December 28 , 1882 . ] JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 603 
in Class 27 the cup steer of 1881 reappeared. He is now the 
property of Mr. J. Cridlan. It weighed in 1881 Exhibition 
17 cwt. 1 qr. 21 lbs., and this year, 1882, it has only a record of 
18 cwt. 1 qr. 12 lbs. But we find another instance in the cup 
heifer, a famous conqueror of the year 1881. She weighed at 
Islington 15 cwt. 3 qrs. 24 lbs., and was shown again in 1882 at 
Bingley Hall, Birmingham, when she weighed only 1G cwt. 3 qrs. 
—ie., she gained by a year’s hard cramming 88 lbs., an increase 
which at beef prices will hardly give twenty pence per week to 
pay for keep which cost probably over twenty shillings. These 
are lessons which must teach those who are willing to learn, for 
it is evident that the Society which admits animals to be exhibited 
in this way sets an example which offers no advantage or credit 
to them, nor can any satisfaction be available for the exhibitor. 
For the sake of contrast we will give an instance of keeping 
cattle on from one year to the next. Mr. James Crew occupying 
good grazing pastures of his own in the vale of Wincanton in 
Somersetshire. As near as we can recollect the period, he purchased 
two oxen of full age at Salisbury Christmas Cattle Market in the 
year 1854, and gave £G4 for the pair of Devon oxen, and fed them 
on his own occupation on hay and water only, the produce of his 
own pastures, with a covered shed to run into at will during the 
winter until the grass came. They were then grazed for the 
summer, and hay-fed again in the autumn, without cake or corn, 
or anything besides the produce of his pastures in hay or grass. 
These animals were taken to Salisbury Christmas Cattle Show 
again the following year, and were sold for slaughter at £128. 
We l are no record of the weights or increase, but give the account 
as an outside profit on the method of keeping and feeding just as 
Mr. Crew told us. We further believe that these oxen had been 
worked on the land for several years previous to the first purchase, 
in which case it is an excellent example of what may be done by 
others under similar circumstances. 
In our business and correspondence with experienced men we 
are confirmed in the assumption that we do not now meet with 
oxen which weigh more than 210 Smithfield stones, and then only 
does it occur in the case of worked bullocks of from six to seven 
years of age, which can only be reckoned as 210 stones in 312 
weeks. But when animals are in full condition and weight at 
from two and a half years to three and a half years of age they 
cannot be kept to a profit beyond the latter period after having 
been fed the whole time with full measure of best food. At these 
large Christmas exhibitions the feeder now gives no account of 
the kind of food used and the method of feeding ; but years ago 
we recollect well, when we reported the shows held in Baker Street 
by the Smithfield Club, the food, &c., used was stated by the 
exhibitor of his cattle and sheep, and we think this is a serious 
omission in the present arrangements so far as the rising gene¬ 
ration of farmers are concerned. 
We will now proceed to the consideration of weights for age 
attained by sheep and lambs, and in relation to which we find a 
great revolution has occurred during the last twenty or thirty 
years. For instance, it is recorded that the long-woolled Lincoln 
sheep as wethers when fat have been known to reach the weight 
of 60 lbs. per quarter, or 30 stones the carcass, at three years of 
age, the mutton, of course, not being so valuable as that of the 
smaller breeds. We give an example. Mr. Clarke of Canwick 
in 1827 exhibited two wether sheep in Lincoln market. When 
slaughtered one weighed 32 stones 5 lbs.; the other 31 stones 2 lbs. 
At the same period the Leicesters and Cotswolds also reached as 
wethers heavy weights, but not so much at the same age as the 
instances we have given. 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour .—Ploughing and sowing the Wheat land is now much 
behind, and on many farms in various strong-land districts in the 
western counties but little has yet been sown. This work must 
therefore be attended to, making the most of every day when the 
weather is fine, or even part of a day; for, in fact, the ploughing and 
sowing or drilling should be going on simultaneously, so that as fast 
as the land is ploughed the seed should be sown up close to the 
plough. This applies to land where roots have been fed off by sheep 
as well as land hitherto rendered impossible to work by reason of the 
succession of adverse weather, otherwise field work is nearly 
suspended. The ploughing, however, for next year’s root crops and 
Potato crop may be continued upon all friable soils in the absence 
of rain ; with these exceptions but little ordinary work can be done. 
Carting out manure to heap in the field where required either for 
next year's Mangold or Potato crop may be done, but some mellow 
earth should be placed as a floor to absorb the drainage from the 
heap. To prevent heat and waste afterwards the dung should be 
drawn by the carts, and when finished some matured earth should be 
laid over the top of the heap, which will prevent undue fermentation. 
Also repairing roads may now be done : shaping the bye roads of the 
farm may also be done, by digging and carting away to heap the 
sides of the roads, so that the water may readily escape to the water 
table or outside of the roadway. When ordinary roadways through 
and about the farm, and between the fields are managed in this way 
no gravelling or other materials are required after the roads have 
been properly shaped with outlets for the water from them during 
the winter months in each year - . Nor must this be considered an 
unprofitable matter, because if the earth and parings are removed every 
year to heap, the proceeds will be available for all purposes of mixing 
with and making compounds or compost heaps with manure for 
pasture lands, as well as for use as absorbent materials to be used at 
the bottom of pens where pigs, cows, &c., are kept, and in stables 
where cart horses are accommodated. Drawing timber, and the pro¬ 
ceeds of the underwood grown in the coppices and hedgerows when 
made into different items for sale, such as hurdles, bavins, hoops, and 
hoop rods, &c., may now be proceeded with, so that such work may 
not interfere with important labour on the farm in the more busy 
times of the year. If frosty weather occurs manure may be drawn on 
to the young Clovers direct from the farmyard, both box manure and 
that from the pig and cow pens. Earth and earthy composts may 
also be drawn out and spread upon any meadow land which under 
ordinary circumstances would not bear the weight of the horses and 
carts. 
Live Stock. —Preparations should now be carried on for the lambing 
season by getting a dead fold made on some dry spot and covered 
with earth, so that when the bedding of the fold is completed the 
urine may be absorbed, and preserved as long as the ewes are kept 
therein. A sheltered spot a little on the incline should be chosen for 
the position of the fold, and if it can be obtained near to the shep¬ 
herd’s residence so much the better ; but when it is not made near to 
his cottage, the shepherd’s van or moveable house in general use on 
most farms will accommodate the. shepherd and his assistant during 
the lambing season. So long as frosty weather prevails Cabbages are 
the best food for the ewes before and just after lambing, and until 
common Turnips can be made available; but we do not like either 
Mangolds, Swedes, or Turnips cut and used for feeding ewes in 
troughs before or just after lambing, for we have known a great 
injury done by the ewes eating roots in large quantities at such times. 
The dry flocks, both tegs or hoggets, will now be doing well; for 
although the weather may be wet and the land dirty, if the food is 
cut and used as trough food, and if cake or corn is used for feeding 
let it both be reduced to meal and have it mixed with the cut roots, 
for in this way every animal gets its share of the cake, &c., as well as 
roots, but the troughs should not be overfilled and food left for the 
night. The great advantage, however, in mixing roots and meal at 
feeding time will be found in the health of the animals, because every 
one gets its fair share of the superior food, and as it enters the 
stomach together one material corrects the other, and prevents any 
laxative effect or other internal injury. The milch cows should now 
be housed when the weather is adverse ; and unless the pastures are 
very dry they should not go into them, and avoid their treading by a 
little airing in the farmyard or home paddock, and be fed at the 
stalls morning and evening only. They are now generally coming 
forward to calving time ; straw or inferior hay with a little decor¬ 
ticated cotton cake in meal mixed with the cut roots will keep them in 
useful condition, because after the cows go dry and they are kept too 
highly they are apt to make fat internally, which frequently produces 
an adverse calving time. 
CELEBRATED POULTRY YARDS. 
MR. W. COOK AT WEST CHISLEHURST. 
We some time since reviewed a work called the “ Poultry Breeder 
and Feeder,” of which Mr. Cook is the author, and which is published 
at this office. This work has called forth some severe criticism from 
at least one quarter. We desired in the interests of fair play to see 
for ourselves what Mr. Cook has actually done in the direction indi¬ 
cated in his book—namely, the keeping of poultry simply with a 
view to egg-production, with little or no regard to fancy qualities. 
With this object in view we communicated with Mr. Cook, and asked 
his permission to visit his poultry yard. This was at once accorded, 
and on the 11th inst. we paid our contemplated visit. 
The yard can hardly be called a celebrated one in the ordinary 
acceptation of the term, but we think it deserves to be so character¬ 
ised on account of the wonderful results obtained by its owner in the 
very limited amount of space at his disposal. Mr. Cook’s house is 
small, forming one of a terrace of similar houses, and the fowl yard 
occupies about half the garden, a piece of ground less than 20 feet 
square in fact. At one side is a well-built wooden fowl-house, lighted 
with a window, at the other side a shed boarded on two sides and 
part of the front; each of these structures is about 8 feet in length 
by 5 or 6 feet in width. 
In this yard were twenty-six adult birds and some half a dozen 
chickens. 'Of the twenty-six birds half were hens and half pullets. 
A large Golden-spangled Hamburgh cockerel completed the stock. 
At Mr. Cook’s request we noted down the particulars of the various 
- r '.H 
