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THB FARMER^S MAGAZINE, 



crop with its former luxuriance — are all matters 

 needing the vigilant attention and study of the 

 agriculturist and his helpmate the chemist. It 

 would be well perhaps if, instead of devoting their 

 exclusive attention to the explanation of the de- 

 creasing energies of some of our most valuable 

 roots, the great scientific explorers were to search 

 for other nutritious wild plants whose roots possess 



the power, like the kohl-rabi and the swede, o 

 withstanding the extreme temperatures of our cli- 

 mate. Such plants would, in all reasonable cer 

 tainty, by skilful cultivation, be very greatly in- 

 creased in size, and be capable of vigorously with- 

 standing for ages the perhaps too stimulating 

 effects of high cultivation. 



THE HERDS OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



Chap. XVII. 

 THE BROADHINTON HERD. 



The first "fitful spring" morning of 1860 seemed to 

 bid us be up and doing amongst the herds once more ; 

 and hence we were soon rattling along la the Great 

 Western, towards the land of the Matchlesses and 

 the gold-medal steers. The sight of the snugly-sheeted 

 greyhounds which left the train at Faringdon-road and 

 Shriveuham, to do battle for the Altcar Club against The 

 World, was enough to woo us from our shorthorn alle- 

 giance, but we scorned to " droop and turn aside" like 

 another Wild Dayrell, in their train to Ashdown, and 

 held manfully on our line for Swindon. Mr. Stratton's 

 residence at Broadbinton is fully seven miles from the 

 station, and about half a mile to the right of the high 

 road from Swindon to Devizes. The first part of the 

 route lies through the Vale of White Horse, and when 

 the Wroughton church hill is scaled, we are on the ex- 

 treme edge of the Marlborough Downs, so renowned in 

 the days of Teddington, and " the terrible Sir Joseph." 

 A small white horse, which is anything but " a perfect 

 form in perfect rest," keeps up, not the Epsom, but the 

 old Saxon traditions of the district, on the side of the 

 Hackpen Hills, under which, half hidden by trees, lies 

 Utfington, that home of the improved Hampshire Downs; 

 while, in the extreme distance, we can descry the 

 Churchill monument, which marks the boundary of the 

 Marquis of Lansdowne's property, at Calne. As we 

 drew near Broadbinton the patient " pale faces," which 

 are picked up each autumn at Hereford Fair, and passed 

 on in due time to the Buckinghamshire graziers, lent 

 some life to the landscape as they toiled along, six and 

 four in a plough, with their white-smocked lieutenants at 

 their side; but still that vast expanse of plough and 

 down looked cold and dreary as the afternoon shadows 

 chased each other across it, and away to the hills behind. 

 Mr. Stratton's holding consists of about eighteen hun- 

 dred acres, part of it at Salthrop, some two or three 

 miles from Broadhinton, where he settled in 1851, Both 

 the farms belong to the Duke of Wellington, and about 

 700 acres of them are in down and pasture. Owing to 

 the extreme moisture of the climate not an acre of bar- 

 ley is grown on them, and the wheat, in consequence of 

 the lateness of the harvest, is of inferior quality. Some- 

 times half of it has been in the fields at Michaelmas, 

 and the beans, which are then in full blossom, too often 

 only ripen for the mockery of "a lost crop," with 

 the frost. About 350 acres are laid down for hay each 

 year, and 20 acres of roots, to wit, six of mangel, and 

 fourteen of swedes are pulled up for the cattle ; while 

 the white turnips are eaten off" along with clover and 

 vetches by a flock of a thousand Hampshire downs, 

 which Mr. Stratton purchases in the spring, and sells 

 again in the autumn. He never breeds a lamb, and in 

 fact it is as much as be can do with the aid of two of 

 his sons, one of whom is quite a Herd "Book in 

 breeches," to attend to his arable land and his 330 



shorthorng. Every thing is on the same extensive scale, 

 and out of about 100 work-people on the farm, 15 are 

 kept solely for the herd. The bulls and bull calves are 

 about fifty strong, and six of the former are in use at 

 home, and three or four let for the season. The future 

 steers, which are for the most part by Nottingham, 

 begin to date from a week old. We saw nine or ten of 

 them of all ages, but the steam plough, which knocked 

 off twenty oxen and six farm horses, had thinned their 

 numbers as well. Latterly Mr. Stratton has adopted 

 the plan of working eight of his short-horn two-year- 

 old heifers, which may be barren, or slip calf, or turn from 

 the bull ; and we found a pair of them, one by Hickory 

 (14706), and the other by Lord of the Manor (14836), 

 with blinkers and all complete, waiting to take a turn 

 at the bush-harrow. They do their work quite as well 

 as any Devon or Hereford. A Cornish man who was 

 present rather disputed the point ; but the retort was 

 ready for him, that "perhaps he had'nt got the right 

 sort of shorthorns." They are worked four in a plough, 

 and six in a scarifier, from 7 to 4, with only half-an- 

 hour's stoppage, when they are not hitched off, but 

 merely chew the cud. During the summer and autumn 

 they get nothing but grass, and then change to a little 

 hay, wheat chaff, and bruised corn. The unpedigreed 

 feeding steers are handed over at six weeks old to Mr. 

 Stratton's father, who has a farm near Reading, and 

 sells them to the butcher, when they reach a year and 

 nine months. Cake, hay, and swedes is the bill of fare 

 for those that remain ; during their training they have 

 seldom more than 9 lbs. of cake a day, and never above 

 12 lbs. at high pressure; but many get only 6 lbs. or 

 8 lbs. of meal, rye, and beans, instead. French and 

 American cake is principally used, and the consumption 

 is under 25 tons a year, as the dairy cows never taste it. 

 The sales average eighty year by year, and consist 

 principally of young bulls, with yearling and two-year- 

 old heifers. Many of the former are either sold or con- 

 signed to Australia ; and Cornwall and the West of 

 England generally furnish not a few purchasers to the 

 Broadhinton mart. There are invariably 110 cows un- 

 der tribute for the dairy, and the taste of a turnip is 

 quite as strange to them as oilcake. The pails yield on 

 an average about 300 gallons a day in the height 

 of summer ; and the mighty cheese tub made by 

 Cockey of Frome, and worked on a new principle, can 

 hold 200 cwt. at a time. Rather more than half a ton 

 a week is turned out of it in summer, and the greatest 

 part of it, along with the butter, which varies from 

 180 lbs. to 200 lbs. a week, finds a ready sale with a 

 dealer at Windsor. An old horse undertakes the 

 churning, but (tell it not at Warlaby 1) Nottingham, 

 son of Harbinger (10297), contemplates adding it shortly 

 to his other accomplishments. The cows are kept in 

 the fields during the grass months, and then come 

 to " the stalls," which are neither more nor less than a 

 large Lying-in Hospital, near the Salthrop dairy. The 

 general practice is for the calf to suck a month, and then 



