92 



CATTLE AND DAIRY FARMING. 



tie were despised and their merits ignored. With registration, how- 

 ever, and marked progress made in Bed-Polls within the last ten years, 

 the shortness of^nnmbers is being in some measure compensated for, 

 noblemen and gentlemen now sparing no pains to make the breed a suc- 

 cess. 



Weight and measure of Red Polls. Mr. Tyssen-Amherst, M. P., of Did- 

 lington Hall, has, at my request, weighed and measured several cattle 

 in the Didlington herd with the following results, the stock living en- 

 tirely on the grass of very poor land : 



Slasher, 577, bred by Mr. Lofft, combining Norfolk and Suffolk blood, 

 had alive weight of 27 cwt. (3,024 pounds) at the age of four years seven 

 months ; girth, 8 feet 2 inches. His son, Rollick, 558, of the same tribe 

 as Dolly, No. 2 (see illustration), weighed at the age of two years eight 

 months eighteen weeks, 19 cwt., 3 qrs., 14 Ibs. (2,226 pounds), and its dead 

 weight was 100 stone of 14 pounds. The bull Cortes, G45, weighed when 

 one year eight months old, 12 cwt., 20 Ibs. (1,363 pounds); eight weeks 

 after, his live weight was 12 cwt, 3 grs., 9 Ibs. (1,437 pounds) ; girth 

 6 feet 10 inches. King Egbert, 688, at fifteen months three weeks, 

 weighed 10 cwt., 3 qrs., 2 Ibs. (1,206 pounds) 5 girth 6 feet 6 inches . 

 Three bull calves at Didlington, under five months old, all the get of 

 Davyson 3rd., had a live weight of 3 cwt., 1 qr. (364 pounds) ; 3 cwt., 

 14 Ibs. (350 pounds), and 3 cwt., 12 Ibs. (348 pounds), respectively. 

 A Davy heifer at Didlington, sired by Davyson 7th, and calved January 

 27, 1882, had on May 31, 1883, a live weight of 8 cwt., 1 qr., 14 Ibs. 

 (938 pounds) ; girth 6 feet 1 inch. A Primula heifer, calved January 

 3, 1883, weighed on the following May 31, 3 cwt., 1 qr., 20 Ibs. (380 

 pounds). A Red-Polled calf at birth has been found to weigh 3 qrs., 10 

 Ibs. (94 pounds). 



Practical experimental breeding of Bed Polls. Mr. B. E. Lofft, of 

 Bury St. Edmunds, a famous breeder of the Red-Polled variety, gives 

 some very unusual information. He says: 



My farm is composed of drift clay and sand, or both intermixed, and rests on a sub- 

 stratum of chalk. The mean temperature of 1883 was 48.6; rainfall 26.19. I have 

 never tested my dairy, but only a few cows, on request. Good cows give from 4 to 6 

 gallons of milk per diem, and make 7 to 10 pounds of butter per week. I set more store 

 upon cows milking through than on giving a large quantity after calving. We have 

 had cows that have not been dry for four years, but this is of course exceptional. I am 

 breeding cattle of three different si7.es: First, a large size more exclusively for beef. 

 Of this sort a bull might weigh 1 ton to 1 ton 7 cwt.; a cow from 15 to 17 cwt., and a 



