The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1888-05-26 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL ITEMS,

THE CROPS are making good progress, and the sow-
ing of mangold and preparation of the land for
turnips are progressing rapidly under favourable con-
ditions. Since the Royal Agricultural Society is care-
ful to protect its members by exposing the sale of
adulterated manures and feeding stuffs, we propose
to follow that example by pointing out the import-
ance of sowing the best varieties of roots. The best
sorts only should be sown. A crop of good mangold
with a good pedigree—if the term may be used—will
prove far more valuable than a crop of common and
inferior roots. The term pedigree," as applied to man-
gold, means much the same as breed, and the seed of
well-bredroots will possess an hereditary tendency to
yield a good crop of superior quality, full of sugar and
thin-skinned. The foreign seed, which is unfortu-
nately very largely sold in this country at a low
price, is almost invariably of low quality, producing
coarse and innutritious roots, and yielding only a poor
crop. It is true there are some very eminent seed
merchants in Paris, but, as a rule, foreign mangolds
should be avoided, yielding as it does only one half as
much weight per acre as that of well selected English
growth, while the quality of the produce is inferior.
Speaking generally of continental countries, the
breeds of their various farm crops are not to be com-
pared with our own; and for that reason improvers,
both in Europe and other countries, constantly im-
port from this country seeds of all kinds, just as they
do our best horses and other stock.

Fr MAY SAFELY be asserted that the plants of the
farm have been considerably improved in recent years
as well as those of the garden. In the horticultural
department skilful breeding has wonderfully modified
most of our fruits and vegetables. The tough and
tasteless peas of the pre-marrowfat period have been
rendered tender and delicious; gritty pears have be-
come melting, and sour plums sweet. It has some-
times been asserted that the plants of the farm have
not been improved since the time of the Romans, and
there is, in fact, no conclusive proof that we have ex-
ceeded the weight of their heaviest turnips, or that
our cereals are more productive than some of theirs
may have been. But, at any rate, our average weights
exceed theirs, and we may claim to have effected a
great improvement in the quality of our fruits and
roots, and to have originated varieties specially adapted
to soil xaci season.
SOME TIME SINCE a gentleman tested the weights
of several varieties of swede turnips by sowing side
by side samples of seed supplied by different traders.
In all cases the treatment of the soil was identical.
The seeds were sown in the third week in May, and
the crop was pulled December 3. The manure con-
sisted of 25 tons of dung, 3 cwt. of mineral super-
phosphate, and 11 cwt. of nitrate of soda per acre.
The seeds were all the best of their kind, and yet the
result of the comparison was that in 1885 the lowest
weight of the swedes was 23 tons per acre, while the
htliest was nearly 37 tons. In 1886 the lowest
weight was 28i tons, and the highest rather more
than 37 tons. It appears, therefore, that a farmer
may gain or lose three years' rent of his land under
swedes in one season by sowing the variety best
adapted to it, or the contrary. The experiment
shows the importance 'of selecting varieties best
adapted to the soil and climate of the farm.

THERE IS NO DOUBT we beat the Romans in quality
and in the number of varieties. Let us take the case
of carrots. In the trial grounds of those great seeds-
men who make a point of sowing all the known
varieties, side by side, for the sake of comparison, you
may see such carrots as Cincinnatus could have had
no conception of. Among the characteristic sorts,
each adapted for some special purpose, the earliest
carrot and the best for forcing, is known by the name
of Early Gem. It is four or five inches long, and two
or three inches thick, and is one of those clever modi-
fications and improvements of the older Horn carrots
which breeders have accomplished by their special
art. It is obvious that the whole of this
favourite class must be far more easily
lifted than long sorts, such as Alteringham or
Red Surrey, nor do they require such deep soils. But
the special merit of Early Gem, apart from that which
its name implies, is its freedom from hard core. The
elimination of core has always been a great de-
sideratum. James's Intermediate, for example, is a
popular carrot, having great merit and not requiring
such deep and costly cultivation as the longer sorts,
but its yellow core was always a decided drawback
to it, the core of a carrot having less flavour and
being tougher than the true flesh. Under these
circumstances the improvers set to work to remedy
the defect by breeding from those specimens which
posst ss A the least core, and then selecting and select-
ing, and breeding and breeding, till the core was
eliminated. By means of this process, carried out
persistently for several years, James's intermediate
carrot was replaced by a better sort.

RECENTLY Mr. W. F. Emptage read a paper to an
agricultural assembly at St. Albans on the all-
important question, "How to make the land pay ?"
and he took rather a wide range in dealing with his
subject, attacking entail and suggesting amendments
of the land laws; still there was abundant matter in
his paper having nothing to do with political changes.
For instance, he made generous cultivation quite a
leading feature, pointing out that even wheat-growing
can be made to pay, although the farmer is compelled ,
to sell at from 30s. to 365. per quarter, if seven or
eight quarters of grain be produced, and the straw as
well as the grain be made sale of. Mr. Emptage
would also have smaller farms than those generally
existing at present, and have their occupiers devote
themselves to fruit culture and the growth of
early potatoes, French beans, mushrooms, endive,
seakale, tomatoes, and cos lettuce, aiming at
perfect cultivation in the first instance, and then
perfect and tasteless packing and the study of the
markets. One of the agricultural papers, in criticis-
ing this paper, considers that this would not be farm-
ing at all, but market gardening, requiring much
more .skill and special experience than the existing
race of small farmers in England can claim to
possess. This may be true enough, but the fact only
shows the neceesity of more technical training being
sought after by the section of farmers alluded to, for
it cannot be disputed that large quantities of both
fruit and early vegetables are at present sent to the
London markets from the Channel Islands and the
South of France, to the enrichment of those who grow
them, the prices realised being sufficient, one would
suppose, to make the small farmers of the
Home Counties willing to take some pains
to get for themselves a share of the profits.
So convinced are the small occupiers of the
Channel Islands that their very salvation rests on the
maintenance of this lucrative culture and trading that
they go to the expense of covering over large acre-
ages with glass that they may bring grapes, tomatoes,
and many other things to earlier and greater perfec-
tion for the London market. The ordinary English
farmer js, however, proverbially averse to go out of
the common course to which he has been accustomed.
As a proof of this, the point urged by Mr. Emptage
that tastefully-packed, natty baskets of fruit should
be made up for marketing was very fully dilated on .t
by Mr. D. Tallerman to a meeting of Kent fruit-
growers, held at Sittingbourne on the 4th inst. ; but
one of the speakers taking part in the discussion said
that he thought cherry-growers would not have time
to do that, and must leave it to the middlemen. Of
course there were many present who held very dif-
ferent views, and a committee was appointed to con-
sider on what basis an association of fruit growers
could be formed to ensure the better realisation of
profits from the sale of fruit after being grown. Mr.
Faunce de Laurie, who presided over the meeting, to
show that there was an opening for such a society,
read a telegram he had received on the previous even-
ing from a large food importer, who had contracted
to supply the Royal Agricultural Society's Show with
provisions in July next, asking if there was any Fruit
Growers' Association that would undertake to keep
him supplied with fruit during the exhibition. Ile also
drew attention to the fact of the Royal Agricultural
Society's Council having offered prizes for English dried
fruits, which should at least show the utility of entering
into schemes for the evaporation and drying of surplus
fruits just as Mr. Tallerman had recommended. Mr.
Tallerman's efforts to induce the Kent farmers to
arouse from their lethargy and endeavour to help
themselves would be very futile if all were of the
same disposition as one old-fashioned farmer, who
prophesied failure to any association of the kind,
because "if they got farmers to band together for
any object they could never get three to think alike."
liret another speaker admitted that the low prices
realised for fruit during the last few years had
scarcely paid growers for their labour, while another
s:tated that on a large plantation last year, where the
proceeds were about £6OO, he could not discover that
there as as much as £1 profit.
EVIDENTLY there are ways and means of making
the agricultural situation better if new processes and
modern appliances for the better utilisation of pro-
duce were more energetically adopted. The Jersey
Creamer improved system of milk-setting found great
favour last year, and better butter was made from
it at the Bath and West of England Show trials than
by any other system. Small round creamers on the
same principle of cold water circulating at the sides
and bottom of the vessel containing the milk have
just been brought out, one of which holds as little as
tWo quarts, while others are slightly larger. Although
expressly designed for housewives in towns to set
milk brought by the milkman, and separate the cream
from it in a few hours, the small Jersey seems just
the article wanted to prevent the extensive spolia-
tion of cream in ordinary farmhouses bef ore
it is made into butter. Probably three-fourths
of our British butter is too rancid and bad flavoured
when brought to market to command a figure much
above the rates of margarine. This is because of the
, cream being allowed to get sour ere being churned, it
l'eng thought not worth while, where only two or
three cows are kept, to undergo the labour of churn-
ing oftener than once a week. Now it seems very
probable, and almost certain, that if the cream were
kept in these small Jersey creamers, having a little
fresh spring water put into them regularly, it might
be kept perfectly sweet several days, and perhaps a
week, without sustaining atmospheric detriment.
This simple apparatus may solve the mighty problem
ot making the bulk of home-produced butters egria'
to theloteign article, and thereby assisting materially
to save from ruin an old rural industry of great WI.
nortance.