REVIEW THE BREEDING AND ECONOMY OF LIVE STOCK. 27 
Coldstream, by Mr. Crisp, late of Doddington. Breeders from 
all quarters now attend these shows in April, to purchase yearling 
bulls, the best of which can now be bought at from £20 to £30. 
Twenty years ago similar animals would have cost nearly 
double the money. No farmer of any extent can, therefore, 
plead an excuse for using inferior bulls. Admitting the higher 
sums to be paid, the animals can be used for two years, and 
then either sold to other breeders, or cut and fed, when they will 
fetch, from the butcher, nearly the original purchase-money. 
The bull, * Diamond,’ which was purchased at the Coldstream 
Show, about thirty years ago, for 150 guineas, was a most 
splendid animal, and left a great deal of fine stock in Berwick- 
shire. Nearly the whole of the breeders in the lower parts of 
this county, and the adjoining one of Roxburgh, have good stock. 
All their cattle are quite fat at two years old, and fit for the 
butcher. The average weight at this age is from forty-five to 
sixty imperial stones. Many of the best breeders and feeders 
give the animals no oil-cake, corn, or hay, during the second 
year. A little oil-cake is, however, usually given the first 
winter, which not only improves their condition, but is supposed 
to ward off diseases. There is less pampering in Northumber- 
land, Berwickshire, Roxburghshire, and East-Lothian, than any 
of the other feeding districts in Scotland. In fattening two- 
year-olds, much depends on the treatment the animals have re- 
ceived as calves, which will subsequently be noticed/’ 
After this copious extract — one which we have felt unwilling 
to mutilate or curtail — it behoves us to pass onward. And, 
since the account of the breeds of horses is but meagre, we 
shall submit one in its place, culled from the chapter “on Sheep,” 
and take for choice our old indigenous ’ Down breed: with Mr. 
Dickson’s account of which, and the improvements that have 
been wrought in it, we shall close our notice of his instructive 
and valuable guide for the farmer and grazier, and the veteri- 
nary surgeon, at that stage of life when either is undergoing 
initiation into the practice of a branch of knowledge so essential 
to both in their respective vocations as the breeding and rearing 
and feeding of live stock. 
“THE SOUTHDOWN BREED.” 
u This breed has for a very long period been the favourite in 
the London market ; but their true merits as a breed are not so 
well known and appreciated in other markets. They are not 
only a good breed of themselves, but also for crossing purposes. 
