1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FAEMEE. 



423 



There was a large show, to the number of nearly 

 two hundred, of horses for riding purposes. These 

 horses are of various blood, crossed more or less 

 with the race horse, but having no very distinctive 

 marks. A few of them were shown as hunters, 

 and were required to leap a hurdle, a sort of rail 

 fence, of four feet in height. This sight, quite noV' 

 §1 to me, attracted much attention. The riders 

 first galloped their horses round the field, then rode 

 them down a sort of lane fenced in, and at a mod 

 erate gallop rode at the hurdle, which the horses 

 all leaped with very little apparent effort. The 

 hurdle was on the side of a hill of moderate decliv' 

 ity, and the horses were jumped two or three times 

 each over it, up hill and down. From what I ob- 

 served, I am inclined to think that we have noth- 

 ing to gain by borrowing any stock of this kind 

 from Suffolk county. 



Our Morgan stock feems to me better adapted 

 to our general want of carriage horses, than any- 

 thing I have yet met with. The Suffolk cart horse 

 might, perhaps, be introducedir into our cities for 

 the drays with advantage. Premiums were also 

 awarded for ponies, which are much used by the 

 children of the nobility for riding, and by their la- 

 dies for driving in little carriages. The ponies here, 

 however, were of no distinct variety, but a sort of 

 cross, I should think, between some small breed and 

 common horses. 



CATTLE. 



The Suffolk cow is a peculiar animal, unlike 

 anything I have before seen. She is a small, red 

 animal, without horns, more resembling the North 

 Devons with their horns knocked off, than anything 

 else. They are sound, compact and hardy, and good 

 milkers for their size ; on the whole, the cows and 

 bulls of this breed strike me as very suitable to the 

 cliaiate and pastures of New England. 



It is Si id that the French, at their exhibitions, 

 give a decided preference to cattle without horns, 

 because they are not so dangerous to handle ! I was 

 present in a cow-house last evening, where men 

 were milking these cows, and observed that they 

 tied their hind legs together with a rope before 

 commencing operations. I inquired the object, and 

 the reply was, "that the cows would sometimes 

 kick the milk over, if they did not confine their 

 legs." The cows seemed perfectly gentle, and did 

 not even resent this indignity, but submitted to it 

 as part of the established system of the country. 

 The oxen are worked here in collars and harness, 

 with blinders and bitts, and driven with reins like 

 horses. 



SHEEP AND SWINE. 



The entries for premiums on sheep were not very 

 numerous, thirty-two pens only being filled. The 

 sheep were of three varieties, the Southdown, the 

 Cotswold and the Leicester, and all appeared to me 

 who have no great knowledge of sheep, to be fine 



animals. Sheep husbandry is perhaps the leading 

 feature in English agriculture, without which the 

 farmers say they could do nothing with their land. 

 After better opportunities for investigation, I can 

 speak more safely on the subject, and with this re- 

 mark I will pass over the topic. The swine exhib- 

 ited, were mostly of two varieties of the Suffolk, 

 the black and the white. This is the county from 

 which the Suffolk pigs, which have been and are still 

 so much in demand in New England, are exported to 

 the United States. I was introduced to the gentle- 

 man who has supplied most of those which have 

 been sent to Massachusetts. He is a noted breed- 

 er both of swine and short-horn cattle. I have ac- 

 cepted an invitation to visit him at his home, and 

 examine his stock and that of his neighbors. 



The whites only have been introduced into the 

 United States, so far as I know. The blacks, I 

 think are rather preferred for home use here, but 

 their mode of using the flesh of swine in this coun- 

 try is different from ours. What is called bacon is 

 found on almost every table at breakfast, and is the 

 meat of small hogs, less than a year old, cut through 

 and through, and cured dry. I have not yet met 

 with anything like our salt pork, during ray wan- 

 derings abroad. 



The black Suffolk swine seem to be somewhat 

 longer and thinner than the white, and with less 

 uniformity of shape, although the color of all was 

 wholly black. When properly dressed, the color 

 comes off, I am told, and the skin is nearly as white 

 as that of the other variety. 



FARM IMPLEMENTS. 



Several portable steam-engines in operation, car- 

 rying threshing machines, chaff cutters, and adapted 

 to be changed to other uses, were on exhibition. — 

 Steam engines are coming rapidly into use for 

 farm purposes in England. They are portable, 

 but not locomotive. They are on wheels and 

 can be moved, but do not travel about by their own 

 power I noticed but one reaper, and that was 

 McCormick's, as the exhibitor informed me, much 

 improved. The hand tools, such as rakes and forks, 

 were about of the weight and make of those that 

 the Pilgrim Fathers carried over in the May- 

 flower, such as a Yankee would resolve into their 

 elements of fire wood and old iron directly. 



The plows here are so entirely different from 

 ours that I dare not hazard an opinion of their 

 comparative value, till I have myself followed one 

 in the furrow. The plow in common use on light 

 land here is nearly double the length of our Boston 

 plows, and weighs two hundred and eighty pounds. 

 Of what use all this length and weight can be, I 

 have not been able to discover ; but as the farrows 

 are laid always here perfectly straight and uniform, 

 and the work is done much better than we do it at 

 home, the English plowman has good reason for 

 claiming that his plcw is the better of the two. 



