Tlie Management of a Shorthorn Herd. 
381 
resources placed at man's disposal. It has further shown him 
how, of all that he has, nothing is useless, nothing is really 
" waste " — that nothing ought to be wasted. It is to be hoped 
that the times of agricultural depression through which we have 
passed, and are still passing, will have the useful effect of in- 
ducing those who have hitherto neglected the general system of 
economical collection and distribution to pay some attention to 
it now and hereafter. The more deeply they go into its details, 
the more clearly will the conviction be forced upon them that 
there is in it — unpromising and uninviting in some, perhaps in 
many of its aspects — a power for practical benefit, far beyond 
that which at first sight it promises to yield. Having made it 
throughout the course of many years a subject of close study, 
and such practice as professional circumstances permitted, I may 
perhaps be inclined to give it a greater prominence than it 
deserves. I, however, venture to say that I do not think so. 
Certain it is, that however I may have exaggerated the import- 
ance of some of its details, it is impossible that I can have over- 
estimated the value of its general principles. 
XXII. — The Management of a Shorthorn Herd. By William 
HOUSMAN. 
Of one who undertook to record things new and true, it was 
said that he indeed kept his engagement, but that the new 
were not true and the true not new. Relative to my subject, it 
is easy enough to provide any amount of matter that is true : to 
introduce the element of novelty is the difficulty. " My wound 
is great, because it is so small ;" my task heavy, because so 
light ; the materials are all so near at hand that everybody is 
familiarly acquainted with them already. If it were informa- 
tion to be brought to light from depths hitherto unexplored, 
one would eagerly toil and moil to unearth it ; but I confess it 
was with misgivings that I first received the suggestion to deal 
with such common property of the public as the subject of the 
management of a Shorthorn herd. 
The plan adopted has been to visit, in districts wide apart, 
a few of those farms where Shorthorns are kept, under different 
systems of agriculture and varying circumstances of soil and 
climate, and to show what has been done, and what is going on, 
in those districts. The observations might have been usefully 
extended, perhaps, to some herds not included ; but limits of 
time, and of the Journal's space, forbade the extension which 
I would have made very gladly, had it been possible. I hope 
