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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Oct. 



For the New England Farmer. 



LETTER FROM MR. FRENCH. 



KOYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY'S EXHIBITION. 



Salisbury, England, July 24, 1857. 



My Dear Brown : — The English papers are 

 filled with accounts of the wonderful doings here in 

 old Salisbury, conspicuous among which you will 

 observe always the goings and comings of the 

 Prince Consort, and the sayings of the Lords and 

 gentlemen who attend the dinners. Prince Albert, 

 no, I mean the Prince Consort, attended the show 

 yesterday, and, of course, although the public had 

 been notified for weeks that the exhibition would be 

 open to all, it was kept closed nearly all day, that 

 his Highness might see the animals without molesta- 

 tion from the crowd. At a select dinner, yesterday, 

 at which Lord Portman presided, and at which I was 

 present and made a speech, being specially honored 

 as an officer of the United States Agricultural So- 

 ciety, a great ado was made about the visit of his 

 Highness, and it was stated publicly that his Royal 

 Highness had exhibited great knowledge of animals, 

 and had actually expressed opinions almost as cor- 

 rect as people who are only consorts of other ladies! 

 However, let them enjoy their peculiar institutions. 

 I am sure I do not enjoy ours the less, from hav- 

 ing become acquainted with those of the mother 

 country ; if people derive any enjoyment from wor- 

 shipping lords and princes, why should you and I 

 be disturbed thereby ? 



Having procured a line ten feet long, and care- 

 fully measured it with a good tape which travels 

 with me in my waistcoat pocket, I made a system- 

 atic and thorough examination of the animals on 

 exhibition. I suppose no better show of cattle has 

 ever been made in England, and the prize animals 

 here may probably be deemed as near perfection as 

 can be anywhere found. This remark applies to 

 the Short-horns, the North Devons, the Herefords 

 and Jerseys. The Ayrshires are not shown here, 

 and I saw but a single specimen of the Galloway, 

 and the West Highlander. 1 hope to attend the 

 show of the Highland Agricultural Society, at Glas- 

 gow, before I return home, and there shall see 

 these three breeds fairly represented. The num- 

 ber of Short-horns exhibited is 109, of Herefords 

 57, of Devons 68 ; not a very large number, it may 

 seem, but the very best in the kingdom. Here, 

 this matter is reduced to a system, and none but a 

 fine animal, according to their ideas of what the an- 

 mal should be, is offered. The prizes are from fifty 

 to seventy-five dollars ; but the prize is of small 

 consequence. Most of the animals are shown by 

 regular breeders, and a prize awarded, or even the 

 •word "commended," is sufficient to place the ani- 

 mal at a high price ; and what is more, aids the 

 character of the fortunate owner, so that by-and- 

 bye, if he chooses to ofier his herd for sale, our 



American breeders come over to him, and pay him 

 at the rate of one to ten thousand dollars a head 

 for them, to go to New York or Kentucky, or per- 

 haps to Massachusetts. They who coolly talk 

 about importing animals from England, should un- 

 derstand a little about this matter. The cattle, 

 throughout all England, are as much mixed as they 

 are in our country. There is generally a strong 

 mark of the Short-horn in herds of cows that one 

 passes in travelling, but they are as indefinite as 

 that remarkable race of animals, that some people 

 are so much in favor of in New England, called 

 Natives ; though of what country they are Natives, 

 never has been fully ascertained. Here and there 

 in England is a breeder of pure stock, and his ani- 

 mals are sold at enormous prices, to improve the 

 common breeds. I endeavored to ascertain the 

 prices of those which are considered valuable 

 here, and as an American is looked upon as 

 the best purchaser in the world, and my measur- 

 ing line was rather a curiosity in this land, where 

 they never talk about the girth of animals, I was 

 constantly beset by sellers, and had a good oppor- 

 tunity to learn the prices. I found that a good 

 Short-horn bull is valued at from five to seven hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars ; and a Devon at about the 

 same. One Devon heifer, two years, old was sold at 

 one hundred guineas, — about five hundred ten dol- 

 lars. Mr. Crisp, of Butley Abbey, whom I men- 

 tioned in a former letter, bought a pig here to-day 

 for one hundred dollars, though he had a large 

 number on exhibition. He says, he wants to im- 

 prove his breed still further in some particular 

 points, and this animal is the one to do it. The 

 size of the Short-horn cattle, especially of the young 

 animals, is astonishing. 



The peculiar value of the Short-horns is, that 

 they grow rapidly, fatten readily, and attain to great 

 weight. Their adaptation to the yoke seems not 

 to be at all considered, and so far as I can learn, 

 they are nowhere bred for that purpose. Indeed, 

 oxen are but very little used anywhere in England, 

 where I have yet travelled. Nor do the Short- 

 horn breeders talk much of the milking quali- 

 ties of their cows, the real value of the breed being 

 for the butcher. The Devons seem to be of two 

 classes, though not distinguished in the catalogues 

 or awards of premiums. The North Devon, which 

 we have in New England, is the more common 

 here, and I think our exhibition pens at the New 

 Hampshire State Fair have contained many ani- 

 mals that would have been very respectable in the 

 Royal Agricultural Society's grounds. The Som- 

 erset Devon is a large animal of a coarser make, 

 and has the appearance of a cross of the North De- 

 von with some kind of a JVative. I do not know 

 as such a name as Somerset Devon is known to 

 breeders, but such was the explanation given me 

 by a well-informed breeder, of the marked difiej- 



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