STATISTICS OF THE HERD. 207 



herd, comprising twenty-five bulls, forty cows, and 

 fifteen steers, of various ages." But if this statement 

 is not an exaggerated one, it must have subse- 

 quently mucb decreased. In a letter to Mr. Darwin, 

 Mr. Hardy, then agent, said they numbered " about 

 fifty." That was in May, 1861. When viewed by 

 Mr. Thornton and others on the 1st of August, 1873, 

 it numbered sixty-four : namely, seventeen bulls and 

 bull-calves, twenty-eight cows, heifers, and calves, and 

 nineteen steers. Nearly fifteen months later, October 

 28, 1874, Lord Tankerville wrote to me thus: — "I 

 have succeeded in getting up the herd to a good head, 

 about seventy now, and quite up to the mark that I 

 wish them to be. But I was some time in getting 

 them up to this number, as they were a smaller herd in 

 my father's time, and they increase slowly, several dying 

 each year b} T accidents or by over-running their calves 

 when disturbed ; and the cows breed slowly, owing to 

 having frequently the calves still sucking the second 

 } r ear." In the not quite five months that intervened 

 between that and March 22nd, 1875, the herd had 

 again considerably decreased. The number in October 

 was, I believe, actually seventy-one ; as many as twelve 

 died in less than five months following, while there 

 had been three births : so that in March, 1875, the 

 herd consisted of sixty-two — fourteen bulls and bull- 

 calves, thirty-one females, and seventeen steers. 



It is interesting to trace, so far as is known, tbe 

 causes of these numerous deaths. They are — 



5 steers and 1 cow Shot. 



2 bulls and 1 old cow Gored. 



1 steer, 1 cow, and 1 six months' ) Died from causes 



old calf f unknown 



