166 AN AMERICAN FARMER IN ENGLAND. 



was not curried groomed merely with a cloth, yet he was 

 so clean, that it would not have soiled a white linen handker 

 chief to have been rubbed upon him. 



In the granary we saw some very plump and bright 

 Scotch oats. They were bought for 42 Ibs. to the bushel, 

 but would overweigh that. The common feed was oat and 

 bean meal mixed with cut hay. The hay was cut very 

 fine (not more than \ inch lengths) by a hand machine. I 

 believe, cut as it usually is by our machines (-J inch to 1 inch), 

 it is more thoroughly digested. I use Sinclair s, of Baltimore, 

 which is intended for corn-stalks, driven by horse-power, and 

 cuts hay and straw from one to three inches, which I prefer 

 to the finer.* The machine here cost 6 ($30), and was in no 

 way superior, that I could see, to Ruggles , of Boston, which 

 is sold at half that price. 



The farm buildings were not fine or in good order, ma 

 nure wasting, old carts and broken implements thrown care 

 lessly about, and nothing neat. Nor were the cattle remark 

 able most of them below the average that we have seen on 

 the road-side. It is evident the marquis is more of a horse- 

 jockey than a farmer. 



The groom s house, which we entered, was very neat and 

 handsomely built of stone. All the cottages hereabout are 

 floored with tiles, nine inches square. They vary in colour, but 

 are most commonly light brown. 



Nutting showed us a cow of his own, which I took to be 

 a direct cross of Devon and Ayrshire, and which had as fine 

 points for a milker as I ever sa*v in any thing. She was very 

 large, red and white, and a good feeler. He assured us she 

 was giving now on pasture feed thirty-two quarts a day. 



* I do not wish to recommend this machine for hay and straw, which 

 it does not cut as rapidly as some others, but for stalks it cannot be sur 

 passed cutting and splitting them in small dice. 



