THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



441 



HORSES. 



Beat stallion for hunters, J. T, Fenton, Thorp Hall (Con- 

 queror). 



Beat stallion for hackneys, J. England, Silsden (Young 

 Merrylegs). 



Best stallion for agricultu:al purposes, R. Elrasley, Clars- 

 ton, Knaresborough (Lord of the Manor). 



Best hackney brood mare. Miss Stott, Eccleshill Hall. 



Best brood mare for agricultural purposes, T. Skirrow, 

 Asquith, Otley. 



PIGS. 



Best boar (large breed), W. B. Wainman, Carhead, Cross 

 Hills, Leeds. 



Best sow (large breed), \V. B. Wainman. 



Best boar (small breed), W. Hatton, Addingham. 

 Best sow (small breed), W. B. Wainman. 



PLOUGHING. 



First prize, £3, J. Hullat, Bedford (Howard's plough). 

 Second, £2, 3. Oddy, Baildon. 

 Third, £1, T. Shackleton, Weardley. 

 (23 competitors.) 



Boys under 18 Years of Age. 

 First prize, ^2, J. Casson, Batley. 

 Second, £1, J. Todd, Alwoodley. 



Champion Prize, Gift of F. H. Fawkes, Esa. 

 First prize, £3, George King, Menston. 

 Second, £2, T. Papplewell, Esholt. 



REVIEW. 



HANDBOOK OF DAIRY HUSBANDRY. 

 By John Chalmers Morton, Editor of the "Agricultural Cyclopaedia." 



Longman and Co., 1860. 



This work in the present low state o the corn market, 

 is a most important one to the English farmer, who is 

 casting about to see how he is to hold his land at a fair 

 profit ; or, it may be, without sustaining a considerable 

 loss. If, indeed, there is any department of agricul- 

 tural industry that is likely — we might say certain — 

 to be remunerative if properly conducted, it is the 

 dairy ; and we cannot help expressing our surprise that 

 with so large a proportion of grass-land as this country 

 possesses, there should be a necessity for importing 

 such an immense quantity of butter and cheese — namely, 

 an average of upwards of 20,000 tons of each annually 

 (22,400 tons butter and 19,300 tons cheese), whilst the 

 price is still as regularly found to rise, proving that, 

 with all this importation, the supply is not equal to the 

 demand. Or this is so nicely balanced, that the dealers 

 have it in their own hands and can charge what prices 

 they please. And not only this, but a very large pro- 

 portion of the foreign butter is so abominably adulte- 

 rated with lard, oatmeal, gruel, and other equally 

 cheap and profitable ingredients, that it is impossible 

 to tell what you are purchasing. Any one who has 

 been in the habit of using Ostend butter, for instance — 

 and we Londoners can scarcely get any other fresh 

 butter at this season of the year, the supply of home- 

 made not bting sufficient for one-fourth of the consump- 

 tion — knows that in general it possesses none of the real 

 flavour of butter, that it is insipid, soft, and rolls up on 

 the bread, instead of spreading equally over the sur- 

 face. It is, in fact, a composition ; not unwholesome, 

 it is true, but anything rather than genuine butter, 

 while it is manufactured at a rate that yields a large 

 profit. A very few years ago, this composition butter 

 did not sell at retail higher than 9d. or lOd. per lb. 

 But so largely has the consumption increased, owing 

 to the improved condition of the operative classes, that 

 it now fetches from 14d. to 15d. per lb., and is one of 

 the most certain trades a person can enter into. As for 

 Dorset, Devonshire, or Sufiblk fresh butter, it cannot 

 be purchased under 18d. per lb., as every housekeeper 

 knows to her cost ; and the quantity sent to market is 

 not sufficient for one tenth of the consumption. 



With regard to cheese, there is no deception it is true, 

 but the consumption of it is equally increased with that 

 of butter, and the price has proportionately advanced. 

 A few years since, the finest and richest American 

 cheese could be purchased at from 4d. to 5d. per lb. 



The price is now from 8d. to 9d. per lb., and the supply 

 is by no means large enough to meet the demand ; nor 

 is the general importation of cheese so great as it was 

 ten years ago, the quantity in 1848 being 441,635cwts., 

 whilst in 1858 it was only 364,087 cwts. 



That a dairy farm must pay in situations where the 

 stock can be kept to advantage, that is on dry pastures 

 with a full supply of good water, there cannot be a doubt. 

 Mr. Morton has given, in page 84 of his handbook, an 

 estimate for a farui of 500 acres, of which 380 acres 

 are in pasture laid out in convenient fields, and 120 

 acres af arable land, in twelve ten-acre fields. On this, 

 120 cows and 30 yearling and two-year heifer calves 

 are kept, with adequate piggeries to consume profit- 

 ably the skim milk, &c. The profit of this farm, 

 reckoning the wheat produced at only 5s. per bushel, 

 is shown to be £510 per annum, the capital employed 

 being £4,780 which makes the return equal to 12 per 

 cent., alter deducting all expcnces, and reserve fun(J 

 enough to meet the risks of so large a stock of cattle. 



We recommend our readers to peruse this little 

 volume, which will convince them of the advantages 

 of a dairy over an arable farm. In the meantime we 

 would ask, how it is that there is so increasing a dis- 

 like or indisposition with our farmers' wives and 

 daughters to undertake the management of dairies ? 

 Is it because the present race are better educated and 

 more enlightened than former ones, and that therefore 

 they think it beneath them to attend to so vulgar an 

 employment as a dairy ? Certain it is that unless the 

 farmer's wife and daughters do look after the dairy 

 themselves, it is ten to one against its being properly 

 conducted. But if these ladies think such an employ- 

 ment beneath them, we would advise them at once to 

 procure " Our Farm of Four Acres," or Miss Mar- 

 tineau's " Farm of Two Acres," to be convinced that 

 such an occupation, if properly attended to, is so far 

 from being beneath a well-educated and highly talented 

 woman, that it involves the development of scientific 

 knowledge of the most abstruse kind. It is, too, not 

 incompatible with literary and other elegant pursuits 

 and refined tastes, and is equally conducive to the pre- 

 servation of health and buoyancy of spirits, such as 

 we regret to find some of our fair rural countrywomen 

 are willing to sacrifice at the shrine of a pseudo 

 gentility. 



However, the subject has more important claims 



H H 



