THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 189 



had possessed at more length the fashionable pedigrees 

 of the day, have fetched most reckless prices. The 

 whole affair was well managed. The arrangements, 

 and the neatly-dressed, respectable-looking old servants, 

 with their most inteUigent earnest boy-assistants, told 

 of a well-ordered establishment. 



I have since seen some purchases made at that sale 

 in strong company, and they quite hold their own as 

 regards style. There was what is so often wanting in 

 herds, but which should be a main object of the breeder, 

 a most marked uniformity of type and character. The 

 young aristocratic breeders, who came out upon that 

 occasion, will find that they have a good foundation to 

 build upon by the help of the more terribly high-bred 

 bulls. 



Talking of " breed," the day must come when other 

 originators besides Bates will be credited w^ith the 

 wizard character that we all allow to that great man. 

 So don't be too rash, young breeder, in rejecting first- 

 class animals of long pedigree, even though the ele- 

 ments be not all of the excellent Duchess strain. The 

 exquisite Bolivar is a considerable mixture I think, and 

 yet he will be celebrated. 



I want the shrewd Culshaw and the Messrs. Booth to 

 get into these patent American coffins, giving out that 

 they are dead, and after their ascent to the air again 

 to lie perda in some outlandish district for a dozen 

 years. They will see then how it is only the misfortune 

 of their being alive that is against them ; and they will 

 find that they will have to pay fabulous prices to 

 recover choice animals of their favourite strains — as 

 tremendous possibly as existing fashionable relics of a 

 departed breeder fetch. 



