312 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



so early to maturity. Formerly, it was not the custom to send 

 oxen to market, before five years old ; now the Durham stock, 

 and others, go at eighteen months to three years old. Under this 

 arrangement, there is no opportunity to get any work out of 

 them. 



The Scotch plough with two horses abreast, and seldom use 

 more than two. In many parts of England, horses are worked 

 tandem ; and I have sometimes seen five and six, at length, to a 

 single plough. This is certainly excessive, and the turnings, in 

 such case, most inconvenient ; but the motive for putting the 

 horses at length is, that, where the land is heavy, it may not be 

 trodden hard. 



2. NEAT CATTLE. There are several distinct breeds in Great 

 Britain, of which I shall not undertake to give a description in 

 full. Such descriptions already fill volumes. The principal 

 breeds which have fallen under my notice are the improved short 

 horns, the Hereford, the North and South Devon, the Stafford 

 shire long horns, the Ayrshire, the polled Aberdeenshire or Gallo 

 way, the Kyloes, or West Highlanders, and the Kerry. There 

 are other breeds, and animals of every cross, variety, and mixture. 

 It would seem that nothing can exceed the perfection to which 

 many of the individuals of each of these breeds are brought. 

 At the Christmas show of the Smithfield Club, they appear in ele 

 phantine proportions, like so many moving masses of fat. As I 

 have already observed, the different breeds have their exclusive 

 partisans. That excellent friend of agriculture, the late Lord 

 Spencer, was the great patron of the improved short horns; yet 

 he kept the Alderney to supply butter, and the West Highlanders 

 to furnish meat, for his own table. The late Lord Leicester, so 

 many years at the head of the English farmers, preferred the 

 North Devon. The Duke of Bedford, eminent for his agricul 

 tural improvements, and for, perhaps, one of the most complete 

 agricultural establishments in the world, prefers the Herefords : 

 and so with Mr. John Hudson, of Castle Acre, in Norfolk, whose 

 agricultural authority is of tho highest character. The farmers 

 who are fatteners of stock are always anxious to purchase the 

 Scots or West Highland cattle, as being always sure of a market 

 and of returning a fair profit. 



