536 Report on the Warwickshire Farm-Prize Competition, lb76. 
would have produced a more satisfactory result. It was certainly 
with some feeling of disappointment that, on this famous farm, 
so celebrated in the annals of Shorthorn breeding, we viewed this 
degenerated herd, and our disappointment was perhaps increased 
by the fact that few of the animals were good of their respective 
sorts.* The following is Mr. Adkins' method with his herd : 
20 cows are put to the bull, and the drafts are fed on this farm or 
at Mickleton (the off-lying grass land mentioned previously), as 
the keep admits. Five cows are always kept at Stratford, from 
which land the milk is sold at Is. per gallon ; the remaining 15 
are kept at Milcote, and these rear their own calves, and also 
some other Shorthorn heifer-calves, bought in for addition to the 
dairy. The cross-bred heifer-calves are also put to the bull and 
sold together with their produce, Mr. Adkins not being desirous 
of carrying the cross further. The 15 Milcote cows generally 
rear about 25 to 30 calves in a year. The steers are all kept 
for farm-stock, and are generally disposed of as stores at about 
the age of 2^ years ; a lot of 8 had been sold, just before our 
May visit, at 111. 12s. 6c?. a head. The winter-keep of the 
young cattle consists of barley-straw, mangolds, and a small 
quantity of cotton- or linseed-cake, and the cows are kept on 
somewhat similar food. Not much winter-feeding is prac- 
tised, and beyond the points I have mentioned there is little in 
the management of the stock which is noticeable. The herd in 
May consisted of 21 calves and 31 older cattle, of which 26 were 
heifers and cows, in-milk or in-calf. 
Sheep. — 200 ewes are put to the ram. The flock is a cross- 
bred one between the Cotswold and the Hampshire Downs, but 
they have been bred long enough here to acquire some local 
notoriety as " Milcote Downs." They are somewhat lighter in 
face than the general run of the Oxfords in this neighbourhood. 
Upon the whole they are very good sheep, with plenty of size, 
and showing also a good deal of quality. A few selected Hamp- 
shire Down ewes are annually or occasionally purchased, and 
these are put to a pure Cotswold tup for the purpose of breeding 
rams for the flock. A large head of sheep is kept upon the larm, 
as will be gathered from the following figures, which show the 
stock at our May visit : — 
* Mr. Adkins related a curious cireiunstanco to us in connection with his late 
father's herd. Polled Angus heifers of Mr. M'Combie's breed were introduced at 
Jlilcote as ordinary farm stock, after the disporsiou of tlie main portion of the 
Shorthoru herd in 1868, and crossed witli a Shorthorn hull. Tlic same bull was 
used upon the Shorthorns, and produced calves of that breed witli black muzzles. 
Such abnormal phenomena were observed as long since as the days of Jacob ; but 
it is curious to find them exemplified among our most valued races of cattle in 
our own time. 
