The Express.
London, England, 1850-05-22 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.

THE

BTROUD, MAT, 1850.
ilay-4a may be supposed, that as a breeder and
Matra/ et short-bora or Durham cattle, I did not
ml., =at my visit to this part of Gloms-
amidst at the of Duoie's
herd of settle at lisreeteseh Coon. On leaving Whit-
field farm, wide&
totem park of Toetworth
Gout I went at miceport of the derneses in
which this eattle•yerd is diesel This is quite a
show phoe. On gates hs, I limod that thshsedesaso, a
shrewd, Leath/est essepyieg • psalm
loos to to that et a bailiA bad *early eons armed
of the yard, with four estimva of rank Sat 010111:
one of them a neighbouring a:pantry gentiriaeo,:earl
himself a breeder of short-bores, and soothes a melds
apasty member; and I had the advantage of assess-
cling the party in the remainder of thole dank
the :marks made by one at least of
the visitor,, it was obvious that the Tort-
Worth herd woe considered a lion of the
district, which it was considered incumbent on all
strangers to see, for eertainly nothing could indicate
less knowledge of stock and rural economy than the
Inquiries and observations addressed to the herdsman.
I was forcibly reminded of what Mr. Cobden one*
said, that " it would be as absurd to call a shipowners
sailor, as to treat a landowner as an agriculturist,"
' and I could not avoid regarding it as a corollary that,
to be a county member does not imply any knowledge
of husbandry or its interests. After the party had
left, the herdsman observed of one of them, who had
the appearance of a clergyman, and said very little,
that "the parson has been here before, and knows
more about cattle than any of them."
Lord Dude hue now, I believe, the largest herd of
high-bred cattle in England, and he has spared no
expertse in its collection. For some years past his
lordship has given the highest prices for cattle of
superior blood at most of the great short-horn sales;
and he has now the most fashionable blood in this
country. One of his finest bulls is Usurer, bought at
the late Lord Spencer's sale for four hundred
guineas, and generally thought to haie been well
purchased. It would probably interest your readers
but little to particularise the different animals in the
herd which are well worth a journey into Glouce,ter-
shire to see—and there are many such—or to dwell
on the peculiar characteristics of this herd, as I might
do to a party of stock-breeding farmers; for the
general reader it may be sufficient to say, teat the
stock seems admirably suited to the particular pur-
pose for which it is kept, namely, to breed high-bred
ball calves for sale. For this purpose an annual sale
by emotion takes place at Tortworth Court in October,
when all the bull calves not reserved for the owner's
use are sold. Their ages vary from nearly a year tq
a few weeks, and it forms a decisive proof of the esti-
mation in which the stock is held, that for several
years pest the whole of the bull calves have been sold
for the average price of about thirty-five pounds each.
At these annual sales a certain number of Leiters is also
sold, and the general produce must, I should think,
be sufficient to render his lordship's herd a good in-
vestment of capital.
I do not, however, think his herd is managed with
quite the same judgment as that of Mr. Stratton,
which I mentioned in a former letter, for the cows in
particular are too closely confined, and the young
stock have lees room than I like to see afforded them.
There were about forty cows at the yard I visited, and
they were all tied up in stall* on each side of a large
cow-house, in which the drainage and ventilation
were very good. Now for valuable breeding stock of
this sort, it doss not seem too much to require that
each cow should have a separate box or division,
wherein she might turn about, rest in any position,
and take a certain amount of exercise. No doubt this
would require more space than stalls, but nevertheless
it would oe good economy, for I have reason to believe
that the frequency of abortion of which so many
short-horn breeders complain, is in part caused by the
want of freedom of the cows while breeding. I am
satisfied, too, that breeding stock is better kept in
sheds open at one side than in enclosed houses. It
may be different with fatting stock, with which
warmth is equivalent to food, but breeding cows of
good blood have too much tendency to fatten, and if a
greater exposure to the atmosphere shall somewhat
diminish that tendency, it will be beneficial rather
than otherwise, by giving a more vigorous organisa-
tion both to the dam and the offspring. In this herd
twenty cows have this year cast their calves pre-
maturely, which had never occurred before, and
the result will be a short supply of calves for
next October sale. I did not understand
that milking qualities are much regarded at Tort-
worth, and as is the cam with many of oar Durham
breeders, the dairy forms a very mecondar7 object. I
always think this to be a mistake, for it is quite pos-
sible to unite the feeding and milking qualities in the
same animals. A prim essayist, in the Royal Agricul-
tural Society's Journal, in reference to this breed of
cattle, says : "In short-horns, perhaps more than in
any other kind of cattle, the edigree of the sire and
dam is attended to with the greatest care, and
amongst the Durham breeders it is considered a
sine pig non that the bulls they use should be well
descended, whence the extraordinarily high prices
have been, and still continue to be, given for Durham.
of both sexes, provided they are symmetrical animals,
with an unstained pedigree. The ' Short-horn Herd
Book' is well known to every one who professes to
breed pure Durham', and an experienced breeder es-
timates the value of an animal the moment he learns
its pedigree." Thie shows sufficiently why good
breeding is preferred to all else in the Tortworth
herd, for that alone leads to an active competition for
the bull calves.

Everywhere our best dairy farmers ars improving i
their herds of rough cows by the use of a well-bred
male, and the old races are fast disappearing. It has
been often remarked that wherever a herd of well-bred
short horns has been " planted," a rapid improve-
ment in the character of the cattle takes place all
around, as from a centre. The bulls and young stock
at Tortworth Court are kept in loose places, and look
remarkably well. Here, too, I esw some fine sped-
moos of the Yorkshire pig. For one sow his lordship ,
had given as much as forty pounds. In or adjoining
the park I saw some tillage land which appeared to
be in the highest possible state of cultivation. There
were, in an enclosure near the cattle yard, some very
good South Down ram lambs, apparently of the
highest breeding. I do not profess to ad-
mire this breed of sheep, but those of Lord
Dock's are of the highest class of the breed. Beyond
the Park farm and that of Mr. Norton, the Tortworth
estate does not appear to exhibit much superiority of
management over other properties of the district.
The farms are chiefly dairy farms, in the hands of
yearly tenon* and though the houses and buildings
seem in better condition than those of tits Berkeley
property, and Ism crowded with trees, the general
system pursued seems to be very much alike on the
two properties.
On going from Tortworth to the Berkeley-road 'ti-
dos, I pawed through a more desolate part of the
Berkeley estate than I had before seen ; the plague of
game was upon it, nothing seemed to live or thrive
there but bare and pheasants; and they were innu-
merable. The whole of this district, for which
nature has doss so mach and man so little,
offers a striking contradiction to the absurd
claim sometimes pet forward on behalf of
the great landholders, of benefiting the neigh-
bourhood by their pram" and large local ex-
penditure. Without osmium too calumny of what
gist expenditure monists, I may say in laming that
Ss employment of jockeys, grooms, gamekeepers,
e* ethers of that sort, is not that which beet con-
dimsM the morality or the economical improvement
while it is notorious that the resident
Wed moats more frequently restricts the free
mess of lie tenants than stimulates agricaltural im-
provement by affording security of tenure. Every
now end then I came upon a farm where the build-
ings were good. and the management was obviously
baler than that common in the district, and the
answer to my inquiry sa to its ownership invariably
was, either that it belonged to the occupier, or was
rented by him on lease from some proprietor at a
distasee.—Yours, &0.,
A MIDLAND COUNTIES FARMER.

RUMS= LITTERIL—On aml from the lit of
hoe next, registered letters will be forwarded iluosigh
London on Baaisys. At present they mama be forwarded
from sosstry postolleee on Saturday nights, bemuse the
tee is prepaid ia way, end sot by still of June next. the registestios tee mat still be
prepaid in money by the publish but pastimes's will be
misspelled to al: stamps of Mr talus of the fee to Gogh
regbarred letter. In all other wee poslosseten as strictly
pcolibited his AA% @tsar to lifters for the pablte•