Tour in England. 
From sheep we now passed to the inspection 
©f the Short Horns, of which Mr. Webb had a 
few, and Mr. Adeane quite a herd, derived 
principally from the celebrated stock of Earl 
Spencer, and if you will believe it, my fair coun¬ 
trywomen, we here met the ladies of the Abbey 
in piain morning- dresses, bound upon the same 
errand as ourselves, and they were the daugh¬ 
ters of one of the oldest and most reputable fa¬ 
milies in England, and had just returned from 
a two year’s tour abroad in France, Germany 
and Italy, with refined minds, and elegant 
manners, and yet they could be interested in 
Short Horns.* * 
But it is not as a stock breeder alone that 
Mr. Webb excels, for we found him quite as 
particular in his field crops as in his animals. 
He is one of the few in England who have com¬ 
menced the cultivation of the sugar beet, and he 
gives it a decided preference in its season, over 
Mangel Wurtzel and Ruta Baga. Many of 
his observations on these matters are worth re¬ 
cording, showing how particularly and mi¬ 
nutely an enlightened English farmer studies 
his subject and makes his applications. Draw¬ 
ing a Swedes turnip from a patch in a large 
field over which we were walking, he desired 
us to taste it, and we found it sweeter and appa¬ 
rently more nutritious than the roots taken 
from another patch. Now, “said Mr. W.,” 
you would pronounce the first decidedly the 
most valuable, and would undoubtedly alto¬ 
gether reject the last.” Certainly, we replied. 
u But that wouldn’t do with me,” he adds, “ for 
©pen field on dead standing grass all winter. A flock 
in Economy, Pennsylvania, though strictly bred in 
and in for several years, and of course likely to have 
deteriorated in constitution, looked well in May, even 
with large lambs by their side, and had been fed, as 
we were assured by the manager, nothing but hay; 
and a letter received three months since from Mr. 
Rotch of Otsego, who resides in a cold latitude, says, 
“ my ewes have had nothing but hay, and never 
looked better.” He has a high-bred flock, carrying in 
it, the blood of the Duke of Richmond. Messrs. Ell- 
man’s and Grantham’s, and now that of Mr. Webb’s. 
In looking at his sheep in May 1841, we thought 
them in too high condition, but Mr. Hollis who 
showed them to us, replied, “notwithstanding the 
winter has been severe, they have only had a few 
turnips with their hay.” 
* One of the greatest charms in England is the at¬ 
tention that ladies bestow on agricultural affairs, it is 
the same among our warm hearted countrywomen of 
the South, who are as great exhibitors in their parti¬ 
cular departments, as much interested, and as nu¬ 
merous in attendance at the shows and fairs, as the 
gentleman, if not more so. It is the case also at the 
fair of the American Institute in this city, and we 
hope ample accommodation will be made for the la¬ 
dies^ at the forth coming show and fair of the State 
Society in September, at Albany, and all be invited 
to attend. Every member should bring his wife 
and daughters with him, we mean , to set a good 
example by bringing all that we happen to possess. 
IDS 
the first kind pulled, I found on experiment, 
would not stand the hard frosts of winter in the 
ground, whereas the last will, so that I am 
obliged to use the former for fall feeding, and 
keep the latter for the winter and spring.” On 
a hill very much exposed to bleak winds, we 
found that he was cultivating wheat and barley 
with short coarse thick straw, in preference to 
the long fine straw of the same grains in lower 
or less exposed lands, and on expressing our 
surprise at this, he smiled and replied, “ that 
the coarse was the only straw that could stand 
the grinds, and if he sowed his grain there, 
which produced the fine straw, it would always 
be blown down, and he could never save a 
crop.” It is by such study and application of 
particular things, best suited to particular loca¬ 
lities, that the English farmer obtains the su¬ 
perior products that he does from a given num¬ 
ber of acres, and his example in this particular, 
is worthy of a more general adoption than at 
present prevails throughout America. 
Having an invitation to dinner at the Abbey, 
we now dressed and walked over. The build¬ 
ings are in the Tudor style of architecture, so¬ 
lid, elegant, and commodious; and surrounded 
by a noble park of Oak, Elms, and the fragrant 
flowering Linden tree. Col. Scott of the 
Horse Guards, and a veteran Peninsular cam¬ 
paigner, was down here for the shooting sea¬ 
son, and did the honors of the house, and every 
thing within was in that quiet and refined taste 
that is always to be found in the well bred circles 
of England, and which puts the stranger at 
once at his ease, and makes the hours pass 
away so agreeably. Adjourned from the 
dining table to the drawing room, we sipped 
our coffee, and gazed out upon the exquisite 
little parterre, or French flower garden, border¬ 
ing the full rich green of the smooth shaven 
lawn. The moon had just risen, silvering the 
tops of the deep shadowy trees of the park, and 
now played with its mild beams on the soft vel¬ 
vet turf, forming a scene as sweet, “ as the bank 
whereon the mild thyme blows,” Fit hour 
me thought for fairies to hold their revels 
here. 
The next day, Mr. Stevenson was obliged to 
leave to attend business at the Foreign Office 
in London, while we remained to pay a visit to 
the University of Cambridge. On our way 
thither, we passed the estate of Lord Godolphin, 
a descendant of the celebrated owner of the 
Godolphin Arabian. It was here that this 
noble animal was kept and found his last rest¬ 
ing place, and in passing his tomb, it may cause 
a smile from our readers, when we inform 
them, that we made a momentary pause in 
passing, and lifted our hat in reverence to the 
memory of so renowned a horse. We spent 
