SheeiJ. 329 • 



Prices may at times have been wild and fanciful, and 250 

 guineas may seem an extravagant bull-hire, but still buying good 

 Ijeasts and holding to approved tribes, even at a large outlay, is 

 the most profitable policy in the long run. There is some 

 method in the " madness ' which would give 125 guineas for 

 " Oxford 11th " as a calf, 250 guineas for her as a three-year-old, 

 and 500 guineas for her as a cow, on the only three occasions 

 that this dam of " Fifth Duke of Oxford," — the first-prize aged 

 bull at Chester, and a 300 guinea purchase at six-months-old, — • 

 was brought into the sale-ring. When we look back to the calm 

 foresight of the Brothers Colling ; the courageous confidence of 

 Mason, the Rev. Henry Berry, and Whitaker ; " Tommy Bates," 

 and all his animated lectures on touch and form in his pastures, 

 or on the show-ground ; " A quiet day at Wiseton ;" the dashing 

 cow and heifer contests between Towneley, Booth, and Douglas ; 

 the victories of " Duchess 77th " and " The Twins ;" the 

 dispersion of the late Jonas Webb's herd at the steady, paying 

 average of 55/. 10s. for 145 ; the brilliant gathering which 

 appraised the "Butterflies"; the 8180/, at Willis's Rooms for 

 seventeen Grand Dukes and Duchesses ; and then scan the result 

 in so many fairs and pastures, we may well feel that shorthorns 

 have repaid all the money, thought, and labour which have been 

 expended upon them. Still, in one way only can their supremacy 

 be made permanent, — by always keeping in mind the rule by 

 which our first breeders have been guided, that "a good beast 

 must be a good beast, however it has come ; but that it is to 

 pedigrees alone that we can trust for succession." 



10, Kensington Square, W. 



XXV.— On Sheep. By H. Eveeshed. 



Owing to the drought of 1864, the root-crop was deficient 

 everywhere, and especially on the dry soils of the southern chalk 

 district, where the scarcity of the roots so alarmed breeders that 

 at the great autumnal fairs the prices of store lambs, compared 

 with recent years, showed a reduction amounting to 30 per cent, 

 and there was almost an equal fall in the price of breeding 

 ewes — and this, with mutton at 5^. to 6s. per stone, and wool at 

 2s. to 2s. Qd. per lb. 



Lambs therefore paid unusually well for wintering, although 

 the market for them in the spring of 1865 was seriously affected 

 by the unfavourable weather and by a panic in the wool-trade. 

 The following shows that " well bought is half sold," 



200 lambs, which cost 22s. Qd. on September 12th, were kept 

 on leas and stubble until November 3rd, then on turnips until 

 December 19th, when 50 of them were drafted to another flock 



