No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 617 



space which resembled a prairie, and is known as a part of the 

 Dartmoor lands, a lot of flags were stuck around on poles for a 

 distance of about a mile and a half, and a prize of |2,50U was offered 

 to the owner of the shepherd that would take a flock of sheep around 

 these flags in the quickest time. I had the pleasure of seeing the 

 dog and talking to the owner after the prize was won. Nearly all 

 towns, big and small, have their market houses, and once every year 

 each market have their own special day when prizes are given for 

 the best dressed beef, pork, mutton, poultry, etc., and owing to their 

 salubrious climate and pure atmosphere, meats can hang on the 

 hook in the butcher's' shop all day long during the hottest days of 

 the summer, scarcely a fly to be seen. Go where you please when 

 you pass a butcher shop the meats are exposed in the front large 

 windows on the hooks with the price attached, and the cheapest 

 piece of pork that I saw was 15 cents per pound retail. England's 

 beef is known the world over for its quality and juicy nature. But 

 unfortunately for them they cannot raise enough for themselves. 

 One day while in London I was joking a Londoner about the condi- 

 tion of their teeth, more mouths devoid of some of their teeth than 

 I had ever seen, and that I had only seen one dentist shingle in the 

 whole of London so far as I had gone, and had traveled many miles 

 of their streets. He said we will give you that ; America is the home 

 of the dentist, and says he, "Do you know how our people got bad 

 teeth? It is from eating your American beef." After informing 

 him that they got our best, he said their native beef would bring 

 from five to six cents per pound in the open market more than ours, 

 which I afterwards found to be true. This man was anxious to hear 

 of this country, and when I told him we had 100,000 pound cars and a 

 four track stone arch bridge across a river a mile wide only 25 miles 

 from my home, he said, "You have a great country, but you haven't 

 any Towers of London, St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbeys. 

 Give me dear old London." 



Owing to the great demand for meats and dairy products in Eng- 

 land, a great deal of pasturing is done, which makes farming a 

 comparatively easy vocation. The majority of the farmers raise 

 but a small amount of grain, more than will do them for their own 

 use. One day we hired a team at a livery to drive through the 

 country in the county of Devon, and in passing by the gate which 

 opened to a field of oats, I was amazed to see the large clusters of 

 oats and such a large grain. When I returned the horse and trap 

 in the evening, for which I paid six shillings ($1.50), I asked the 

 proprietor what a horse like that wasWorth. He told me £60 ($300); 

 when asked what he paid for oats, he said 3 shillings a bushel (75 

 cents), but could get American oats for a half crown (12 cents), but 

 it wasn't worth anything; too light. He said it was too much like 

 their chaff. A very little hay is harvested and the little that is 

 gathered is stacked and thatched outside. They can pasture all 

 the year round, and it is a common thing to have a field in grass 

 for a number of years, and the sod doesn't seem to wear out. Their 

 grass is very nutritious. All the dilferent grains, such as wheat, 

 oats and barley, yield bountifully. The average of wheat during 

 that year was 35 bushels to the acre. The farmer does not need to 

 push his work hard in harvest because the season is long. The 

 weather being delightful. 

 40 



