m 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



tlre?sed the owner :— " Your cows," said he, " are very 

 beautii'iil; but why do you keep those ugly polled 

 Suffolk brutes among them ? they quite spoil the 

 dniry." "Ah ! ray lord," bluntly replied the farmer; 

 " these fine cattle are all very well for show, but you 

 see, after all, we must have a little milk for the 

 family !" The name of the tenant was Mr. Purday, of 

 E'^mere; while another of the Holkhani tenants, Mr. 

 Hudson, of Castle Acre, at the Farmers' Club, on 

 Monday, could not refrain from another fling 

 at "the dainty little Devons.'' Still here the best 

 breeds go rather with Mr. Owen Wallis, more 

 for meat than milk ; and it is curioua to 

 see by what different means we arrive at different 

 objects. Mr. Wallis, after complaining of the way in 

 which that admu^able butcher's beast, the North 

 Wales Runt, has been suffered to deteriorate, refers to 

 " another matter requiring great change, and that is 

 the use of better bulls iu the dairy districts. Too many 



ofthe owners of dairy herds care nothing about thebuUs 

 they use, so long as their cows are only in-calf at the 

 proper season, and many of their bulls are ofthe most 

 ordinary character. The calves so bred are bought by 

 dealers^ and sold by them for rearing ; and the result 

 is very often a very mongrel kind of shorthorn." 

 There is nmcb, in fact, to compare and collate in the 

 two, or rather the three meetings we have mentioned. 

 Mr. Wallis has some remarks on the use of bones, for 

 instance, but still somewhat antagonistic in their tone 

 as to meat versus milk. Other speakers, again, like 

 Mr, Hudson and Mr. Fisher Hobbs, touched on the 

 merits of our different breeds of stock, though these 

 again must be read with all due consideration of time 

 and place. It is, in a word, a division of two to one. 

 At Ayr and in Hanover Square they declare for butter 

 and cheese, and in Bridge Street for beef — ends, 

 as it would seem, to be obtained by very different 

 means. 



LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB. 



THE FEEDIN 



The usual Monthly Meeting of the Club took place on 

 Monday, May 6, at the Club House, Blackfriars, Mr. 

 Skelton in the Chair, when there was a very good attend- 

 ance of members. The subject for discussion, assigned for 

 introduction to Mr. Owen Wallis, of Overstone Grange* 

 Northampton, was — " By what means can the Feeding of 

 Stock on Pasture-land iu Spring, Summer, and Autumn be so 

 increased as to supply the demand of an increasing popula- 

 tion ?" 

 •After a few opening remarks from the chairman, 

 Mr. Owen Wallis said: The subject for discussion this 

 evening is, I think, one of very great importance, not only to 

 agriculturists, but to the community generally. It involves con- 

 siderations which seriously affect the comfort and well-being of 

 the labouring and all other classes, for the physical energies 

 of the working man cannot be sustained in their full vigour 

 without a proper allowance of animal food. With a popula- 

 tion rapidly increasing in numbers, and happily also in mate- 

 rial prosperity, the demand for meat has increased to a won- 

 derful extent. That the supply has not kept pace with the 

 demand is, I think, apparent, from the increased price which 

 it has attained. That the supply is very much greater than 

 it was some twenty or thirty years since, cannot be doubted ; 

 but still the consumptive powers of the people haye increased 

 in a much greater ratio. It is, in my opinion, much to be 

 regretted that we have no means of ascertaining, even ap- 

 proximately, the extent of our increased supplies. We are at 

 great pains and expense in finding out the rate at which the 

 people increase in numbers, but take no thought as to the 

 extent to which an article of food essentially necessary to 

 their proper existence has also increased. It is here that we 

 feel the want of a simple system of agricultural statistics. I 

 do not attach any very great importance to them in other 

 respects, but I think they are very desirable as a measure of 

 our progress. With many branches of our great manufac- 

 turing interests greatly, but I trust only temporarily de- 

 pressed, and the consumptive powers of the working classes 

 consequently lessened, the price of meat is higher than at any 

 period since the close of the French war. With a return of 

 prosperity, full employment, and good wages, we may reason- 

 ably suppose that the demand will be much greater than it is 

 at the present time ; and unless there is an increased supply, 

 prices must necessarily range even higher than they have yet 



G OF STOCK. 



done. It is necessary, therefore, to see in what way, and to 

 what extent, the quantity of meat can be increased. With 

 few exceptions, all hut the most worthless soils have been 

 brought into cultivation. We cannot, therefore, very greatly 

 extend the area of production. We must, then, endeavour 

 to produce more upon those acres at present at our command. 

 The chief exceptions are the woodlands of England. That 

 they are not now a productive property is pretty generally ad- 

 mitted. Large portions of them would, if cleared, thoroughly 

 drained, and well cultivated, make excellent corn laud. The 

 use of timber of British growth has been greatly superseded 

 by the use of iron and foreign timber; thus rendering the con- 

 tinued growth of the former less necessary. This may he 

 thought irrelevant; but every addition to our arable soils is 

 necessarily followed by an increased production of cattle, 

 sheep, aud pigs, and is, therefore, not an unimportant feature 

 in the future supply of meat. It is, however, by the extension 

 of our artificial pastures, the improvement of our permanent 

 ones, and by calling to our aid the use of cake, meal, and 

 other food, in conjunction with them, that we must look for 

 the chief increase in the supply at those periods of the year 

 to which our subject chiefly has reference. That the improve- 

 ment iu the productive powers of our pastures has not kept 

 pace with that of our arable land, is only too apparent. lu- 

 deed, the latter has very commonly been manured at the ex- 

 pense of the former. It is true that the practice which for- 

 merly prevailed of folding sheep nightly on arable land, that 

 had been grazed during the day on pasture land, is now much 

 less common. That, however, is mainly owing to the fact 

 that the pastures so used became so worthless that they 

 would no longer support a sufficient number of sheep to make 

 folding from them practicable, much less profitable. These 

 exhausted pastures were therefore ploughed up, and converted 

 into permanent arable sods. But where folding has not been 

 practised, and a less exhausting system adopted, still most of 

 the hay grown on old pastures, and consumed on farms of a 

 mixed character, has found its way, when converted into ma- 

 nure, not to the land which produced it, aud which was fully 

 entitled to it, but to the arable portion of the farm. Much 

 of the pasture land has been drained — some of it effectually, 

 more of it only partially — and it has otherwise been improved 

 by the removal of ant-hills and hassocks. Those, however, 

 who have ridden over the country during the past winter 



