Blandford Weekly News. — 1889-02-23 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

THE QUEEN AS A FARMER.  Bell's Weekly Meuenger contains an interesting description of the Shaw Farm and Home Park at Windsor. The Royal farms at Windsor are two in number, and extend in their entirety over about 1,120 acres, of which 360 acres are arable and 760 pasture. The first in the Shaw Farm (which includes the Home Farm and Park), the nearest to the Castle, and the other is the Flemish Farm—more outlying and with heavier land. Until a few years ago they included also the Norfolk Farm and the Bagshot and Rapley Farms These have been given up by her Majesty, though one of them—the Bagsliot—is in the occupation of the Duke of Connaught, and so may still be classed among Royal farms. The two farms which her Majesty retains are those on which the improving hand of the Prince Consort left its mark, and they exist to-day in almost the same form and with almost the some cultivation as in the days of his Royal Highness. The Shaw Farm is the property of the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, no that at Windsor the Queen is a tenant farmer, and not—as so many suppose—a landlord farmer. The buildings erected under the instructions of the Prince Consort stand upon a square of sround—the sides running north and .south, east and west respectively. The stables, the cattle boxes and sheds, the piggeries,and the poultry-houses are all placed in separate localities, ascessible with the straw-cart, the dung-cart, or the turnip-cart by roads which intersect the whole area. The row upon the eastern side includes cart shed at either end, twostoried lodging-house in the middle and farm stables; the western side includes a carpenter's yard and shed, threshing yard and granaries,steam-engine and boiler house, floor for mixing chaff and meal with pulped roots, and pigircries around three sides of a small square, in the midst of which is the foodhouse for their supply. Between these two are three rows of beildings, with roadways between them. These include foreman's house, poultry-houses, blacksicith's and carpenter's shops, a series of boxes and small yards, facing south, a large root-house, with a fixed turnip cutter for supplying food, and a wide shed in which cattle are fed—in fact, a covered yard. A point of some interest is afforded by the house occupied by Mr. Tait, the manager of the Windsor farms, which is detached from the homestead. This contains a suite of apartments for her Majesty's use, and from these the Queen can, during her visits to Windsor, walk in comparative privacy through the range of buildings inspecting the cattle which are being prepared for exhibition, and otherwise showing her interest in the work of the farm. The Shaw Farm includes the management of some 720 acres, of which 120 are arable. It embraces several kinds of soil, banging from a stiff, adhesive medium upon the clay formation, on its southern portion, through good alluvial grazing grounds on the meadows adjoining the Thames, to the chalk formation of the pastures under the walla of the Castle. On the arable land the cropping is generally as follows: Mangels and swedes, followed by wheat ; then oats and barley, follawed by beans ; then wheat. Routs follow in the regular rotation. For this cultivation five pairs of horses are kept. At the present time there are 208 head of cattle of different sorts on the farm, many of them Jerseys and non-pedigree shorthorns, kept for dairy purposes. There is also a flock of 370 half-bred ewes, and a herd of about 80 Berkshire and small white pigs. The whole object of the farm is the breeding of animals and the manufacture of meat and dairy produce. One feature of the farm, and one that shews the kind care which the Royal Family have always shown for those in the lower spheres of life, deserves notice. As soon as the Prince Consort became the tenant of the farm he established an evening school during the winter months for the labourers employed. This Reilool has been maintained by her Majesty until now, am( it is still doing very useful work.  Mr. Thomas Speechly, the Registrar of the City of London Court, has just died. . - .  Thomas Pew, aged three years, living at Airdrie with his parents, rose early the other morning. He seized a bottla containing whiskey, drank eagerly from it, and soon after died from alcoholic poisoning.  The late Crown Prince's favourite mare, Lori, re, by command of the Austrian Emperor, not to be mounted again, but to be carefully attended to in retirement till it death.  On Sunday night burglars broke into the Blackburn Free Library, smashed open the coin cases,and "tole a valuable collection of rare coins, including targe number of Jubilee coins. Dr. Von Dechen, a well -known geologist and authority on mining, has died at Bonn. Ile was born in Berlin in 1800, and distinguished himself by his writings on German geology and palmontology. Another case of insanity caused by the accounts of Prince Rudolph's death has occurred in the person of the rising painter, Herr Hartmann, who has twice tried ineffectually to commit suicide.  A precocious pianist nas turned up at South Shields 'n the person of Master W. Wigg, aged 5, son of the bandmaster of the Wellesley Training Ship, who has just passed the junior examination in pianoforte playing at the Musical International College. This, says the British Bandsman, is the youngest " pass " on record.  Mr. Tom Mead, the well known Shakeperian actor, and for many years a member of :be Lyceum company, has died at his residence at Islington.  - - The Punjab administration report shows a oon• siderable increase in crime. 'l'he criminal eases in 1884 were 98,890,10 1885 101,357, sod in 1886-7.ross to 1031372.  THE CRISIS IN FItANQE.