ITO Report on Cheshire Dairij-Farmiuf). 
are known as the Yorkshire dairy cross ; not Laving enough 
pure shorthorn blood in them to entitle them to a place in 
the herd-book, but still the produce for years back of pedigree 
shorthorn bulls and Y orkshire cows. His stock was kept up by 
rearing all the heifer-calvcs considered good enough, generally 
from 15 to 20 every year; but at the time of our visit (spring of 
18G9) he had not reared any for two years, and his dairy stock 
then consisted only of the 30 cows already mentioned, and 21 
two-year-old heifers. Future requirements will be met by pur- 
chase, Cheshire farmers generally being still fearful of attempting 
to rear their own stock, and thus increasing their risk of losses by 
a rinderpest epidemic, pleuropneumonia, and the other ills that 
cattle-flesh has become heir to. 
The treatment of dairy-cows varies in detail on different farms, 
but the principle generally remains about the same. When they 
have nearly done milking, about the beginning or middle of 
November, they are brought into the shippons. Mr. Jackson 
then gives them straw-chaff and turnip-tops until the latter are 
finished, generally about the middle of December, when they 
are replaced by sliced turnips, until just before calving — say the 
end of February or beginning of March. The food is then 
changed to a mixture of hay and straw chaff, crushed Indian- 
corn and oilcake (from 1 to 1.1^ lb. each per diem), and sometimes 
a little bran, the quantity of roots being diminished as that of 
other food is increased ; and the cows are kept in this manner, 
with the exception that mangolds are substituted for turnips after 
calving, until they are turned out to grass. All the food is 
steamed as soon as cut, in the manner that will be described 
presently under the head of "Farm-buildings." Previous to 
turning out in the spring and taking up in the autumn, the cows 
are kept out by day and taken home at night, according to the 
weather. A great portion of the pasture necessarily consists ot 
seeds of greater or less age. Calves are allowed to suck the first 
week — then they are fed on new milk for about a week, alter 
■which a little oatmeal gruel is given ; and when they reach the 
age of a month or five weeks, the food is altered to skim-milk, 
linseed, and gruel. When about six weeks old they are sold to 
the butcher, unless tlie best heifer-calves are reared ; these are 
kept as before, until they go on grass in M.ay or June. Mr. 
Whitlow gives his cows crushed tailed corn and Egyptian beans, 
consuming of the latter about 100 sacks per annum. 
Sheep. — Tlie flocks on Cheshire farms have been increased 
on a scale sim.ilar to that on which the herds have been dimi- 
nished. Before the cattle-plague Mr. Whitlow kept 40 breeding 
ewes ; since then he has increased the number to 70. The ewes 
are Shropshire Downs, bought in October at Shrewsbury Fair; 
