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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



thing ; for which no composition would serve but 

 the ruin of it, which by this verdict was accom- 

 phshed." 



BUthe, indeed, well understood the value of 

 water-meads,*and of the necessity of well draining 

 them, so that, as he says, " nothing shall remain 

 behind but the sludge, fatnesse, or thicknesse of 

 the water." And this drainage, as he observes, 

 must be deep ; or to use his own words, " Indeed, 

 the excellency of this is in draining out all the 

 water again, and going below any springy, boggy 

 matter, in order to fetch it out of the ground, 

 which, indeed, is the venom and poison of it." It 

 might serve to make us more modest in our esti- 

 mate of the knowledge of our time, if we collated 

 the work before us with some recent controversies 

 on sewage irrigation. 



Bhthe shared the fate of all those who boldly 

 strike out from well-beaten paths, apply new prin- 

 ciples, and make novel assertions. He feelingly 

 tells us that he presents " a rude draught of some 

 of his own experiences, though purchased to himself 

 at a thousand-fold dearer rate, all which," he adds, 

 " have caused both his thoughts and practices to 

 be made legible, and himself the subject of every 

 opinion, wise or weak ; and though dogs bark and 

 join together in their clamor against those they 

 know not, yet he hopes the ingenuous honest reader 

 will not speak evil, or condemn before hearing or 

 offence given." 



He was evidently strongly opposed and ridiculed 



in his clever advocacy of under-drainage and of 

 irrigation. He, like all other first explorers, spent 

 considerable sums in experiments, of which others 

 reaped the benefit — expenses which materially 

 spoilt the appearance of his balance-sheet. His 

 was a fate which many have since experienced. It 

 was thus that, in the same century, Jethro Tull, 

 who invented the horse-hoe and the drill, was 

 taunted by his cotempoi'aries with having " drilled 

 away his fortune." It was in such a spirit that 

 Bakewell was asked how, and why, he lost by his 

 noble sheep ? — the Collings, why they were so 

 poorly rewarded, in a pecuniary point of view, by 

 their splendid herds of shorthorns ? The same ob- 

 jections are unfairly raised even now on almost 

 every possible occasion, against those who are ex- 

 perimentally and boldly endeavouring to improve 

 their lands ; the question is far too often asked of 

 such improvers — "Where is your balance-sheet?" 

 There is commonly much too great a readiness 

 to confound the advocate (especially if, like many 

 a great friend of the profession, he is an interloper 

 of agriculture) with the arguments he employs and 

 the valuable facts he produces. It was in such a 

 spirit objected to Tull, as an improver of tillage, 

 that he was a barrister; to the inventor of the 

 thrashing-machine, that he was a Scotch advocate; 

 to the author of the reaping-machine, that he was 

 merely a minister of a Scotch kirk ; and to the first 

 introducer of the use of superphosphate of lime, 

 that he was only a German chemist ! ! 



THE HERDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Chap. XV. 

 THE BROUGHTON HERD. 



It has bean said with truth, that " few who travel up 

 the valley of the Aire, on their way to Scotland, dream 

 that one of the brightest and most beautiful of gardens 

 in the north of England, lies embosomed there, amongst 

 magnificent beeches and time-honoured specimens of 

 yew." The lover of Sliortborns, however, if he only 

 glances from the railway carriage window at the rich 

 pastures through which he is whirled, would never be 

 brought to share the florist's surprise, even if he had 

 never heard of the glories of " Tom Mason and Peach," 

 or read of his pupil Culshaw'svow by the side of his 

 first boyish love, April Daisy, of Greenholme, " to 

 rear some of the sort, or even better than her." After 

 a most miserable twenty-four hours at the Burnley Inn, 

 witli only the pattering of the rain and the factory clogs 

 for our music by day, and a thundering diapason, with 

 a sheet lightning accompaniment by night, it seemed 

 when Broughton Hall was reached, as if we had been 

 the subjects of some Lyceum drop-scene magic, and that 

 " The gloomy Cave of Despair" had been succeeded by 

 " the Valley of Calm Delights," full of geraniums and 

 Harbinger heifers. We know not when flowers began 

 to play such an important part, but although the 

 pedigrees were uncared for, the Tempest family have 

 taken an especial pride in cattle since the beginning 

 of the century ; and in 1808, Mr. Tempest, the 

 father of the present baronet, refused i,'160 for two fat 

 cows. The herd was originally commenced by Sir 

 Charles, in 1828, three years after his father's death. 

 Mr. Whitaker was his first Mentor, and many were the 



journeys which his bailiff (Mason) undertook with Tim 

 Metcalf, as " consulting counsel," through the North 

 Riding, in search of clever things. 



True to the floral connection, Verbena, bred by Mr. 

 How, of Coldstream, was the first cow of mark under 

 the new era at Broughton. She was by a son of Wel- 

 lington (079), from a cow bred by Mr. Robertson, of 

 Ladykirk, who had used the best of the Collings' bulls. 

 Her produce in Sir Charles's hands was Vrstris by 

 Cato(1794), and Vanity by Sir Walter (2638). The 

 former bred eleven calves, and the latter nine, the most 

 part of them by Mr. Whitaker's Frederick (1000), 

 and Mr. Fawkes's Norfolk (2377). Bella, by Bertram 

 (1716), was bought at Mr. Whitaker's sale in 1833, and 

 calved Beauty by De Voeux a few minutes after she 

 reached her new home. At Mr. Richard Booth's sale 

 in '3-1, Sir Charles made a bolder venture, and gave 100 

 gs. for the young bull Brutus (1752). Duchess, who did 

 not breed, and Fair Helen by Young Albion, who had 

 already produced in Mr. Booth's possession Cossack 

 (the sire of Clementi and CoUard, both of which fetched 

 200 gs. a piece in Mr. Parkinson's hands, when under 

 one year old), were his other Studley purchases. 



Among Fair Helen's calves were Strawberry, Angelica, 

 Queen of Trumps, Victoria, and Miss Bayley by Bru- 

 tus ; and the latter was the first animal that Sir Charles 

 ever showed at Smithfield, the year before the gold 

 medal was won by Nina Lassave by Scrip (2604), 

 from the Castle Howard sort, whom he had bred and 

 sold to her exhibitor, Mr. Maxwell of Everingham Park. 

 Those were days when fat cows had no reprieves on their 

 way to the block, and hence the " unfortunate Miss 

 Bayley" was not to be found in Baker-street that Christ- 



