THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



379 



had bone foul in one foot, and displacement of the calf- 

 bed to boot, and Col. Towneley accordingly issued his 

 warrant, and gave her away to his labourers. She had 

 been very much reduced since the Birmingham and 

 Baker-street trips, with a view to her calving, which 

 took place on May 2.'5 ; but still her fat alone sold for 

 £'9. Her first calf v/as by Frederick; and her second, 

 Gold Medal, has been sold for a long sum to Mr. 

 Atkinson, of Bywell, in Northumberland, who has 

 bought several other specimens of the herd. 



We at last reached Frederick, who was the first bull 

 that Col. Towneley ever bred, and like Jasper he was a 

 twin, but neither of the twin sisters bred. Through his 

 progenitors, Duke and Bessy, he unites Mr. Lax's and 

 the Barmpton Rose blood, and by putting him on But- 

 terfly they got a second cross of the latter. Nearly 

 all the principal winners in the herd. Master Butterfly, 

 Roan Duchess II., Blanche VI., Ringlet, Fredericall , 

 &c., are by him, and he can thus boast of more prizes, 

 even in these fierce days of competition, than any bull 

 on record. He was never shown himself, but was used 

 by the Colonel's tenants for three years, and they soon 

 began to see that he had left them something better than 

 their neighbours. Cows never come to any of the bulls, 

 but the Colonel has given no less than twenty-three bull 

 calves for the use of his tenants ; and a cow by Gay- 

 lad, with only one cross in her, bore striking testi- 

 mony, as she strolled about the yard, to the value of such 

 a loan. All applications to hire him or to send cows to 

 him by different parties have been refused, although 

 some of them have been tempting enough. He generally 

 gets them strawberry roan, like himself, and nearly 

 equal in sex; and all the heifers, with two exceptions, 

 have sustained that milking property for which his own 

 dam Bessy was so remarkable. He is now ten years 

 old, and as straight as a line in spite of it. His quarters 



are long and neat ; but we did not admire his head so 

 much as some do, and thought the outline of it rather 

 too straight, though the eye gives it a very blood-like 

 character. 



At present the herd consists of about fifty head, and 

 from twenty-five to thirty calves are bred every year 

 to repair the gaps, which are left by extensive sales. 

 Such is its prolific character, since Mr. Culshaw dis- 

 covered the philosopher's stone, which enables him to 

 combine fat and fertility, that in one season, when 

 Master Butterfly departed for Mr. Strafford's X'1,2G0 

 cheque, and the same gentleman also gave 1 ,000 guineas 

 for three heifers — Butterfly II., Miss Buttercup, and 

 Pearlette— on behalf of Mr. Thome— no less than £6,200 

 worth was sold, and the herd knew no reduction in 

 numbers with the new year. 



In 1858 the Emperor of the French was a customer 

 for two cows, a bull, and a bull calf; and this year they 

 have sold four bulls, and let two. Col. Towneley has 

 exhibited ten years at the "Royal," and got bis 

 maiden prize at Norwich, as second to Mr. B. Wilson 

 in the yearling heifer class. Since then his seconds and 

 H. C.'s have been legion, and his first Royal prizes 

 have amounted to sixteen, the largest number ever won 

 by one herd in the same time ; and that in the teeth of 

 training competition very different to what it was in the 

 quiet old days. Every heifer or cow prize has been 

 claimed, save when Vestris calved a dead calf a month 

 before its time, and thus forfeited her second prize. 

 Cycles of barrenness (we only speak in a prize-winning 

 sense) generally follow those of profusion, and last year 

 his luck came to a check ; but if Gladiolus be any 

 omen, we shall not have to wait long before we see him 

 " come again" on what has proved such a Field of 

 the Cloth of Gold, and be foremost among the best 

 , once more. 



TEMPERATURE. 



BY CUTHBEIIT W. JOIINSOX, 



ESQ., 



A few April ni/rhts, with a temperature below 

 the freezing i)oint of water, naturally enough re- 

 raind.s the gardener and the agriculturist of its re- 

 sults on their crops.* The gardener is, perhaps, 

 most affected by its influence, and is therefore 

 more wont to ponder over the injury it inflicts. 

 His domain is tenanted by too many natives of 

 warmer climates than our own, to render him secure 

 from the effects of considerable and rapid transi- 

 tions in the temperature of the atmosphere. The 

 agriculturist, however, is very materially interest- 

 ed in such transitions : they largely influence, 



* The thermometer, which stood at 22 degs. early 

 in the morning- of Ajjril 1, was not lower than 53° 

 on the night of the Gth ; it descended to 28° on 

 that of the iGth; was not lower than 45° on the 

 23rd, but was at 26" on that of the 22nd. 



not only the condition of his live stock, but the 

 prosperity of his crops. Let us see how this kind 

 of knowledge has gradually promoted the profitable 

 growth of one of our great spring crops : the result 

 may prompt us to farther and equally beneficial 

 inquiries. Barley was formerly supposed to be in- 

 capable of bearing the low temperature of our 

 winter : it was, in the olden time, invariably a 

 spring-sown crop. Tusser, writing nearly three 

 centuries since, advised his brother-farmers of 

 1553 "to sow barley in March, April, and May ; 

 the later in sand, and the sooner in clay." His 

 reasons, however, for the advice would hardly be 

 satisfactory to a skilful modern farmer. He adds : 



" Who sowelh his barley too soon, or in rain, 

 Of oats and of thistles shall have to complain." 



A century after Tusser's time, John Worlidge, 



