84 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



consolation when from home. It is a plan I commend 

 to my shorthorn brethren, for the twofold reason that 

 they will like to look back in years to come upon the 

 materials of which they so carefully compounded their 

 herd, while again it will be a public benefit to have 

 attainable for study the lineaments of many a famous 

 ancestress otherwise known only through the written 

 record of her pedigree. We would most of us subscribe 

 heartily, I doubt not, could we obtain a pictorial idea 

 of the early celebrities — Sockburn Sail, &c. — so very 

 few of whom are to be found in the Fai^Tners' Magazine 

 or Herd Booh. 



Right glad am I to hear that Mr. CaiT is going to 

 give us an enlarged reprint of his essays on the Booth 

 sort. Would that some competent person would com- 

 pile a clear reliable account of the other great breeder's 

 experiments and experience. 



Did I not, in my last, register my determination that 

 I would breed no more horses ? Yet, what shall I do 

 herein? I have just had returned by a friend, who 

 has hunted her the past winter, one of the gi'andest 

 timber-jumpers in England (her grandam by Touch- 

 stone, too), lame — quite lame. I am tempted to cross 

 her with the Stock well blood, and make her pay her 

 way by work upon the farm. Foolish I feel I am ; but 

 what can one do with a pet of wide celebrity for her 

 performances in the hunting field ? And am I not con- 

 vinced, moreover, after repeated trial, that, too gene- 

 rally, half-bred horses are useless upon a farm, unless 

 they be considerably advanced in years, and you can 

 put them under the care of a regular, good, steady, 

 intelligent fellow, who will never leave them standing 

 by themselves in the plough or cart ? The risk attend- 



