THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



to have a gallon of milk twice a day for a fortnight, 

 which is gradually decreased, and ceases altogether at 

 the end of ten weeks, during the latter part of which, 

 the vacuum, so abhorred by nature, is made up with 

 hay and cake. No regular nurse-cows are kept, but of 

 course the calves for letting or showing go on much 

 longer, and we found three of them, Saladin, Athel- 

 stane, and Will-o'-the-Wisp, at five months, all in a 

 row, and fairly jobbini; their unhappy foster-mothers 

 into the air with their efforts. 



Amid such a mighty multitude of every age and sex, 

 it must in the darker ages have required quite a weird- 

 like sagacity to answer the question, "Who's who?" 

 This, however, is effected very simply by the Radnor 

 ear marks, which Mr. Stratton adopted from Mr. Moore, 

 of Coleshill ; but what with the nippers and the gimlet, 

 some few of the ears seem to have had no sinecure of it. 

 Considering the size of his herd, Mr. Stratton has had 

 very few twins dropped, so far, and has never reared 

 any, although Necklace and Bracelet from Queen Mab, 

 (the former the more elegant, but not the thickest of the 

 two), bid fair to live and flourish together. As regards 

 colours, he has been able to form no decided opinion on 

 the moot point, as to whether red on white, or white on 

 red, is most likely to produce a roan; but he has 

 frequently found the produce of two roans either white 

 or red, which goes far to prove that roan will never, in 

 spite of the care which has been taken to raise it to that 

 dignity, rank, so to speak, among primitive cattle colours. 

 His hundred-odd calves come very equal in sex, one 

 year with another; except when cows are sent to the bull 

 in a dry summer, and then there is a decided prepon- 

 derance of bull calves. 



It was during his residence at Calcolt farm, near 

 Cricklade, in 1838, that Mr. Stratton made his first 

 pure shorthorn essay by the purchase of Phcsnix 

 (6290), from Mr. Mann, in Warwickshire, who had 

 given his breeder Mr. Bellamy 20 gs. for him when a 

 calf. The blood of his siro Shakespeare (581) went 

 back in direct descent to Comet (155), and his dam 

 Lady Byron, by Rockingham (more commonly knoivn 

 as " Jobling's Wellington") also bore affinity to Cripple, 

 North Star, Danby, and other old Durham worthies. 

 It w^as said of Rockingham that he earned a hundred 

 a year for his owner during the fourteen seasons he was 

 let. Mr. Stratton soon had a useful lot of heifers by 

 Phoenix, the best of which. Moss Rose, was from a neat 

 red and white heifer which he purchased in 1839, along 

 with some others, in tlie Highworth market. This 

 founder of the Broadhinton Herd, was born just 

 bpfore her owner removed to Wroughton, and was 

 carried thither among his other household goods in a 

 cart. The next calf Irom the Highworth heifer was 

 made a steer of, and as Phoenix shortly after that 

 ceased to get calves, he was sold for £4') to the 

 butcher ; and Lottery (42G0), of Lincolnshire — Cart- 

 wright blood, and bred by Mr. Adkins, of Milcote, 

 began to reign in his stead. He was put on Moss Rose, 

 who had slipped calf to a Phoenix bull in the interim, 

 and thence sprang Young Moss Rose, who was never 

 quite so good looking as her dam. In point of breed- 

 ing qualities there was little to choose, and they pro- 

 duced thirty calves between them. Moss Rose then 

 bred a bull calf to Lottery, with which Mr. Stratton 

 " drew first blood," as he sold it for £70 to his brother ; 

 and then came a white heifer by Corporal (6899), (a 

 nearly pure Booth bull) and two others (one of them 

 Ruby, dam of Waterloo (11025), by Kenilworth (7118), 

 whom he purchased, together with Sir Tliomas Fairfax 

 (5196), from Mr. Parkinson, of Leyfields. Soon after 

 this Mr. Stratton's eye fell in a lucky moment on Red 

 Duke (8624), by Second Duke of Lancaster (5951), and 

 with a strong dash of bis favourite Jobling's Wellington to 



boot, in the bull-calf class at the Faringdon Agricultural 

 Show ; and he gave his breeder, Sir Willi;im Hayter, 

 M.P., of St. Stephens voting lobby renown, ,£'56 for 

 him. The nick with Moss Rose proved thrice over a 

 most happy one, and hence came Matchless 1st and 

 Matchless 2iid, the dam of the Warwick cow, and Cla- 

 rendon ( 12605), who was second to Lord Berners' bull 

 for the aged prize at the Gloucester Royal. Third Moss 

 Rose, who died on her way to Brazil, a white Tenantry 

 heifer which never bred, but gained the first prize at 

 Smithfield, and a red and white Fourth Moss Rose, 

 were others of the old cow's progeny ; her last calf, by 

 His Highness, got smothered at her side, and she was 

 one-and-twenty before the butcher came for her. 



The Fates were alike propitious to the Young Moss 

 Rose line ; but strange to say, she owed her especial 

 fame to a mistake of the herdsman, who put her to her 

 sire Lottery; and Elegance, a nice stylish cow and a 

 great milker, but not so massive as her dam, was the 

 result. In due time, Elegance had four calves in suc- 

 cession by Red Duke, to wit, three Duchesses of Glo's- 

 ter, and First Duke of Glo'ster. The Second Duke of 

 Glo'ster was from Young Moss Rose, but he died early, 

 in consequence of the bursting of a vein under the arm, 

 the haemorrhage from which nothing could arrest. Sal- 

 throp Rose by Waterloo (1 1025) is one of the best relics of 

 the same cow, and her last bull calf was Victory (17186) 

 by Hickory (14706). Both son and sire were exten- 

 sively used at Broadhinton, and then found favour in 

 the Australian eye, as the one fetched 470 gs., and the 

 other 600 gs., under the hammer there. Buckingham 

 (15208) by His Highness followed them, with 400 gs. on 

 his head. He was no show bull, but still very valuable in 

 a herd, and although he left 70 calves behind him, Mr. 

 Stratton has always regretted that he let him go. 

 The Tortworth pastures also furnished a very capital 

 heifer-getter in Hero of the West (8150) by Buchan 

 Hero (3238), from Whitaker's Stella, but it is some 

 years since he quitted Broadhinton, and he has just de- 

 parted for " The Happy Pastures," without a tooth in 

 his head at the ripe age of sixteen. Some of the best 

 breeders among the cows must also be credited to 

 Glanville (11535) by Waterloo, and his son Lord of the 

 Manor from Matchless 1st. Mr. Sanday also furnished 

 two sons of Harbinger, one of them the steer-getting 

 Nottingham from Princess by Noble, of the old Mason 

 sort, and the other His Highness from Lady Fog- 

 gathorpe, a purchase at the Kirklevington sale. Latterly 

 Mr. Stratton has " gone in" for Booth blood very 

 decisively, but he has preferred purchasing from the 

 adherents of Warlaby, to hiring bulls from there direct. 

 Accordingly Settle furnished Charlemagne, or "Charley 

 Mangey," as his guardian terms him, by Majestic 

 dam by Royal Buck ; and of three others which 

 came from Mr. Barnes of Ireland, Sir Sam is let, 

 Baronet, also by Sir Samuel (15302), is disposed of, and 

 Young Windsor by Windsor (14013) is the Broadhinton 

 premier. 



Mr. Stratton's career as a prize-taker began in a very 

 quiet way in 1837, at Devizes Show, from which he re- 

 turned with six guineas for the best cow and heifer in 

 milk, and that modest sum, multiplied by three, repre- 

 sented the whole of his achievements for the next three 

 years. In 1841, however, he "got into good business 

 on his circuit," which then comprehended only Chippen- 

 ham, Devizes, Faringdon, and Wootton Bassett, and 

 divers secretaries were laid under tribute for £25 5s. 

 After this, his name became a familiar one in the lists at 

 Cirencester and Bath; and in 1847 he came out from 

 the ruck, and not only took the head bull prize of i,'20 at 

 Gloucester, but won his maiden prize at Smithfield with 

 a fat steer, the first calf that Hero of the West ever got, 

 and born a month before his time. His winnings that 



