The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-03 00:00:00

FASHION AND FABRICS.

An amusing and interesting discussion has been carried on
In the columns of the Daily Telegraph. In noticing this the
Graphic remarks

The Countess of Bective has appealed to her fellow.
countrywomen to encourage the failing English
woollen manufacturing industries by purchasing fabrics
made at home in place of those imported from France
and Germany. Such a proposition has brought a
flood of letters—from "An Alarmed Parent" who has
to "pay the piper" for " seven daughters," protesting
against any enhanced expenditure; from "A
Thoughtful Daughter" who exclaims against being
mad "dowdy," and thus injuring her matri-
monial prospects, even from patriotic reasons ;
from matter of fact " Outsiders," who take
the manufacturer to task, and ask why they
do not remodel their machinery and beat the
foreigners on their own ground, instead of appealing
to the pity of the public ; and last, but not leal in
importance, from the manufacturers themselves,- who
give technical explanations of the difficulties they
would experience in attempting to follow such a
course. One of the last.nanied certainly makes out a
very fair case by pleading that the reasons that
foreign manufacturers are superseding their British
brethren are simply that the former can command
the skilled labour of operatives trained in technical
schools at a low price, and that they are
not hampered by any Ten Hours' Labour Bill. Another
points out that they can introduce their goods into
England duty free, while Englich manufacturer ex-
porting abroad are saddled with heavy customs dues:
This is doubtless all very true, but the fa :t remains
that, notwithstanding all Lady Bective's arguments,
people will feel that patriotism, like charity, begins at
home. Example certainly carries great weight, and
no doubt the titled ladies who are announced as
patronesses of the movement will find a certain
number of followers—that is provided they do not,
like Lady Babbleton in " Pelham," confine their
patriotic sentiments to words, and while declaring that
English people should encourage English industries,
shudder with horror if they themselves are charged
with wearing anything produced this side of the
Channel. The great mass of people, however, will
simply look at the matter in a purely practical light,
and will go to the cheapest market for their wares,
particularly if, as appears in this case, they are more
attractive into the bargain. In the controversy which
has so fiercely raged on the question of shops versus
stores the shopkeepers found very little sentimental
sympathy from the public, and consequently set
themselves to reduce their prices, and to compete with
their adversaries. The woollen manufacturers . can
hardly expect better treatment. Let them produce as
, cheap and as suitable fabrics as those with which the
foreigners are now beguiling "Thoughtful Daughters,:
and they need have little fear of extraneous competi-
tion. ,

SCHOOL SAVINGS BANKS IN FRANCE.—The official
report showing the progress made by the schools'
savings hanks instituted in France in 1847 is of a very
satisfactory and encouraging "character. Since 1877
the number of educational establishments where the
system is in operation has increased frcm 8,033 t )
14,372, while the growth of the deposits has been still
more remarkable, the total amount under this head at
the present time being 6,403,774 francs as compared
with 2464,352 franca .Iqur years ago.
,

A HINT TO FARMERS ON' THE
HARVESTING OF WHEAT.

The Times haspublished the following letter on the har-
vesting of wheat;— '

is most distressing to read of the damage
that the wheat crop is suffering from the rain. I do
not know bow extensively the English farmer is in
formed of the practice of the Western farmer in the
United States by which this great mischief is gene-
rally, as I think, prevented. That practice is to mow
or cradle the wheat while the kernel is yet "in the
milk," as it is termed. The sheaves are then set up
in small shocks, with the cap sheaf inverted so as to
shed the rain, and suffered to remain a number of days
and to ripen by means of the slight heat which is
generated and under the protection from the weather
that is afforded by the compact and conical mass.
When a favourable day comes the shocks are opened,
and the sun and air in a very few hours complete the
process, and the grain may then be thrashed out or the
sheaves stacked, as the convenience of the farmer
may demand.
When any part of the straw has turned yellow it
ceases to communicate between the kernel and the
earth, and nothing is gained, while all is put to
hazard, by postponing the harvest, although all the
remainder of the straw and the head may still be
green. The sap still remaining in the straw is sup-
posed to supply all that the kernel requires, and to do
so as well in the shock as standing. I have never
heard of the wheat crop in the Western States being
molested by the rain causing the kernel to sprout, and
I have often been so placed that I should have been
informed of the mischief had it occurred.

There,must be readers of The Times more thoroughly
informed on this subject than I am, and from whom
valuable hints might be derived to the benefit of the
English farmer, whose yearly dread is of an evil not
much known to the wheat grower in the United States,
and which possibly admits of prevention through the
measure I have indicated. It may not be impertinent
to add that once, while an inexperienced farmer in a
small way, I lost nearly my whole crop of forty acres
by letting it stand till it was ripe. The rain came
and it sprouted. Afterwards, guided by the practice
I saw in the %Vest, I cut my wheat while in the milk,
and the rain gave me no trouble beyond the casual
disturbance of the men at their work.—Your obedient
servant, ARTHUR LIVERMORE.
United States, Consulate, Londonderry, Aug. 23.

The above letter has evoked the following, which The
Tinl4B has also published :

Sir,—The plan of "capping "shocks of wheat, to
which your American correspondent, Mr. Livermore,
called attention in The Times of this morning, is an
ancient English practice, and very generally prevailed
in the last century. A few adherents of the plan had
survived within my own remembrance.
English farmers may learn some things from Ame-
ricans, but shocking corn is not among them. The
very evil intended to be avoided is promoted by the
practice of capping. The more ears of corn are ex-
posed in wet weather the less liability there is to
sprouting. The ears which grow or sprout in ordinary
shocks are those inside, sheltered from wind and where
heat is generated; capped shocks, moreover, when
once drenched, take far longer to dry. I could point
out other objections ; but as the system is an exploded
one, there is no necessity.

Upon the other point raised, the American practice
of cutting wheat before it is ripe, I agree, to some
extent, with your correspondent. In Bedfordshire,
where the straw is used for plaiting, it has long been
the practice to cut wheat some days before ripening
has proceeded to maturity ; if, however, cut before
the milk has set, the kernels shrivel and loss results.
The straw of crops cut in this condition is unques-
tionably more valuable as fodder than that from crops
dead rig e.
According to my own gauge, six inches of rain have
fallen since the Bth inst.—more than the rainfall in
August for 36 years. Notwithstanding this excessive
downpour, very little damage had been done to my
own wheat crops up to the end of last week ; this is
attributable to the fact of the thermometer having
ranged between 50deg. and 60deg. only. I fear the
result of the present disastrous harvest will be to drive
many of our farmers across the Atlantic, at all events
to some more genial clime.—l am, yours faithfully,
JAMES HOWARD,
Clapham-park, Bedfordshire, Aug 30. .

Sir,—Referring to Mr. Livermore's letter on the
above subject, will you permit me to ask whether
there is any reason why the ripe heads of grain
should not be cut off by the binder into a low-hung
cart furnished with a simple cutting apparatus in the
tail, leaving only the bound-up sheaves of straw to
take their chance of the weather? This simple opera-
tion would have saved the harvest, now, I fear, hope-
lessly lost, and could be made equally applicable to
grain requiring a few days to harden, or even too
damp for stacking, by providing dry and clean barn
floors, flue heated, or, where two or three floors fife
necessary, heated by hot water.
There can be no objection on the score of increased
cost of production where the absolute loss or safety of
a whole harvest is at stake. The cost, moreover,
would be very small, as the operations of binding and
cutting would be practically one, and the cutting need
only be resorted to as a precaution, or in doubtful or
threatening weatiser.—Your. obedient servant.
GEORGE COXON, Lieutenant-Colonel.
London, Aug. 30.