JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
September 14, 1882. ] 
2G1 
thinks enough for the calf, so the udder comes to a good shape. 
They do not run together; the calf is put in a box and the cow- 
turned out for a few hours. If the Hereford people were to adopt 
our plan I think they would find the Herefords as good for milk 
as any other breed. I think the cow is more healthy for being 
turned out ; the stalls are so much sweeter than when they are in 
all the winter. One thing speaks well for the Herefords—if there 
is one at any sale she is sure to make a good price.” 
The system of letting the cows go dry for ten weeks may 
answer with the Hereford breed if they are not too highly fed 
during the period ; but our experience is that, with other breeds, 
they would lay on fat internally and endanger the cow at calving 
time, as they frequently suffer from the downfall in the udder or 
puerperal fever, besides which it reduces the value of the cow by 
loss of milk for a period. When the animals are allowed to go 
dry too soon the lacteal ducts become clogged with coagulated 
milk, and is often the cause of can-bagged udders, and the fre¬ 
quent loss of one or more teats. If Mr. James’s plan is correct it 
is certainly because the Herefords are known to accumulate less 
fat internally even when fat than most other breeds. 
Other breeders in Dorset keep the Hereford cattle and speak 
very highly of them. Mr. Chapman Saunders of Watercombe, 
Dorset, has often stated in our hearing, that having a herd of 
upwards of a hundred Herefords they answered extremely well as 
dairy cattle, and we also know that he makes up some noble steers 
as Christmas beef. We have also information relating to this 
breed from Australia. A Mr. Charles Price, in communication 
with Mr. Duckham, writes :—“ I am glad to tell you that my 
herd of 130 are all doing well, and about fifty just commencing 
to calve. It is considered that 150 or 200 guineas is considered 
a high price for Hereford cattle. But how if they were to make 
their calves into steers ? I can and do make more of mine than 
any breeder of Shorthorns in any of the colonies does.” 
It is recorded that Herefords have been bred at Woburn Abbey 
by the Duke of Bedford as far back as 1790. Three first Smith- 
field Club prizes fell to their lot, and it was three of these that 
John Duke of Bedford, in 1825, beat three of the Hon. Charles 
Arbuthnott’s Shorthorns in a sweepstakes. The chief difficulty 
with them at Woburn has been to make them milk, and latterly 
they have merely suckled their calves. As regards milk, “ the 
Herefords generally dry themselves fast enough;” still, if in point 
of quantity they fall below many other pure breeds the quality 
of their milk is undeniable. The Prince Consort’s Flemish farm 
(where the Herefords were first specially located in 1855) held 
its own well under Lieut.-General Lord Bridport’s management, 
both with fat and store beasts, at the Royal Agricultural and the 
two great Christmas Shows. The Royal Farm winnings with 
this breed in these three arenas up to the end of 1867 amounted 
to £400 for twenty-nine prizes, a large proportion of which were 
firsts, exclusive of gold and silver medals. And as a rule all 
animals shown were bred on the Royal Farm. The Herefords as 
fat bullocks took a long lead from the foundation of the Smith- 
field Club, and up to 1857 inclusive (after which period the 
different breeds were shown in separate classes) they had won 
185 bullock prizes, or only five less than all the other breeds put 
together including the Shorthorns. At Bingley Hall Show during 
1851 to 1867 the gold medal for best bullock in the yard has nine 
times fallen to their lot. The Berwick grey of Mr. Heath, who 
showed the best Hereford bullock in the yard three years in suc¬ 
cession in Birmingham, will long be remembered for its 9 feet 
7 inches girth. 
The Hereford are seldom crossed with the Shorthorn, but the 
blood mixes well when it is pure on both sides. Other crosses 
are well spoken of, such as the Hereford and Ayrshire, Hereford 
and Channel Island, especially the Guernsey. In conclusion, for 
labour in the yoke the Herefords combine the activity of the 
Devon and the strength of the Durham or Shorthorn. They are 
very little used in their own county, but the Wiltshire farmers 
and others buy them at Hereford Fair on the third Tuesday and 
Wednesday in October, and after ploughing with them for a 
couple of years they put them into the stalls or boxes for fatten¬ 
ing, or pass them on to the Buckinghamshire graziers to be 
fattened on their rich pastures. The late Mr. Forbes of Echt, 
in the north of Scotland, used them in teams of six to trench- 
ploughs, which turned up whin, heather, and stones to the depth 
of 14 inches. Despite the immense strain upon them they never 
broke step, whereas horses, if such a task had been set them, 
would most probably have snapped every trace. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—On the hill farms and later districts as to climate 
the horse power may now' be employed fully in carting manure 
on to the lea ground, and also on fallows in preparation for Wheat. 
The sooner the land is ploughed the better either of Clover leas or 
fallows on the stronger soils. We frequently find very strong land 
upon the chalk hills. Such land would be in fallow after Vetches or 
Turnips, Rape, &c., fed off by sheep. Where that has been done no 
yard dung need be applied, especially as the hill fields are usually 
outlying and distant from the farm premises, artificial manure being 
added. On such farms, however, the steam cultivator ought to be 
employed daily until all the land intended for Barley in the spring or 
root crops next year has been cultivated, and it will then lie rough to 
take the rains and frosts of winter. If, however, such land has any 
couch, (fee., upon it, it must either be v'orked out by Howard’s self¬ 
lifting drag, or if the couch is in a few bunches only it may be forked 
out by women or old men at low wages. This practice will save the 
costly horse labour and prove more effectual. 
The stormy weather and heavy rains of the last week in August 
and first few days in this month have made it very difficult to proceed 
with the carting of Barley where Clover prevailed w'ith it. This 
matter requires further consideration on the part of the home farmer, 
because he is not tied to the four-course rotation, w'hich w r ould oblige 
him to sow the Clover seeds in the Barley if he grew Barley at all. 
He is, however, fortunately in most cases at liberty to arrange his 
course of cropping so that the seeds may be grown in Oats, drege, 
spring Wheat, or Rye, according to circumstances of soil, situation, 
and climate. In all these crops Clover may not only be grown with¬ 
out injury to the cereal crop, but when the straw is cut a little above 
the Clover it will not interfere with the harvesting, and will afford a 
capital autumn growth or cutting as green fodder in those seasons 
where the harvest is fairly early. When it has been decided to grow 
winter Beans, winter Oats, or Barley, the work should be done imme¬ 
diately after the seeding of Trifolium, Rye, and Vetches has been 
completed, and just before the Wheat sowing. Ploughing, pressing, 
and seeding by the press drill is the surest and most expeditious 
method; the harrows following the drill presser complete the work 
simultaneously—a matter of much importance in the short days and 
uncertain weather of our climate. Those who have not a press drill 
for use can easily have one attached to an ordinary two-ringed presser 
for about £4 10s. by almost any implement maker. 
We must caution the home farmer not to attempt fallowing any 
Clover lea intended for Wheat, although there may be some couch in 
the land, for it proves fatal to a full crop of Wheat nine times out of 
ten in making what is called a bastard fallow, as the straw generally 
grows weak and falls before harvest, and seriously injures the yield. 
Hand Labour .—When hoeing the late Turnips is finished, the men 
and women too must soon be employed in raising the Potatoes, and 
this should first be done by the plough frame made for the purpose, 
capable of being attached, as it should be, to all horse hoes, the men 
and women following to pick up the crop and have the tubers stored 
for the winter in a continuous conical heap about 4 feet wide at the 
base, and then covered with some coarse dry straw or border grass 
trimmings, delaying the covering with earth until November. When 
seaweed can be obtained no earth covering will be required, for if pro¬ 
perly laid on it will resist any amount of frost. We, however, have 
always preferred to sell Potatoes in the ground, the crop to be raised 
and removed at the purchaser’s expense, as this does not then inter¬ 
fere with the ordinary labour of the farm, and we have found no diffi¬ 
culty in obtaining substantial men as purchasers in the vicinity of 
towns or railway stations. Hedge-trimming must now be completed 
as soon as possible. The irrigated meadows now should be attended 
to, so that the drowners or labourers appointed for the purpose of 
making the watering and drawing trenches may complete the work 
before the flooding rains of autumn commence, whether they are flood 
meadows or catch meadows, the latter being so arranged that the 
water shall be caught by one trench and led to another, and spread¬ 
ing each time over the land by its own gravitation. It is also a fact 
that much pasture land not so treated may in many instances be irri¬ 
gated without any expenses except that of properly laying out and 
making the trenches, which are of two kinds, for the spreading and 
catching of the water. 
Live Stock .—The breeding ewes will now be either in lamb or run¬ 
ning with the rams. In either case the abundance of food on all 
kinds of stubbles or grass land is this year so abundant that they re¬ 
quire but little else than a change twice a day from old leas, Sainfoin, 
or Clover at night to maintain them in good condition. We decidedly 
object to allowing the ewes to run on the young; seeds, as the autumn 
growth will be great this year and the seeds will afford a cutting of 
green fodder on good land in the vales ; but in other districts where 
the growth is not strong, it is not only injurious to the Clover in the 
succeeding winter to feed down bare with sheep, but the food is not 
well adapted for breeding ewes in lamb. The Dorset horned ewes are 
now forward in lamb, and must be treated accordingly. The best 
flocks will commence lambing the first week in October, and in case 
of the ewes and lambs being required to be fattened and sold together 
at the earliest period the ewes may be allowed a little cotton cake 
before they lamb, as many of this breed of ewes bring twin lambs, in 
which case the higher the condition of the ewes the better they will 
suckle a numerous fall of lambs. 
The cattle fattening in the stalls or boxes may now have Cabbage 
or hybrid Turnips, as the Swedes are not yet fit for feeding ; there¬ 
fore, as soon as the Clover as green fodder to cut up is finished the 
vegetable crops should be passed through Gardner’s cutter, and the 
cake or corn both given in the meal state and mixed with the cut 
