REVIEW OF THE CATTLE TRADE DURING THE PAST MONTH. During the month the cattle trade has been free from any importaut feature. Supplies mostly have been short, and although business has generally lacked activity, steadiness has prevailed. The deliveries of beasts from Lincolnshire, &c., have fallen materially short of the corresponding month last year. Those from Scotland have been slightly heavier, whilst Ireland has contributed a much more liberal supply. The foreign receipts have been much less. From America the supplies were considerably less, and those from Spain and Denmark were also contracted. At Deptford there have been large detentions of Tonning stock and these have, in some measure, compensated for the deficiency in other quarters. As regards the state of trade, quietness has been the more distinguishing characteristic. The best Scots and crosses have however in in some instances made as much as 6s. 2d. per 8 lbs., but that quotation has not been uniform throughout the mouth. The total supplies of sheep to hand have been much below the quantity offered in September, 1876. The trade has been generally steady, and not unfrequently rather active. Quotations have ruled tolerably firm, the best Downs and hall-breds making 78. 2d. per 8 lbs. Calves and pigs show no special movement. The following shows the extent of our importa during September: Beasts 1876. 19,133 1877. 9,049 72,570 69.458 Calves......................... 3,627 LAMINATA 1,740 1,940 1876. From our own grazing districts the receipts were as under : Sheep Barley. Oats. 6. d. Pigs...69 33 9 28 4 Aug. 18, 1877.................................................. Sept. 22, 1877................... Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, 1877. and Northamptonshire ..... 10,750 J.KG. TAAS$ 7,900 Other parts of England.... 1,910 maleman? 1,660 Scotland Ireland... ཤུན བ ཁ--6 བསྟནན བཏས° 770 * 2100 The total supplies of stock exhibited and sold were: 1876. 1877 30,210........ 14,445 112;170............. 46.472 Beasts have sold at from 48. 6d. to 6s. 2d.; sheep, 5s. 6d. to 78. 2d.; calves, 58. to 6s. 4d. ; and pigs, 4s. to 58. 4d. per 8 lbs., sisking the offul. VATA Beasts Sheep Peas ................owts. 5536 Maise Pigs 298-19 Calves ......... COMPARISON OF PRICES, 1876. 8. d. s. d. 3 4 to 6 4 40 to 7 1:|:| 4 6 to 6 6 4 6 to 5 6 1875. ds. 0 to 6 6 to 7 61 46 to 6 J 456 to 5A4 Apples, half-nieve 6 to 36 Oranges, hundred 13 20 VEGETABLES. YA Artichokes, per bus: 0 o to or Mint, gra., per bunot Eng. Globe, do..... 38 4 Mushrooms, pottle 1 Beans, Fr., new, b. 0 0 0 Onions, 1 bunches Beet, per dezen ......... ·10 20 Young, bundis Oabbages, per dosen Peas, wreen, per bush 2 Parsley per bunch Carrots, bunch 040 New French, per b 00 Cauliflowers, per dos. 16 Oelery, bundle ...... 14 Chilies, green, per 100..001 Cucumbers, each ...... 0 3 Endive, per doz. 1.0 Batavian, per dos.... 2 0 Garlic, per ib....... 3 Salsafy, bundle ...... 10 0Shallots, lb......... 06 00 1 t shelled, per quart, 1-6 Potatoes, new, per Iboo Radishes, per bunch.. 0 40 Spanish per dos...... 1 0 New Jersey, per dos 20 0 0 Rhubarb, bundle 00 06 Gooseberries, art... Herbs, per bunon ...... Spinach per bushel ... 36 Tomatoes, dos. ...... 10 00 Horse Radish.bund. Turnips,ban... Leeks, per bunch now, per bandie 57305 Lettnove, Co. per doz. Veg. Marrows, per az 1 8. 1772 Knglish, score......... 20 Grand Total.. 1382482 397085 THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. NOVEMBER, 1877. PLATE. THE AGENT. "-Light thickens; and the crow Makes way for the rooky wood : Good things of day begin to droop and drowse While night's dark agents to their prey do rouse. The Agent-Don't be alarmed, Sir, for ours' is no black-whiskered gentlemen, coming with a thundering rap to demand the rent, but an agent of the anti-over preservation of game society, who seldom makes his appearance before the shades of evening have set in to see if your farm is over-stocked. See how warily he creeps out of the thicket, stopping at every step to reconnoitre. What a conscience the rascal has, for the waving of a reed, the falling of a beech must, or the rustling of a leaf startles him, and causes those short pricked ears to FARMERS' BLANDFORD. FARMERS' FOES. The concluding meeting for discussion of the season by the members of this Club was held on October 20. at the Crown Hotel, Blandford, Mr. C. Cox-Bartlett in the chair. The CHAIRMAN said Mr. Galpin had very kindly and at a short notice consented to bring forward a subject, and he must personally thank him for doing so. Mr. GALFIN, after a few introductory remarks, then read a paper on "Some of the Farmers' Foes." He commenced by saying he did not mean to call their attention to a political question. Whether the men who advocated the repeal of the Corn-laws, or, on the other hand, those who stuck out for protection, were the farmers' friends or foes did not concern them then to enquire. He then proceeded: For my own part I have a very dim and misty idea with regard to the great question of those times. All I know is I was in favour of the repeal of the Corn-laws, because, being then at school, we were promised, if the Corn-laws were abolished, we should have a jolly tuck out with plum pudding ad libitum. We had the tuck out and we had the plum pudding, and I felt very ill afterwards. Neither woula I call your attention to certain persons who go about the country setting class against class, and endeavouring to cause dissensions between employers and employed. 1 think the time will soon come when both parties will see it their common interest to pull together, and then the well being of the one will reflect itself on the other. But farmers find they have plenty of foes to contend with, or, if not exactly foes, they have in their daily occupations conditions to contend against, whether it be of climate or of disease, of blight and mildew, or the depredations of noxious animals and insects. Without going far from home we know farmers are considered to possess in an eminent degree the great characteristic of an Englishman-that of grumbling. Cowper, in describi. g the farmers at a tithe audit, work to and fro as if asking what's in the wind? And now a blackbird, alarmed by his stealthy movements, with shrill notes, darts from a neighbouring bush which is too much for reynard'slightly strung nerves, and away he goes, as though it had been the sound of hound and horn, or he had caught sight of the "woman in white" "the old gentleman in black," "the golden farmer' or some other imaginary agent of the dusky night, which the oldest inhabitant, with solemn aspect and voice, still avers haunt the skirts of our village. CLUBS. But who has a greater right to grumble than the farmer? I have been with a party bent on a pleasure excursion, and a little rain has spoilt their fun. Oh, what sore grumblings have I heard! And yet what was it? Only a little pleasure delayed; whereas a day or two of rain sometimes causes a farmer's loss to be one or two hundred pounds. But, gentlemen, I thought by introducing this subject we ought to get a lively discussion, for it is one in which we are all interested, and each one can speak from his own experience. I propose, then, to call your attention very shortly to some of the insects which infest onr crops, and we will begin with the turnip crop. After no end of ploughings, rollings, and harrowings, the application of artificial manures, and other expenses, no sooner do the young turnip plants appear above the ground than there is an enemy waiting to attack them and carry them off. Every one knows what the turnip fly is. I believe it is called by different names in different counties. The scientific name is the altica nemorum. I am indebted to "Curtis' Farm Insects" for any observations as to the economy of these insects, and I would strongly advise any farmer who has not this work to get it, as it is a most valuable contribution to entomology, and has besides the great recommendation of being a practical work written by a scientific and practical man in language specially adapted to practical men. Curtis said the female beetle, after hybernating through the winter, lays its eggs on the under side of leaves. These eggs hatch out into little maggots in about ten days. The maggots live about six days and then turn to chrysalides, in which state they remain about 14 days and hatch out into beetles, so that it takes about 30 days to complete the round of Nature, and thus one pair of insects may produce five or six broods in a season, and, as it is in the beetle stage these insects do the mischief, this will account for the fact that at certain periods during the summer they are more numerous and do more mischief than at others. Curtis gives any amount of remedies derived from practical experience of farmers, but none of them are more than partially successful. He recommends the destruction of charlock and hedge mustard and all cruciferous weeds in hedges, &c., as by these plants the beetles are kept alive till the turnips are ready for them. From my own experience I have found the fly is generally more active the latter part of VCL. LXXXIII.—No. 5, May and first week in June, destroying our early rape, whilst swedes which have been sown about the 9th of June have escaped their ravages; and, again, in the last week of July and beginning of August I have found them very troublesome on the late young turnips. I believe we must look to proper cultivation of the land so as to produce a good tilth, the employment of plenty of artificial manure so as to force the plant out of the reach of the insects, as it is only on the catyledina or young leaves that the insect preys; and if we can get the plant in rough leaf it is comparatively safe. Also I think the sowing of a good quantity of seed acts as a protective. At the Bath Show this year I saw a revolving sort of fan for blowing the insects into a trough, where they were caught after the fashion of "Catch 'em alive, O!" Has any person seen it used? But the turnip, although it may escape its first enemy, has plenty more to contend with. There are several moths whose caterpillars feed on it, some eating the leaves and some biting off the young root; and I think for the destruction of these pests we must chiefly look to the aid of birds. The rook will eat the wireworm, but frequently he does more harm by pulling up the turnip plant to look for it. I had a field of swedes which was being eaten up by the caterpillars of the Dart moth; however, the peewits found them ⚫out, and so persistently stuck to them that they saved the crop. I remember also at the time I was living at Mr. Saunders', a small green caterpillar (cerostorna Xylostella) was eating the leaves of the young swedes, when a flock of starlings came upon the scene and in a short time cleared them off. But the ravages of the caterpillar of the turnip sawfly, called the black palmer, are most to be dreaded. If we lose our young plants by the turnip beetle we may be able to sow again, but this demon of darkness comes when the crop is just arrived at maturity; after all the labour and trouble bestowed upon it he makes himself at home and takes what does not belong to him. The turnip sawfly (athalia spinarum) is of a bright orange colour; and the female, which is furnished with a kind of small lancet, when about to lay eggs selects a turnip leaf, and, after separating the cuticle with the lancet lays its eggs in the interior; these eggs are hatched in about five or six days, and the young caterpillars soon begin, eating. They eat so voraciously and grow so fast that their bodies get too large for their skins, so they cast them off twice or three times till they are full grown. Rooks will destroy the caterpillar, and swallows are very useful in eatching the parent fly; but when the caterpillar is very numerous I have found ducks very serviceable in destroying them, only it is necessary to feed the duck on some grain as well, otherwise too many caterpillars will upset their digestive organs. We will now pass on to consider one or two insects affecting peas and beans. The first is a small beetle called curculio or sitona lineator. This little weevil, which is wery difficult to see on account of its being of much the same colour as the ground, and also of its habit of falling to the ground and remaining motionless on the approach of danger, eats round and notches out the margin of the young leaf, retarding its growth, and if the beetles are very nunerous, destroying the crop much in the same way as the turnip fly destroys the turnip. I do not know of any way of destroying these insects. But the most formidable pest of the pea and bean crop is the aphis, called also the dolphin. This is of the same family as the green fly, so abundant in our gardens and attacking nearly every living plant. The economy of these insects is so interesting that it will be worth our while glancing at it for a few moments. These insects are hatched in the spring of the year from eggs which have been laid the previous autumn. These are all wingless females, and they begin to produce young in ten or twelve days, which are also females, wingless, and as there are no males to be seen until the autumn, when pairing takes place, these females must be pregnant at their birth without sexual intercourse, and this occurs for several successive generations. About the middle of September the last generation, consisting of males and females, is produced. When they have attained maturity the sexes pair and the females no longer bring forth young, but lay eggs to be hatched in the succeeding spring. The wonderful fecundity of these insects is so marvellous that it has been calculated that from one egg only 729 million aphides may be produced in seven generations, so that, unless there were some retarding influences at work, everything on the face of the earth would be eaten up by them. Fortumately no tribe of insects has a greater number of enemies' than these aphides. Time will not permit our glancing at them; but may say there are parasitic or ichneumon flies which deposit then eggs on the body of the poor aphis, and the maggots from these eggs literally eat up their host; but the most valuable antidote to the aphis is the ladybird. Don't ever kill one of these beautiful and useful little insects. The larvae of these ladybirds, which is an ugly looking beast, and which no doubt many of you have seen and know quite well, eats up the aphides wholesale, and in my own experience I have known a field of peas saved entirely by these larvae. There are other larvae which prey on aphides but our time will not permit us to notice them. Our corn crops are subject to a number of insect enemies, and prominent among them are the wireworms. These werms I believe live five years in the ground before they turn to pupa or chrysalides; these pupae are buried in the earth till they turn into small beetles called elators or skip-jacks. I will ask any one present to tell me how to kill or get rid of the wireworms, for I do not know. Just before harvest we sometimes find ears of several wheat stalks become prematurely ripe or perhaps the stalks break off above the root. This is caused by a fly called the corn saway depositing its eggs in the stalk, and the larvæ arising from these eggs eat away the interior of the stalks, so causing it to shrivel up and decay. The larva buries itself in the stubble in the ground, so that the practice of paring and burning stubbles immediately after harvest tends to destroy many of our insect pests. There is also another fly, called Cecidomyia tritici (the British wheat midge), which lays its eggs in the husk of the wheat ear, and the yellowish little maggots which arise from these eggs feed on the corn and occasion frequently the shrunk corn we find in the ear. These little maggots are often seen in our barns in the chaff of the wheat, etc. Another source of loss to the farmer is that arising from the ear cockle or peppercorn. This is an abortive grain of wheat, consisting, instead of flour, of a quantity of worms, called vibriones something like the vinegar eels. The eggs are taken up in the sap from infected grains which has been sown and hatch out into these worms. The remedy of course is not to sow the infected corn. We have considered somewhat in detail those pests which prey generally on one particular crop. We have seen the turnip fly and the black palmer eating up our turnips; the aphides destroying our peas and beans, the wireworms, the sawfly, and wheat midge decimating our corn crop; but there is yet another pest which is not so considerate. He is an "omuium gatherum;" he likes everything. But we must speak low and with bated breath whilst considering his case. The others are Ishmaelites: their hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against them. But hares and rabbits are a peculiar people. Laws are made for their especial protection, and they can only be touched by certified means and by certified persons in strict accordance with the law. It will be useless, therefore, our discussing how to get rid of this pest without doing away with the laws which protect him. For my own part I think the damage done by pheasants-except in comparatively rare instances-is not great, and as to partridges, I believe they do more good than harm. But hares and rabbits ought to be, if not destroyed, at least kept down. We have far from exhausted the subject of the right of the farmers to grumble. To say nothing of blight and mildew, of rust and smut in our corn crops, the ravages which disease and parasitic animals cause in our live stock make the profession of farming to be not altogether that bed of roses which many people, not farmers, so fondly imagine. The CHAIRMAN having invited discussion, Mr. HENRY FOOKES said he considered Mr. Galpin had given them some very useful hints. He certainly could not understand as to the propagation of aphides-that was a mystery he could not fathom. There was one thing which he would like to know, and that was as to the cause and prevention of club-rooted turnips. He had hitherto thought chalk was a preventive, but never before had he so large a proportion of his turnips club-rooted as this year, and even on a new formed border, which the reformatory boys came and cleared not, and which was entirely new ground, the same thing oecurred. Mr. OWEN RICHARDS said so far as his experience went, chalking the land was a preventive to club-root, but he had tried mixing a small portion of quicklime with the artificial manure he used, and found that was useful. He considered |