I -1=6 J 



They are nine days travelling to London, a distance of 130 

 miles. It is diiiicult to say which may be considered as the best 

 market] but the general opinion seems to be, that the London 

 market is calculated for those only who attend it regularly every 

 week, the price of beef per itone greatly varying according to the 

 plenty or scarcity in the market. 



Some farmers graze heifers, inp>referencc to oxen, buying them 

 in about the months of March and April, and selling in October 

 and November. The profit amounts to 40s. or 50s. each for 

 their summer food, and the land is stocked after the rate of one 

 heifer to each acre, together with a considerable number of sheep 

 both in summer and winter, and it is thought by many that this 

 method of occupation is more profitable than the former. 



Others fat two year old wedders of the Dorsetshire and Somer- 

 setshire breed. The Dorset sort are purchased about Michaelmas 

 at Sherborne and Stolford Fairs, price from 20s. to 30s. No hay 

 is given in the winter unless the weather be uncommonly severe, or 

 the ground covered with snow. They are sold fat between Fe- 

 bruary and May, and weigh from 20 to 301'bs. per quarter. A 

 few oxen accompany the sheep, which are bought in the spring 

 and. fitted the ensuing winter. It is the universal opinion, that 

 sheep are not so profitable stock as oxen. 



It is no unusual tiling for some of the graziers to give their 

 prime oxen a second summer's grass. In this case they are brought 

 to a high state of perfection, and in all probability they pay more 

 the second year than the first, for it is well known that an animal 

 nearly fat will consume much less food than a poor one. 



Ewes and lambs are also the stock of some farmers; they are 

 purchased partly in the autumn in lamb, and partly in the spring 

 with the lambs by their sides, and are mostly of the Dorsetshire 

 or Mendip breed. 



All the graziers of this county are partial to the red oxen of 

 Somerset and Devon, and you seldom see a North country ox in 

 their possession. They will not allow that the northern oxen 

 possess any comparative merit either for labor or slaughter ; per- 

 haps some allowance should be made for long established preju- 

 dices, but it must be admitted that in the London market, to 

 which fat oxe« are brought from all parts of the kingdom, the 



Somerset- 



