Agriculture 145 



No less apparent, than the decline in numbers, is the steady improve- 

 ment in the type of horse to be found on the general farm. Pedigree 

 breeders of Shires, Suffolks, and Percherons, the three most common 

 breeds, find a good demand from local farmers as well as from those in 

 other industries where a good heavy draught horse still proves invaluable. 

 Quite a few, too, of even the smaller farmers, who have adequate facilities 

 for rearing, breed one or more foals each year and assist in maintaining 

 the high reputation gained during the last century by Cambridgeshire 

 breeders of heavy horses. 



The breeding and training of race horses is a feature on a considerable 

 stretch of land around Newmarket both on the Cambridge and the 

 Suffolk sides of the border. The greater part of this area, apart from New- 

 market heath, is laid out in neat grass paddocks surrounded by shelter belts 

 of trees, which give a distinctive appearance to a wide tract of land that 

 otherwise would be featureless and rather bleak. Good paddock manage- 

 ment, a matter requiring considerable skill and experience, is aided by the 

 grazing of cattle in the summer and by the production of manure from 

 yard-fed stock in the winter. Though localised, tliis industry is one of 

 considerable importance to those who farm in the surrounding districts 

 from the point of view of the demand for certain products of the farm 

 and its requirements for labour. 



The Cattle of Cambridgeshire are predominantly of the Shorthorn type, 

 but dairy herds of Red PoUs, British Friesians, and Jerseys, are to be foimd 

 here and there, while Aberdeen Angus crosses occupy a number of the 

 fattening yards and boxes. The total number of cattle has changed very 

 Httle since 191 3, though in recent years there has been some decline. 

 Marked changes, however, have occurred in the cattle distribution and in 

 the relative importance of the two main products — milk and beef. The 

 number of cows in milk has increased sUghtly in the County and remained 

 fairly constant in the Isle, but there is evidence that the quantity of milk 

 coming on to the liquid market has increased very considerably, due 

 mainly to three changes in practice, viz. the better management of the 

 dairy herds; the almost complete suspension of farm butter-making; and 

 a restriction of calf rearing and of the amount of milk fed to calves. 

 To-day, Cambridgeshire dairy herds supply the local requirements for 

 liquid milk, and they yield, in addition, an exportable surplus, much of 

 which is consigned through local depots to London. These changes have 

 naturally had their effect on the general farming system in certain areas, 

 and there are many instances of the conversion of open yards, feeding- 

 boxes and outhouses to cowsheds and milk and sterilising rooms. 



Beef production in the same period has dechned, partly through tlie 



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