AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

Evening Star, Issue 8364, 15 November 1890, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURAL NOTES.

[From Our Special Correspondent.]

London, October 3. The harvest reports from all quarters continue highly favorable. The splendid weather which supervened for the first three weeks of September greatly benefited all cereals, and the yield under the crucial test of the threshing-mashine has greatly exceeded the estimate of a month ago. Despite the untoward lateness of the present harvest, it seems likely to bo one of tho moat satisfactory experienced for a decade. It is pleasant to learn from district where the success or failure of the potato crop most affects tho farmer’s balncee-sheet, that the disease which has wrought so much havoc in the sister isle has had but little effect, and the crops prove abundant. Potatoes, like hops, are a speculative crop, and as some hop growers will make a fair fortune this year, so some potato growers, favored by soil and climate, cultivating disease-rcsist-ing varieties will make L3O per acre of their crop, whereas others will not compass 30s. It is said that in the Spalding district, where the magnum bonum is the variety cultivated, not a trace of disease has been discovered. I don’t suppose that this statement holds equally good in all districts; but there can be no manner of doubt that the sowing of superior and invigorated varieties has proved most satisfactory, and the use of inferior tubers has resulted in failure and disappointment. In an able and comprehensive article on tho ‘ Potato Blight ’ in the first issue of the ‘Paternoster Review,’ Dr M'Weeny discusses the plague and its affect on the tuber yield in Ireland, His explanations with regard to the cause of the blight and the rapidity with which it spreads, though most lucid and interesting, are too long t > quote here, but I may give some of his figures which will enable you to form a very fair idea as to the serious effect of the blight in Ireland this year. “No less,” says tho learned doctor, “ than 787,234 acres of potatoes were grown in Ireland last year ; the total of all ‘ green ’ crops (not cereals) taken together, occupying an area of 1,219,749 acres, so that the amount of land given over to potatoes is three-fifths of the entire foodproducing area, if we leave cereals out of the question.” This statement conclusively answers the oft-repeated query of the average Briton : “ How much of tho soil of Ireland is occupied with potatoes ?” To the questions. “Is the yield I : kely ' > be serioudy dimished this year?” ard “ What parts of the country are most seriously affected?” Dr M‘Weeny answers thus ; “ The total amount produced last year was 2,847,022 tons, or an average of 3.0 tons per acre. It seems but too probable that the yield this year will not amount to more than half that of last year, say, two tons per acre. But this bald statement of facts is very fur from giving an accurate idea of the loss really sustained ia many parts of the country. For this year, as formerly, the potato blight has done its worst in precisely the localities where an abundant supply of wholesome tubers ia an absolute essential, not merely for the comfort but for the very life of the farmer. Where tho holdings are smallest, the land poorest, and the potato almost exclusively grown, there the blight has been earliest at work, and has either prevented the development of the tubers or has converted them into masses of putrescence, unfit for the consumption of animals, much less human beings.” Tho precise situation of these unfortunate nlaguc localities are the poor, mountainous districts along the northern, western, and southern seaboard, where the soil is shallow and mnory. Hardly any district can be said to be really free from the disease, but, as is pointed out ia tho Land Commissioners’ report, in the central and eastern portions, where the soil is fairly deep and dry, there the crop is little below the average. To the wretched weather of July and August, and to the unscientific method of cultivation extant in Ireland does Dr M‘Weeny attribute the direful failure in the tuber crop this year. Over the weather, of course, the farmer has no control, but, asks tho learned doctor, “ Does he give the potato itself fair play ?’ “ Year after year it is cultivated in the same soil, the varieties become gradually worn out, and the individual becomes more and more susceptible to Unfavorable external conditions, till finally a really bad season presents itself, and then comes the catastrophe.” Winding up, the scientist points out to the Irish people that there is still one course open to them as intelligent beings, and that is to select ns their staff of life “some vegetable less susceptible to climatic changes, and capable of offering greater resistance to parasitic invasion than the alien plant— Solarium lubtrorum."

The master of Hastings Workhouse, following his usual laudable custom, has supplied the following statistics with regard to the yield of certain well-known varieties of tubers cultivated in the garden of the establishment of which be is the head. Twelve sets of each variety j elded as follows : Early Puritan, 161b ; Holborn Reliance, good and Mb bad ; Sukreta, 181bgood, 21b bad; Magnum Bonum, 21 lb; Ruseett, 261b ; Abundance, 2816 ; Fiddler's Clipper, 281b good, and 21b bad ; Imperator, 341b. The Lincolnshire farmer still groans under the sovereignty of John Rodent, despite the desperate measures he has taken to rid himself of the destructive little pest. The ratcatchers are, of course, driving a remunerative business, receiving as much as 3d per rat destroyed. The best methods of destroying the corn-devouring quadruped is still the subject of urgent discussion. Terriers and oats have been tried, but have proved utterly useless in mitigating the scourge. Poison lias been tried, traps innumerable are laid, but as yet no appreciable diminution in the number of rats is to be observed, and the agriculturists are rueinj; the day when greed of gain tempted them to allow their weasels and stoats to be canght and shipped to the Antipodes. The improvement of the varieties of all sorts of crops, cereals as well as roots, is attracting attention just now. In the great corn-growing district of the Fens, the farmers are keen in their inquiries for productive sorts of wheat. Low prices do not, of ccurso, encourage outlay in expensive seeds, and yet it is qnite possible to make up in quantity what is nowadays lost in price. One variety of wheat which is gradually worming its way into the affections of the British farmers is the “ Mountain White,” which this year has produced an average yield of 64 quarters per acre. Another kind which is likely to become popular is Messrs Webb’s latest selection “Windsor Forest,” which has proved one of the best of wheats, beating most of the noted varieties. One farmer reports that Mountain White yields on his farm 25 per cent, more than any other sort. Messrs Webb, of Wordsley, have just published their annual catalogue of selected seed corn. Details are given therein as to the best sorts of grain, the soils that suit them, and the crops they yield. Messrs Carters’ catalogue of cross-bred wheats in likewise to hand, and marks an epoch in the seed corn trade. The numerous wheats produced by this firm by cross-breeding are described and photographed, and each photo of a new variety is accompanied Joy similar representations showing the deviations which crossbreeding produces. One great advantage of these new varieties is that they are rustproof, and besides this general characteristic they differ greatly in various ways. Messrs Carters' catalogue cannot fail to interest and instruct agriculturists whose aim it is to better the produce of their lands. Farmers should spare no pains in obtaining the best varieties, possessing early maturity, abundance of straw, a productive habit, and good quality. Such wheats can alone enable them to compete successfully in foreign markets.

Good feeling helps society to make liars of most of ns—not absolute liars, but such careless handlers of truth that its sharp corners get terribly rounded.