TKK FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



PLATE II. 

 A SHORTHORN OX. 



THE PBOPKRTY OF MR. B. WORTLEY, OF RIDLINGTON, RUTLAND. 



This OX, bred by Mr. Wortley, is by a son of 

 Father Mathew, a bull bred by Lord Spencer, and 

 bou<);ht at the Wiseton sale by Mr. Syson, of Er- 

 pin^ham. The dam, bred by Mr. Wortley himself, 

 is well descended, but has no registered pedigree. 



At the Oakham Show in December, 1856, this 

 ox took the first prize of 7 sovs. as the best steer 

 under three years of age. 



At the same show of the following year he was 

 awarded the first prize of 15 sovs., as the best ox 

 or steer of any breed or weight under five years 

 old — open to all England. 



At the Leicester Show he carried oft' another 

 open first prize of 15 sovs., as the best ox under 

 five years old, of any breed. 



At the Smithfield Club the following week, he 

 took the first prize of 25 sovs., as the best short- 

 horn ox, with the silver medal for the breeder, and 

 the Gold Medal as the best ox in the yard. 



He was thought by some good judges to be 

 the best beast ever sent to the Baker-street Bazaar. 

 He had extraordinary length and breadth, with 

 most beautiful symmetry and compactness of form. 

 His chine and ribs were most wonderfully extended; 

 his immense weight of flesh most evenly laid on, 

 and of first-class quality. His head was very hand- 

 some and bone fine. His girth was nine feet 



and his length six feet. His dead weight was 206 

 stone, with 22 stone of loose fat. His age was 3 

 years 1 1 months and 6 days, when slaughtered by 

 Mr. Smith of Hampstead. 



Mr. Wortley, the breeder and feeder of this fa- 

 mous beast, had never before entered one at the 

 Smithfield Club. His success was so altogether 

 extraordinary; for with the two shorthorns he sent 

 up last Christmas, he took the Gold Medal with the 

 ox, and the third prize, in an exceedingly good 

 class, with his cow. 



Mr. Wortley, who farms under Lord Gainsbo- 

 rough, has been a breeder of shorthorns on a limited 

 scale for the last fourteen or fifteen years. His 

 stock are chiefly from the herds of Mr. Baker of 

 Cottesmore, the late Mr. Samuel Cheetham, and 

 the Messrs. Chapman of Whitwell. 



Although so entirely unknown in London, Mr. 

 Wortley has exhibited at the local meetings with 

 much success, having in the last ten years taken 

 no less than forty premiums for shorthorns. Not- 

 withstanding this, his average does not exceed the 

 raising of more than six calves a year. 



This is, we believe, the first Gold Medal steer 

 from the little county of Rutland. Mr. Baker once 

 won it with a heifer, so that the honours so far are 

 well divided. 



PULPING FOOD. 



BY CI'THBEHT W. JOHNRO?^, ESQ., F.R.S. 



The best state of the mechanical division of food 

 has recently excited considerable inquiry. The 

 pulping of roots has befen strongly urged Upoti the 

 attention of the stock-oWner. The asserted advan- 

 tages of this system of finely dividing the food of 

 animals would seem to arise from either the masti- 

 cating labour of the animal being saved, or from 

 the food by this mode of division being more com- 

 pletely digested. It will not, then, be a useless 

 labour if we briefly consider these two asserted 

 advantages of well dividing our food, and glance 

 at certain errors which are to bs avoided in giving 

 a fair trial to the pulping, or any other system 

 having the same objects. 



The importance of the form in which the food is 

 administered to cattle did not escape the attention 

 of Dr. Lyon Playfair, when he was, some time 



since, addressing himself to the very important 

 subject of the application of physiology to the 

 rearing and feeding of cattle (Jour, Roy. Ag. Soo,, 

 vol. iv., p. 234). He very clearly perceived that 

 the form in which food is given to cattle is far 

 indeed from being a matter of indiflference. If, as 

 he remarked, the food be in a state in which it is 

 either difficult for the animal to attain, or difficult 

 to masticate when obtained, much of it will be lost 

 in the production of force necessary to adapt it for 

 the organs of digestion. The cutting of hay and 

 straw to chaff" is unwittingly done, in fact, with a 

 view to prevent any unnecessary expenditure of 

 force. Less mastication being necessary, conse- 

 quently less of the tissues of the body are expended 

 in grinding down the food. 



Then, as to the better digestion of mechanically- 



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