412 
The Management of a Shorthorn Herd. 
the time the calf is actually sucking), to clear her udder of the 
surplus ; and after the calf is weaned, the cow is regularly milked 
twice a-day. 
The bulls are kept up and led out for exercise ; but Mr. Bult 
is in this respect, like other practical men, unable to always act 
up to knowledge. He would, if it were possible, have them 
taken out oftener, longer, and more regularly than at present. 
The pressure of other farm work upon an ample staff of servants 
often forbids the doing of things which it is wise to do. So 
with the bulls. When time is plentiful, they get their exercise ; 
when work superabounds and time scarcely suffices, more abso- 
lutely necessary matters take precedence. 
Norfolk. 
The management of the herd at West Dereham Abbey, in 
the county of Norfolk, is not only the best I can select in con- 
nection with the agriculture of the district, but it has a more than 
local character : indeed, if we take a broad view of English 
systems in general, we find Mr. Hugh Aylmer's standing out 
from among them with marked distinctness, in some respects 
differing from all others with which I am acquainted. Mr. 
Aylmer succeeded his father in the possession of a flock of long- 
wool sheep, now familarly known as the West Dereham Long- 
wools. In order to make clear the position that the Shorthorns 
occupy at West Dereham, it is necessary to glance at the farms 
generally, and the flock in particular. At the Abbey Farm, the 
Manor Farm, the White House Farm, Sheep's Hill (a grazing 
ground of 60 acres in Wereham Parish), and a fen farm adjoining 
his higher land (useful as a reformatory for cows persistently dis- 
posed to grow too fat), Mr. Aylmer has altogether 1399 acres 
(his own property, besides some which he lets off), divisible into 
360 acres of permanent grass and 1039 under the plough. The 
four-course system is followed ; steam cultivation in the autumn ; 
and about twelve working Devons are kept to plough the fen 
land. The farms adjoin one another, in fact may be called one 
farm, rather more than three miles from end to end ; and Mr. 
Aylmer's residence occupies a conveniently central situation. 
The average rainfall of the district in ordinary years is about 
23 inches. The country is generally low-lying, without hills 
of any considerable height, but gently undulating, unlike the 
dead level of the neighbouring fens, and has the attraction of 
wood, including fine hedge-row trees, and the advantage of well- 
kept roads. 
The produce of the arable land, it should be understood, does 
not go to the Shorthorns, except that they get sown-grass hay, 
