The Montgomeryshire Express and Radnor Times

THE FARMERS' CIRCLE. (BY ONE WITHIN IT.) I rOTATO CULTUBE. Points on potatoes and potato culture come, to hand from the "Indiana Bulletin," and' as they are direct results from last year's I experiments on the station's farm, one can accept them as practical. The whole mat- tor is summed un terslov in a few rules '•■•■"nich must be followed in good potato cul- ture. in the matter of seed half-tubers wcrn found to be far superior to whole ones, and these should be used wherever possible* The fpod end of the potatoes produced more and better tubers than other parts. Mulch- ing the crop is not recommended, for it not only failed to do any good, but positive in- jury h»s been attributed to it. Subsoiling and ridge culture are recommended, for in nearly every irstance it showed a decided in- crease over those not so treated. MAKING CLOVER HAY. To make good clover hay is an impossi- bility without clear, dry weather to make it in. I have tried the plan recommended by some to cut and let it wilt and haul in the same day, says a corresponeent in an Ameri- can Exchange, but never made a success of it in that way, as it would always heat and spoil in the mow, and after trying various ways recommended by different persons, I have come to the conclusion that the first thing necessary to make good clover hay is good clear weather; secondly, have on hand a good supply of hay caps to cover the shocks with over night or in day time should a shower ccme up; thirdly, always cut in the afternoon when it is dry, and let it lie till the next noon, when it should be raked up and put in small shocks, and caps put on over night and taken off next morning, and the shocks spread out if not sufficiently cured to haul in: or if they are small and the hay tolerably well cured, they need not be spread out, but let stand and cap them again at night, and after two days it may be hauled into the mow. IRISH AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENTS. A provisional report of what has been done in the congested districts of Ireland by the Congested Districts Board has been issued by Mr Wrench, of the Agricultural Department of the Irish Land Commission. The report deals with the subjects of Land and Fishery," and the Ccmmit.. tees having these matters under their juris- diction now give the result of their labours in their several departments. Mr Wrench had interviews with Lord Londonderry, Mr Chaplin, Lord Hartington, Mr Burdett- Coutts, Sir G. Wombwell, and others, on the question of improving the live stock on the poor farms in the west of Ireland. In addition to these consultations, it will be remembered that Mr Burdett Coutts volun- tary accompanied Mr Wrench on his tour for the purpose of seeing what could be done to strengthen and improve the present breed of Itish horses, which are small in size and bone, and are said to be the descen- dants of the Andalusian ponies cast on the shores of Ireland at the destruction of the Armada. The outcome of these negotiations has been that the Commissioners have bought, or have had given to them, thirteen Hackney stallions, three Arabs, one Barb, and one Cleveland Bay. These stallions, we are informed, are all placed by the Agricultural Committee, or the Commission, in the hands of responsible persons, under conditions which place their services within the reach of the tenants at a nominal cost. The highly-bred Yorkshire Hackney is most in request. The bulls are selected for the needs of the neighbourhood, and a steady and persistent effort is made in districts where the Kerry breed of cattle has been preserved without approaching purity to improve the breed as such. The fishery report, by the Rev W. S. Green, is also encouraging, and the statement as a whole cannot but be regarded as a splendid lesson in the value of deeds as against more words-a poor material for filling an ex- hausted exchequer, and savouring of little els but vacuity and emptiness. THE RECENT THUNDERSTORM. Tho violent thunderstorm which occured in the Metropolis on Tuesday and Wednes- day morning was also felt very severly over the Midland, Southern, and Eastern por- tions of En land, and was productive of serious damage in different parts of the coun- try. At the village of Harefield two valu- able horses were struck dead in the stable. On Tuesday night a barn and cattle shed at Henwood Park, near Petersfield, on the Ditcha.m. Park estate, was struck by light- ning, and the buildings, being chiefly com- posed of wood and thatch, were quickly in flames. The agricultural implements, val- ued at upwards of Y,300, were totally des- troyed. In Derbyshire the tremedous downpour of rain will seriously affect the hay harvest. Considerable damage was caused throughout Sussex. Some buildings at a farm at West Grinstead, belonging to Sir C. Raymond Burrell, were struck by lightning, and a fire broke out in conse- quence. A portion of the building, contain- ing agricultural machinary, wool, and farm produce, was completely destroyed; the damage being estimated at 1450. At Saff- ron Walden (Essex) several animals in the fields were killed by lightning. At a farm near Bardfield, Braintree, a stackyard was set on fire by the lightning. The lightening struck and fired a windmill at Chatham, and the flames extended to and destroyed steam corn mills adjoining, doing damage estimated at several thousand pounds. In Hunting- donshire the lightning struck a farm. The premises were burnt down, and a valuable stud horse was killed by lightning. A number of cattle and sheep were killed near Hatfield and St. Albans. At the Manor House Farm, Knodishall, the buildings were fired, and the barn, two bullock sheds, stable, &c., were destroyed.

THROAT IRRITATION AND CouetH.Soreness and dryness, tickling and irritation, inducing cough and affecting the voice. For these symptoms use Epps's Glycerine Jujubes. In contact with the glands at the moment they are excited by the act of sucking, the Glycerine in these agreeable confections becomes actively healing. Sold only in boxes 7Jd, tins Is lld, labelled JAMES Epps & Co., Homoeopathic Chemists London." Dr. Moore, in his work on "Nose and Throat Diseases," says: The Glycerine Jujubes prepared by James Epps and Co., are of undoubted service as a curative or palliative agent," while Dr. Gordon Holmes, Senior Physician to the Municipal Throat and Ear Infirmary, writes:" After an extended trial I have found your Glycerine Jujubes of consider- able benefit in almost all forms of throat disease." Epps's labelled Medicines are sold in Llandrindod Wells by W. H. JOHNSON, High-street. &664

GOOD FARMING. A farmer, in order to be successful as such, must farm with his head as well as with his hands. Mere hand farming has had its day it cannot be relied upon with any confidence in the future. The older school of husbandmen mav despise science and decry theory if they will, but the fact is ¡ rapidly coming to light-and we rejoice to see it-that, in order to grow crops or rear live stock successfully, it is as necessary to bestir and cultivate the human mind as it is to till the soil and nourish it. Some one may say, This is just the old story from the editorial chair!" It may be; but let us pointedly ask "Have you really given the matter the consideration and study it de- I serves, or that is required to dispose of the hackneyed story as one thing or another?" No man who has opened his mind suffi- ciently to grasp the true significance of mental research and guidance in this rela- tion can fail to discover the utter falla y anl purposelessness of mere routine m/ih. ds or rule of thumb practices in the pursuit of modem agriculture. Every fa mer con- ceives it to be his duty to iais i he best crop and rear the best stock, and to excel, if possible, in the performance of that duty but how many farmers at the present day are possessed of any fixad or adequate com- prehension of the primary essentials to the highest fulfilment of this laudable ambition? The primary essentials; what are thev ? Practically innumerable. It is only pos- sible in a short column of printed matter to simply suggest the answer. Suppose the cultivation of crops to be the obj ect in view the farmer must not only know how to pul- verise and prepare the soil, but be more or less conversant with the nature and peculi- arities of the plants he intends growing, and how to treat them. Take cereals for an example. He should not require to be told (if he does) that the first effort of vegetation in the sprouting embryo is to develop pro- perly the plumule, on which every succeed- ing stage of the plant's life depends that in order to do this, or insure its being done, there must be a quantity of nutriment stored up in the seed as well as an available supply in the soil, and that to accomplish this satisfactorily a proper selection of seed is highly requisite. Another essential to the furtherance of the same object is the development of the roots of the plant, so that they may present a sufficiently large absorbing surface to produce a rapid and healthy growth of the vegetative parts of the plants; an end which can only be secured by a proper texture of soil and the presence in it of such chemical constituents, in their due ] "oportions, as are appropriate to the special rop under cultivation. Roots have a certain power of selection, and if the soil is appropriately nourished for their highest good, they will look after them- selves, only they return very little of what they extract from the soil if the crop is re- moved for consumption. This implies the exercise of discretionary powers as to the restoration to the land of the elements of fertility thus removed in the interests of future crops. And so on. FARM ROTATIONS. Mr Gilbert Murray, the well-known authority on agricultural questions, deals a rather severe blow at the four-course system I of rotation in the newly issued journal oft .rl.A.S.E. His arguments in favour of a more elastic course are substantial, and of a nature which will readily commend them to practical men. In the first place, he con- tends that the four-course system is an extremely costly one, and that this has, in these times of dear labour, come to be a very serious question indeed. Wages in the county of Derby, which he selects as one with which he is best acquainted, have risen from 40 to 50 per cent during the past 20 years, and any system which tends to lessen the labour bill is, therefore, of the highest importance to the country. Further, Mr Murray argues, and we most thoroughly agree with him, that the four-course system, which had never a wide range of application, is less commendable to-day, than at any former period in the history of the country. Changed times demand new departures in our methods of cultivation, and would seem to have struck the death knell of the four- course system. Mr Murray compares the cropping of 100 acres of average light land cultivated on the four-course system and on the six-course system respectively. The difference is worth noting. Under the former we get 50 acres of white crops, 25 acres of seeds under the six-shift course we take oats after two years' lea, followed by wheat, roots and then barley or oats. We thus practically get the same acreage of cereals, but reduce the root break, which is at once the most costly and the least remunerative to the farmer. The reduction of light acres in the root break would show a considerable saving in the labour bill. The extra 17 acres of seeds would carry six to eight sheep an acre from April to October, provided they have an allowance of k lb. per head per day of cake or corn, three- fourths of which would be chargeable to the stock, and one-fourth to the land. This, according to Mr Murray, is not only the cheapest, but the best means of any in his long experience for increasing the fertility of the soil. The second seeds, not being broken up for oats before February, would winter three or four sheep per acre from October to February. On a cattle breeding or dairy farm, on the other hand, the second year's grass would make a valuable pasture either for milch cows or young stock. One of the strongest pleas which can be urged in favour of a variation of the old four-course system, and one which Mr Murray emphati- cally puts forth, is the desirability of abso- lute freedom in the cultivation and cropping of land. It is now clearly established that the best means of combatting the foreigner in British markets is to untie the farmer's hands in the matter of cropping, and thus enable him to make the farm, as far as practicable, self-supporting—in other words, he must endeavour to adant his methods to the requirements of the age by widening his rotation so as to follow what is commonly known as mixed husbandry, and not be con- fined to the production of one or two varieties of crop. The breeding and rearing of Jive stock is to be encouraged, and this is only practicable where an unrestricted course of cropping is permissible, and where the farm can be made mainly self-supporting in the production of animal food. Mr Murray, whose excellent paper is well worth reading' concludes thus The four-course system is no longer suited to the times. The British farmer must turn his attention to the im- provement of his live stock, and to the pro- duction of meat and milk. Let him increase the area of leguminous crops, and with a cycle of low prices use the cereal produce of the land as for his stock. Let him cultivate pure breeds, which will also command good prices and a keen demand from foreign buyers. Let him. in addition, direct his attention to the growth of fine quality of malting barley, aad with a combination of such results some degree of success will attend his efforts." REVIEW OF THE CORN TRADE. The rainfall of the last two davs of June added considerably to the total of the month, and in some districts sufficed to bring it up to an average. As a rule, however, the June rainfall was deficient over the chief wheat-growing areas, and the present expectations of farmers point to a crop of moderate bulk, short in straw, but of excel- lent milling quality, and likely to be avail- able for early use after harvesting. The generally favourable promise of the potato fields already supplies a reason for imagining that the consumption of breadstuffs in the approaching cereal year may be somewhat less than usual. In Germany, as well as in the United Kingdom, a cheap and abundant potato harvest has a more direct effect on bread sales than has any other agricultural event. The mean price of English wheat for June was only 30s Id per quarter, as compared with o9s 9d last year, 32s 8d in 1890, 22s 6d in 1891, 31s 8d in 1888, 35s Id in 1887, 31s 7d in 1886, 33s 6d in 1885, 37s 2d in 1884, and 42s lOd in 1883. The fall on the ten years, therefore, amounts to 12s 9d per quarter, and represents the entire difference between prosperous wheat-grow- ing and crop cultivation at a loss on good land. At Norwich on Saturday 14s 6d per coomb was the average price, and Parlia- mentary candidates were very appropriately asked if wheat could be grown at this price. Out of sixty country markets thirty-five were stationery; the rest were 6d to Is in buye.s' favour. The reserves of English wheat in farmers' hands on the 1st of'july were estimated at 1,354,702 quarters. Farmers' deliveries last July were 276,980 quarters, and last August 423,550 quarters; on this basis rather more than 673,000 quarters of old English wheat is likely to be carried forward into a new cereal year. Foreign wheat has fallen 64 per quarter at nearly all markets, and No. 2 Calcutta at some places has been sold off stands for the probably unprecedentedly low price of 30s. Reserves in granary are not yet published in detail, except at a very few ports, but it is estimated that on July 1st 2,360,229 qrs. of wheat and a million sacks of flour were in warehouses The sale of foreign wheat from Septembei 1 to June 30 are estimated at just thirteen million quarters, and of flour at almost exactly 5,500,000 quarters. Weekly imports of wheat and flour have averaged 428,000 quarters, against 365,000 quarters last year, and 360,000 quarters the year before. The week shows a slight diminution in the wheat and flour on passage but the total is still heavy, and both America and India continue to ship on a good sale. In America the visible supply, too, is still 3,u70,000 quarters, against 1,700,000 quarters on July 1st. 1891, and 2,522,000 on July 1, 1890. The trade in maize has been weaker since Tuesday than it had been for a fortnight. Not only is the newly-sown corn in the United States reported to have made a very good start, but the surplus remaining for export from the Argentine Republic is said to exceed pre- vious reckonings, beside being of excellent feeding value. Barley has recently fallen in price at Mark Lane, Norwich, and Bristol markets, which may in this branch of trade sufficiently answer for the rest of England. Oats have given way 3d per quarter for light sorts at nearly all markets. No. 2 white American are in fair offer at several ports, and 17s was as a rule the price asked. A declining market in rye has been arrested by firmer advices from Germany and Russia. Beans have declined 6d per quarter in London, bur, Glasgow and Liver- pool maintain quotations Peas are 6d cheaper at some markets. Canadian at Liverpool are dull at 5s 7d per cental.

MARKETS. I NEWTOWN GENERAL, TUESDAY.—Wheat 03 Od to Os Od new wheat, 14a Gd to 16S Od per 240 lbs barley, 4s 6d to 501 Od per 701bs oats, 16S Od to 00a per 2201BA; egsra, 16s for a Is; butter, 10d to Is Od per lb; fowls, 3a Gd to 4S 6 J per coaplo ducks, 43 Od to 5d Od per couple geese, Os Od to Od Od turkeys, Os Od to Os Od each; potatoes, per civt, 3 Od beef, 7d to 8d per lb mutton, 8d to 9d per lb pork, 5d to 6d per lb. lamb, 9d to lOd per lb. WELSHPOOL GENERAL, MONDAY.—Wheat, 48 9d to 38 Od per 751bs; barley, 0" Od to Os Od per 751bs; oats 15s Od to 17s 6d eggs, 00 to 16 for a la butter, lOd to lid per lb fowls, 38 (5d to 58 Od per couple; ducks, 4s Gd to 6s Od couple geese, Os. SHREWSBURY GENERAL. SATURDAY AND WKDNTSS- DAY. Butter, lid to is per lb eggs, 11 to 12 for Is; fowls, 38 6d to 5s Od per couple ducks, 5s Od to 6s Od couple; geese, Od to Os each turkeys, Os to Os Od each rabbits, 28 OJ to 2s 4d per couple; pigeons Is Od to Is 2d per couple potatoes 3s Od to 3s 6d per cwt; cabbages, 0s 9d to Is 6d per dozen broccoli, 2s Od to 3s Od per dozen parsnips, Os Od to Os Od per cwt; carrots, Os Od toOsOdper cwt; apples, Od to Od per qr; peas, Is to Is 6,1 per peck gooseberries, 3d to 4d per quart; strawberries, 8d to Is per quart; cher- ries, 4d to 6d per lb. OSWESTRY CORN AND GENERAL, WEDNESDAY.— Fresh butter, lid to la Od per Ib eggs, 12 to 13 for Is; fowls, 4s Od to 5s Od per couple; ducks, 5s (3d to 6s Od per couple; geese, Os Od to Os each rabbits, 2s 4d to 2s 6d per couple potatoes, 3s 6d to 4s Od per cwt; white wheat, 4s lOd to 5s Od per 751bs new, 4s 8d to 4s lOd; red wheat, 43 8d to 4s lOd new, Os Od to Os Od malting barley, 18s Od to 20s Od per 280lbs; oats, 15a 3d to 18s 3d per 200. BIRMINGHAM CORN, TiaUP.SDA.Y.- English and foreign wheat slow at nominally unaltered prices. Grinding barley Is, maize 7d, and beans 3d lower. Oats firm. MANCHESTER CORN, THURSDAY.—Thib market was well attended, and there was a fmr enquiry for most articles. Wheat practically repeats last week's quotations in all positions. Flour firm and un- changed. Oats against buyers. Peas have declined Id per cental. Beans easier, Egyptians selling at 259 6d per quarter. Maize moved freely at a reduction of l £ d per cental below the prices of last Thursday, of lid per cental below the prices of last Thursday, 4s nd being quoted for American mixed. LONDON CORN, MONDAY.—The brilliaut weather makes the market dull, but English wheat keeps up in price, the quality and condition being good, and millers considering it of value to mix with the large purchases made of foreign. The value of all imported wheat must be quoted 6d lower from Monday last, the decline being as marked on fine white sorts as it is on poer red. Reversing the state of things which I prevailed even a week ago, English flour is now more firmly held than foreign, though both sorts are very l cheap. For maize previous prices are asked, the retail prices being good for the time of year. Oats and barley, however, against the holders, and linseed is quite a shilling down. Beans and peas are neglected at barely last week's rates. BIRMINGHAM CATTLE, THURSDAY.-—Fair trade; good supply throughout. Beef, 5!d to 6d and 7d; mutton, 6d to Sd; lamb, 8d to Sid; veal, 6d to 7d— per lb. Bacon pigs, 10s 3d to 10a 6d; sows, 7s 9d to 8s—per score. BRADFORD WOOL, THURSDAY.—Market is still quiet, and turnover of English wools small, and for present consumption only. Although prices are very low, there is some inquiry for Lincoln wethers. Botany tops slow of sale, notwithstanding firmness of London prioea. Mohair and alpaca without change.

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