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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



feet command over the ploughs, and the beam is 

 on Ransome's patent trussed piinciple, by which 

 greater rigidity and strength are secured, with the 

 same weight of metal, than can be by an ordinary 

 solid beam. This construction of the beam also 

 permits the coulter to be placed quite centrally, 

 so that it does not require to be necked, and there- 

 fore is more easily kept in its proper position than 

 when it is necked, which it must always be in solid 

 beam ploughs. The wheels are carried on one 

 cross bar, the advantage of which is that they can 

 be more firmly fixed in any desired position, and 

 can be more quickly shifted than when they are 

 carried on two separate bars. The whole wheel 

 fastenings are rendered extremely simple, without 

 omitting any adjustment than can possibly be re- 

 quired for either the land or furrow wheels. The 

 draught is taken directly from the head, as the 

 result of very careful experiments goes to show 

 that in a properly constructed plough, the draught 

 bar is quite needless and often very injurious, 

 causing the plough to choke in foul land, or to 

 pitch in hard land. The share is fixed to a 

 wrought-iron moveable lever neck, which allows it 

 to be set with more or less pitch, as may be re- 

 quired, and the arrangements for fixing the neck 

 in the desired position are very much simplified 

 and extremely effective. The form of the share 

 and mould-board have resulted from a series of 

 most careful experiments on a variety of soils, and 



they will be found to leave the furrow slice neatly 

 turned over at an angle of 45°, leaving the upper 

 edge full and sharp, so that there is the greatest 

 quantity of land exposed to the weather that is 

 possible with any given breadth and depth of fur- 

 row. The ploughs are very steady in work, and 

 leave the furrow bottom clean and square. The 

 skim coulter can be set with more or less pitch as 

 desired, and particular care has been given to the 

 form of its share and breast. From the simplicity 

 and mechanical correctness of their construction, 

 these ploughs are very light in draught, and will 

 make excellent work, at the full depth for which 

 each size is constructed. 



Many thousands of the patent trussed beam 

 ploughs have been made, and are now in general 

 use. At the late trials at Warwick, they required 

 lighter draught than any of the other prize ploughs ; 

 while the correct set of the ploughs was evidenced 

 by the very superior work done by them when 

 going without any one to hold them. 



A portrait of Mr, James Allan Ransome, the 

 head of the firm of Ransomesand Sims, appeared in 

 the "Farmers' Magazine" for January, 1857. A 

 portrait of Mr. Richard Hornsby, Senior, was 

 given in January, 1858, and his Warwick plough 

 in October, 1859. Mr. James Howard and the 

 Bedford plough went out side by side in our num- 

 ber for January last, so that the three great Houses 

 are now all fairly represented. 



THE HERDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



MR. AMBLER'S HERD. 

 Chap. XVI. 



Crack Shorthorns seem to have the especial faculty of 

 turning up in spots where one least expects them ; and 

 the Vale of Calder, with its almost unbroken succession 

 of mills and factories, is hardly a Land of Promise. ' ' The 

 Grand Turk of the Evening," as Major Edwards styled 

 Mr. Ambler, at the Portrait Presentation Dinner, has, 

 however, wrought a wondrous change ; and his friends 

 and townsmen might well acknowledge it so gracefully 

 as they did last summer. Cream and beef have learned to 

 fraternize, under his auspices, with worsted and cotton ; 

 and the Herd Book has taken its stand with the ledger. 

 Watkinson Hall Farm, about two miles from Halifax, 

 on the Keighley-road, is the spot where this happy 

 union was first proclaimed. It lies in Ovenden Vale, and 

 is sheltered towards the north by Priestly Hill and 

 Windy Bank, part of that backbone of the West Riding, 

 on which the Ordnance sappers planted their theodolites 

 in the days of the county survey. Mr. Ambler's hold- 

 ing is on the Halifax side of the valley, and consists of 

 about 150 acres, running right down to his worsted 

 mills. Only 20 acres of it is under tillage, and its not 

 very stiff clay and marl is especially suited to swedes. 

 The grass land is for the most part enclosed with stone 

 walls, and snugly belted with oak, ash, beech, and syca- 

 more, which almost hide from view the old Hall, where 

 Thomas Dodds, his well-known bailiff, resides in 

 the midst of his charges. 



It is now about nineteen years since Mr. Ambler be- 

 came a disciple of " Hoof and Horn." His first Herd 

 Book entry was Captain Edwards (8929) by Captain 

 Shafto (6833) ; but he did not fairly grapple with the 



thing till Culshaw came to him in 1845. Honey- 

 suckle, the dam of Captain Edwards (so called after 

 the present member for Beverley), at Lord Spen- 

 cer's sale; Phyllis by Dan O'Connell, of Brough- 

 ton renown, and her dam Abbess, bred by William 

 Smith, of West Rasen ; and Fanny Fairfax, from Mr. 

 W. Holland, were among his first purchases. It was to 

 the latter gentleman also, who had given 36gs. for him, 

 as a calf, at Castle Howard, that he owed his Senator 

 (8548). This renowned son of Lord Marlbro' (7166) won 

 the local prize for aged bulls, at the York Royal in 1848, 

 with Victor, the sire of Alice and Beauty, second ; but 

 he had to bow, along with Bates's Second Duke of Ox- 

 ford (who had beaten Captain Shafto, the Northampton 

 Royal winner, at Scarborough, the year before), and 

 Maynard's Crusade, for the Royal prize in his class, to 

 Deception, who subsequently proved to be only loo 

 truly named. Senator's turn was to come at the Exeter 

 Royal, two summers later, where he wore the first prize 

 ribbons, with the Wiseton-bred Weathercock (9815), 

 and eighteen others behind him ; but by that time 

 next year he had been pitched overboard within four 

 days' sail of New York. Sunrise, by Burlmgton 

 (3245), (who was bought in three times at the Castle 

 Howard sales) was another favourite of Mr. Ambler's ; 

 and Folly, of Whitaker's blood. Belle and her daughter 

 Bell Flower, of Mr. Bates's ; Marion of Lord Spencer's ; 

 Lady Morpeth and Jenny Lind, of the Fairfax tribe ; 

 and Panic, of Sir Charles Tempest's stock, were ihe 

 chief herd matrons, when Dodds succeeded Culshaw in 

 1849. 



With two such able heads to help him, Mr. Ambler 

 might well take his stand very early in the day among 

 the most successful breeders out. Although he has sent 



