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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



spring ; another own brother. Midshipman, in 1852 ; and a filly called Wave, by Gabbler, in 1851. On 

 the decease of Mr. Fowler, in the beginning of the year 1853, she was sold at the hammer, in foal with 

 Fisherman, to a Mr, Smith, for SO guineas, and at once transferred to Mr. Holford's stud. Mareschino, 

 by Peppermint, is all we hear of, here. She has lately been purchased by Mr. Parr. 



Fisherman is a dark-brown horse, standing close on sixteen hands and an inch high. lie has a 

 coarse head, rather wide between the ears, very strong neck, good oblique shoulders, and great depth of 

 girth. He has a short back, with good back ribs ; is high on the rump, drooping towards the tail, 

 which is thin and ragged. His arms are large, and set on forward in the shoulder; he has capital knees 

 and hocks, with plenty of bone; long pasterns, and a somewhat large oval foot. His especial peculiari- 

 ties are, that the angle from the hip to the round bone is very acute, with a remarkable straightness in 

 his quarters and gaskins, and a rather unusual length of leg. If we couple these with a curious kind of 

 knock-kneed action in walking, the tall gaunt frame of Fisherman Is easily distinguishable. In fact, he 

 is altogether but a mean-looking horse, and will rank amongst the more useful than ornamental. 

 He has learnt, too, the great Wantage secret, and, despite his hundred and odd races, is nowas sound as 

 the day he was foaled. A star on the forehead, and some white on the fore and hind coronet, complete 

 the passport. 



Fisherman has again changed hands, and is now the property of Mr. Holland. 



TOP-DRESSINGS FOR GRASS. 



BY CUTHBEKT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., P.R.S. 



Considerable doubts have too long been enter- 

 tained as to the manures adapted for grass lands : 

 a still more undecided question with many farmers 

 is as to the economy of manuring pasture at all — 

 far too many holders of grass lands do not allow 

 their pastures to have even the benefit of the doubt. 

 Travel where you may, you not only see extensive 

 neglected common lands, and downs, from which 

 age after age the herbage has been withdrawn ; but 

 you may note other large upland pastures, to which 

 the oldest neighbour cannot remember that a single 

 cartload of manure was ever returned. Need we 

 feel surprised then, when the owners gravely inform 

 us that the grass on these unmanured lands does 

 not commonly grow so strong as it used to do in 

 their younger days ? Ought we not to feel grateful 

 to the great Cheshire farmers when they noted 

 this decrease in the produce of their dairies ? ard 

 still more were they entitled to our thanks, when, 

 after remarking the loss they were suffering, they 

 were the first to discover and apply a remedy ? 



These facts ought to insure our early attention — 

 and perhaps more particularly at the present season 

 of the year, since it has been a growing conviction 

 of late, with many large owners of grass lands, 

 that November, December, and January are the 

 months when almost all dressings can be more 

 profitably applied to the land than in the spring. 

 Let us, then, travel together through a little of this 

 kind of evidence, which has been lately offered for 

 our guidance. 



Fffst, then, why do we find that grass is more 



neglected than corn lands ? Mr. H. S. Thompson, 

 in a very recent valuable paper, in the 19th volume 

 of the Journal of the Royal Ayricultural Society, 

 p. 251, endeavours to answer this question. After 

 having truly enough stated that as regards our 

 corn, our turnip lands, the noble cultivators of 

 our islands have well succeeded in making two 

 blades grow where only one grew before, he then 

 asks : " But what of the grass ? Few farmers could, 

 we fear, give a satisfactory answer ; few could say 

 that they had even tried to do more than keep their 

 grass land up to the mark, that mark being the 

 old landmark of quantity and quahty. In short, 

 they have only tried to ])roduce the same number 

 of blades of grass as heretofore. Fifty years ago, 

 previous to the most striking improvements in our 

 arable farming, Arthur Young estimated the best 

 meadow land to produce 5 tons of hay per acre per 

 annum (at two mowings), and the best grazing 

 land to feed an ox of 90 to iOO stone (Hlbs.), and 

 1 large Lincolnshire sheej) per acre ! Who can 

 say, in 1858, that he has done more ? How many 

 can claim to have done as much ? Doubtless bogs 

 have been drained, mountains and moors cleared 

 of rocks and rubbish, and many thousands of acres 

 made to grow grass where none, or next to none, 

 grew before ; but, taking the great body of the 

 grass land of the kingdom, is it not notorious that 

 farmers — good farmers — men of capital and intelli- 

 gence, do, for the most part, look at their grass 

 land as a kind of fixture, almost as much so, in 

 fact, as the rooms of their houses? There is a 



