236 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



This herd will doubtless compare favorably with any herd in 

 the country for its purity and uniformity. 



This farm consists of four hundred acres of land, half of 

 which is arable. Beyond this is still another royal farm, known 

 as the Norfolk Farm, of seven hundred acres, two hundred of 

 which are arable. This is of a lighter soil and well adapted 

 for raising roots. Artificial manure is applied here, including 

 guano and super-phosphate. Here is a large herd of pure bred 

 Devons, numbering about a hundred head. A large number 

 of sheep are also kept here, and some sixty or seventy Berk- 

 shire pigs. 



The average yield of wheat on the Shaw and Home Farms, 

 has for some years been about forty-two bushels per acre, beans 

 fifty-three bushels, oats eighty-six bushels, mangels forty-two 

 tons, and Swedes fourteen tons. 



From Windsor Park we drove to Stoke Pogis, four miles, 

 through a level, rich and highly cultivated tract. Tall elms 

 line the way and add an unspeakable charm to this quiet rural 

 district. The church stands within the enclosure of the church- 

 yard, so truthfully and so beautifully described in Gray's 

 exquisite elegy. Though ninety years have passed since the 

 poet lived and wrote, the scene would not appear to have 

 changed, and if the elegy had been written but yesterday, it 

 could not have given a more accurate picture. It was an hour 

 or two before the setting sun. The green fields stretching 

 away on a level, the soft stillness of the air, the sweet music of 

 birds, the ivy-grown church, all concurred to remind us of the 

 lines beginning — 



" The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, 

 The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, 

 The ploughman homewards plods his weary way, 

 And leaves the world to darkness and to me. 



"Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight. 

 And all the air a solemn stillness holds, 

 Save where the beetle wheels his drony flight, 

 Or drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds." 



The yew trees deeply shade some parts of the churchyard, 

 •and elms apparently centuries old overtop them, while most of 

 the tliick strown graves were marked only by the moss-grown 



