cultivstion of the edible in
question; "double, double, toil and trouble " has it
cost him. As this:
Early in January, perhaps even before that time,
has he at to work to plough to • depth almost
Incredible to English farmers, his field—generally small
cues, as all the fields in the island are. And this
system of ploughing ii worth a word or two of
description, so strikingly different is it from the same
operation across Channel.
Two ploughs are employed; one which may be
rightly named a toy in comparison to the other. The
toy, or Lilliputian plough, drawn by two horses, is
driven ahead of its big companion, and just turns op
the surface of the ground—skins it, so to speak—while
close upon Its very track follows the giant Br.b.:ig.
ian instrument, of great weight, gigantic aa to its
"shares," drawn by eight, tea or twelve strong h0e...,
cutting deep into the organisation of mother earth, and
turning it up to the extent of from 12 to 18 inches.
The plough, with its team, and cattle, and labourer..,
Is worked upon the mutual accommodation system; this
farmer lends his horse, and his own good right arm;
another does the same, and so does another; and when
their turns for ploughing come about the helped
becomes the helpers. The work done, it is • sine goa
eon that the farmer whose land has been operated up ,n
gives an evening feast, at which • round of beef, the
very biggest attainable, is the piece de renstana by
time-honoured custom.
The deep Ammo of furrows which, as just shown,
the hush plough has made, are broken down and
levelled with the spade, into which also, if for early
crops, trenches of • few inches in depth are dug, tint
if for later ones the light plough again comae into use.
Into these trenches or furrow., as the caw may be, an
"artificial fertiliser." of which the constituents are
the phosphate of lime, soda, or potash, and other
possible ingredients, is sprinkled, although some of
more advanced and non-rule-of-thumb grower. find it
more desirable not to confine the gift ,d the "fertiliser"
to the more trench itself, but to bestow it with a
pretty liberal hand to the whole field. Sometimes
even guano itself is used. The seed le then planted ;
but before telling of this it may be advisable to show
to what account the land has been turned sinos the lest
reaping of its growth of solar:eons tubers.
Do not let it be supposed that it has lain idle or
fallow. No sooner has the crop of potatoes been
lIIMOTOCI—Indeed, in very massy CII•eal whilst the
removal is actually inoompirts, as the writer himself
has seen—the seed of carrots, or mmoold, or turnips,
or swedes, or even of broooll, is being sown, and the
next week the whole field is green with its new pro-
ducts. This occupies it in activity until Christmas,
when it is gatbeeed, and in much a redundancy that
as many as Meet of carrots here been drawn per
acre by one expert of his (the writer's) aconaintanoe.
As WM as the root crop is out the ground is spread
over with seaweed (irraic), and which biter a while Is
planglied in, as has been already deacribtad. Early in
February the already sprouted potato seed is pleated.
It Pape through the ground in about three week".