THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 131 



that one may detect, further towards midnight, the 

 grip, just across the back of the neck (where, shepherds 

 tell me, their hunting-grounds usually lie), of a dis- 

 agreeable, flat, exploring customer. 



The pigs simply snore, and await their fate. Washed 

 oiled, transported on wheels, it is a matter of utter in- 

 difference to their porcine highnesses whether they win 

 or lose — whether their owner and fond feeder be ruined 

 or not in their preparation. 



Since our return home from the sea, there has been 

 much of literature in the house to interest one, but few 

 books more than Mr. M'Combie's "Cattle and Cattle- 

 breeders," and Mr. Carr's little volume on the Booth 

 race of pedigree Shorthorns. The first, written quaintly 

 enough, abounds with much that is gold to the young 

 farmer, being the mental deposit of an acute thinker, a 

 practical salesman, and a plain-spoken, honest man, of 

 long years' experience. Our copy is lined and interlined 

 most abundantly already. 



The second is an able treatise upon its subject, and 

 should be in the hands of every breeder. I would we 

 had such a record of other eminent herds, instead of 

 the "all shirt-collar" histories with which we have 

 been hitherto favoured, and which are paralleled only 

 by the late railway-trip estimate of England's crops. 

 Mr. Carr's book is ably written, and shows him a 

 master in the art of breeding Shorthorn cattle — an art 

 of no little importance henceforth, it may be fairly 

 expected, if we are to judge frorn the issue of recent 



What we want now is a counter demonstration on 

 the part of the Bates men. The late Mr. Bates once 

 proposed a meeting of contemporary authorities, for the 



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