The Express.
London, England, 1850-08-28 00:00:00

TRH
AGRICULTURAL DISTRICTS.
HUNTINGDON, Ana. 1660.
From Henlow I returned to Bialeswede through
boethill, the splendid estate of Mr. Whitbread. The
road through the park passes in front of the floe old
mansion, from whetoe a lawn reaches to a largo *hest
of water, which has been musk enlarged by the
present proprietor. The grounds are very grand, end
the estate extends for six or seven miles in the dine-
tion of Bedford. That part of it I gassed which is
occupied by farmers consists of light lend, real
turnip soil, on which sheep can be fed on tie land
throughout the winter. It seems to be pretty well
farmed on the ordinary four course rotation. In
the village all the cottages are remarkably sabetantiul
and neat. Indeed, throughout the day I was pleased
to totice the evident improvement which is taking
place in the eettages throughout this district. Even
where the farm buildings are quits neg'octefl more
or leas of effort is mode to repair or rebuild the
cottages. In passing through Mr. Whithread'e estate
I met with his bailiff, who showed me his mongol&
warzel crop, of wkich be is justly proud. Thus early
many of the roots must weigh ten pounds, and the
whole of them approach that size. Some of the
Brest are growing on a piece of sandy land, and the
only dressing need consisted of three hundred weight
of salt, sad one of nitrate of soda. A gentleman
of the neighbourhood to whom I mentioned
this circumstance, said that the land hr.d
latel7 been woodlan I and the site of a rookery
and if that be so, some part of this luxuriant crop of
beet must be attributed to the fresh vegetable soil and
the guano-like droppings of the rooks, which had pro-
bably fallen there fur ages.
So true is it that all the prior circumetancea of the
land must be accurately known before any agricul-
tural experiment can be made that is worth recording.
Immediately adjoining is the village of Old Warner,
the property of Lord Ongley, who has a residenoe
there. In this place all the cottages are not purely
good, but each of them, in fact, a cottage arab),
having its outside nicely ornamented with trellis
work, creeping plants, and flowers. And I believe this
sort of thing is kept up not by the occupiers of the
cottages, but at the roble owner's expense. This is
of course a pretty fancy, and nothing more; it is not
the sort of improvement required to be made in our
English cottages.
lhe principal farm in this place is occupied by Mr.
Davie, a fine specimen of the jolly yeoman, cad a
giros d man withal. Mr. Davis profi sses to I Lugh
some of the breeders of short-horns in the neighbour-
hood as " fancy breeders," and aroma to think they
sacrifice everything to their desire for pure blood
But he is himself as extensive hi-ceder, and he takes
especial care always to use a good and prre bred bull,
ant most of his cows are for two or three de-
scents of tree short horn blood. Mr. Davis reqaires
the cows he breeds from to be of the right shape, rind,
above all, to have good heads and horns,—no bad in-
dications, by the bye, of good blood to begin with, and
then he proceeds to breed reertndani artem. Hie
management, however, differs from most short-horn
breeders in this, that he cells off all his cows at four
or Eve years o'd with the second or third calf, for he
allows them to calve down the first time at two years'
uld. I doubt tLe soundness of this practice of breed-
ing from stock so young, but certainly many of Mr.
Davis's cows which had calves nt two years old are
in no way inferior in size or shape to the generality
of good short horn cows; as it is certain few of
thr m at teat age will fail to breed, whereas many by
two years of age become, if well kept, so fat as to be
barren. In his determination to kegs no breeding
arimal which has not a good head, I think Mr. Davis
shows a sound judgment, and in some herds this is •
point too little attended to. Clone to Mr. 1) tv:e's farm
is a quiet modest-looking cottage of the lion. George
Ongley, Lord Ongley'is brother, who farms and breeds
a fele short horos in a very business-like way. He
has also a good flock of Leicester ewes.
. .

At 1:A1411-green the soil again becomes heavier
than in Ssutbiil or IVarner, and continues of a similar
character to Girteerod, where there is a geed deal of
pasture land. At G:rtwood to Mr. Ayres, an exten-
sive farmer who manages his land with great skill,
and pays great attention to a very select herd of short
home. Mr. Ayres hal ten cows, and rears all their
calves, retaining the heifers for the dairy and feeding
off the steers at two and two•and-a-balf years of age;
and he also fattens every cow which does prove to be
a really good milker. The effect of this management
is that Mr.Ayres'ecowsare more decidedly dairy cows
than any other herd I have mentioned, taken as a
whole. The natural consequence of their milking so
well is that they carry less flesh then most herds of
equal breeding. At or near Oirtwood is the farm of
Mr. Paulett, a celebrated breeder of Leicester rams,
and whose sheep have taken several prizes at the
Royal Agricultural Societies. I had no' time to look
at his dock, bat the abundant show of roots,
cabbage', and so forth growing on the farm
proves the anxious care with which Mr. Pan-
lett provides for his valaable Bock. I was likewise
compelled by an engagement to forego the inspection
of the herd and farming establishment of Francis
Pyrn, Esq., wnich is in this neighbourhood, and where,
I was told, every thing is carried out in the best
manner, all the stock beirg kept "constantly in the
house. After going through this portiou of Bedford-
shire, where the farming is of more than an average
goodness, and in many cases may fairly be called
good ; and where both the quantity of stock bred and
kept is more than usual, except in a few peculiarly
well &rend districts. I cannot avoid observing that,
compaeng what is actually done here with what may
be accomplished by additional enterprise, there re-
mains a f as yet scarcely explored, in which the
farmers may realise larger profits than they have
hitherto done. To do so they must break up yet more
of their pastures, which, tLough useful, are not better
than second or third rate, and adopt more completely
than they have hitherto attempted, the practice of
housing their stock. At present buildings are mach
wanted for such purposes, and these it is landowners
promise to supply. But arch changes must be the work
of time, the gradual results of a conviction on
the part of landlords and tenants that farming is
not tLe merely routine bu.iness they have been &CC WY
tome d to consider it, and that landed property is ca-
pable by improvement, of yielding to its owners
additional income. Such conviction is beingrapidly
wrought into the minds of both parties; for, since
the repeal of the corn laws there is nothing to ob-
scure and distort their views of their own interests. I
am more than ever satisfied that the removal of pro-
tection and the dispersion of all the erroneous no-
tions engendered by that system in the minds of the
classes affected to be protected, were indispensable
preliminaries to a large and general advance in the
art of husbandry, and the improvement of landed
property applied to agricultural purposes.
A MIDLAND COUNTIES FARMER.

DantXrriVS FIRE.—On Monday afternoon, about
3 o'clock, a firs broke out at the end of St. John's Farm-
yard, adjoining the town of Wallingford, Berke ; and, as
there was a strong westerly wind blowing at the time, the
whole of the farm buildings and ricks were shortly in a
blaze. By the prompt assistance of three engines the
promos of the flames was to some extent arrested ; but not
till the whole of the farm-buildings and several rics of corn
and hay were entirely cousumed. Wows the conflagration
was evangel/Ind nothing remained in the rick and farm-
yard but a heap of ruins, St. John's cottcto adjoining, the
reSidlaN of Mr. W. 8. Clarke, also caught lire several times,
sea it was not extinguished until the dwelling had sustained
considerable damage. The greenhouse and valuable collec-
tion of plants and flowers were destroyed. The cause of the
tire, which is attributed by some to the act of an incendiary,
has not yet been satisfactorily ascertained. The
.property
destroyed is of a heavy amount, but moat of it was Insured.
CANAL LoCKS BUFESSEDED.--Somo months ago
operations were in progress at the 131ackbill-looks, oa the
Forth and Clyde Canal, to de away with the waste of time
attendant on so tedious and eomplieated an 'plead= by the
substitution of an incline, on whisk dm Was might be
drawn up to the proper level by MOM et a slatlemary steam-
engine. The works having now been brought to a comple-
tion, the new mesa was put to the test on Saturday last.
The result was otos* utislaetory, three boats having been
drawn up in lees than five minutes, whilst to have made
them pees throheth the locks would have taken fully half an
hour.—Liverpool Chronicle.