30 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



I had reserved for their beauty and high lineage to 

 perpetuate the breed ! They were the only two pro- 

 duced at her last farrow by their dam, now some fifteen 

 years old. She is one of the three original "Black 

 Diamond " sisters, that came of a lucky cross at Butley 

 Abbey, the descendants of which, in the hands of Messrs. 

 Crisp, Sexton, Barthropp, and Stearn, have been so 

 wonderfully victorious at the various shows. For her 

 last three families she has had no milk whatever. The 

 first, which we attempted to feed on cow's milk with a 

 bottle, all died of constipation. Of the second farrow, 

 half died, although dosed repeatedly with castor oil ; 

 but the remaining four we reared on a mixture of warm 

 milk and Glauber's salts : they turned out beauties and 

 prizetakers. The next time she had but two, which 

 were reared likewise on this nauseous compound, but 

 whose sad fate I am about to record. 



Hurrying out at once, sure enough I found a very 

 melancholy exhibition — one little fellow twisted in and 

 out of the bars across the iron feeding-troughs until he 

 was clay-cold, in the shape of the letter S, (it must have 

 been done in the throes of an intensely sharp agony,) 

 while his only brother lay foaming at the mouth and 

 writhing as if he were mad. My first idea was that 

 they had been wilfully poisoned, but I banished the 

 thought at once for want of foundation. The vet. was 

 sent for (a grave invalid, but a local authority in his 

 profession), and was wheeled in his carriage up to an 

 outhouse, where the bailiff made, under his directions, a 

 post-mortem examination of the deceased. Decided 

 inflammation throughout his internal arrangements. 

 " Do you know, sir, can they have had any brine by 

 mistake ? I've known that happen, and have this 



