THE LATE CATTLE SHOW. 
43 
property the original breeds were in the admitted possession of. 
The concentration of all that is good and valuable in the same in- 
dividual is no more attainable in animals by breeding than in human 
beings by culture of body and mind ; what we gain in one respect 
we too frequently lose in some other, insomuch that it is possible a 
cross may, so far from having any right to the epithet “ improved,” 
more appropriately be designated “ altered,” or even “degenerated.” 
A great source of attraction in the show just past — and it is one 
that has been increasing of late years — was the “implement” de- 
partment. Mechanics are shedding the same light over the tools 
used in husbandry as chemistry has for some time been casting 
into the composition and improvement of soil; and between the 
two aids, the improved plough on one hand and guano on the other, 
the farmer is beginning to make some important strides towards 
an accomplished system of agriculture. Among the implements 
and machines exhibited in the late show there were several cal- 
culated to command the attention and approval of the veterinarian. 
There was an ingenious and apparently very effective machine for 
bruising furze, said to be the invention of a female — “ Mary Wed- 
lake’s Gorse Bruising Machine” — which, from the destruction it 
operates of all the prickly annoyance which furze, as food, occasions 
in the act of mastication, cannot fail in parts of the country where 
furze is readily procurable, and hay and straw and other fodder are 
dear, to prove in winter time extremely serviceable. The exhibitor’s 
bill declares, that “ cattle fed on furze alone will thrive well 
adding, that “ the coats of horses (so fed) will in four days look more 
glossy and sleek and that cows (thus fed) “ will yield more 
milk and richer.” The furze should “ be cut at one or two years’ 
growth and one man alone can bruise twenty bushels a-day. 
Had there been machines such as this in the train of the Duke of 
Wellington’s army in the Peninsular campaign, the cavalry would 
have found their advantage in them ; it being notorious that on 
many occasions the soldier had little provender for his horse save 
what he could forage from fields and forests. There were several 
other kinds of ingenious and useful machines and implements ; but 
we have left ourselves no room here for notice of any of them. 
