A TRIP TO LOG HALL. 
295 
him a deceptive animal to the eye of any except 
a strict connoisseur. His handling is very good— 
liis presence imposing—his action light, free, and 
easy. He was by Short Tail, (2,621,) out of the 
Oxford Cow, which obtained the first prize open 
to all England, at the Show of the Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society in July, 1839. The Oxford Cow is a 
remarkable milker. In a letter received by Mr. 
Vail from Mr. Bates, dated Kirldeavington, Sep¬ 
tember 18th, 1843, he thus speaks of her:— 
The Oxford Premium Cow, calved October 5th, 
1838, and was milked regularly every meal, twice 
a day, till October, 1841, (3 years,) and in Septem¬ 
ber, *1841, would have weighed 100 stone, of 14 
lbs. per stone, [1,400 lbs.] and this on grass only. 
It was in August of this year that we saw her 
repeatedly on Mr. Bates’ estate, and certainly she 
was the broadest and most massive cow we ever 
looked at, and in her points generally a very supe¬ 
rior animal. 
Duchess we thought had improved even more 
than Wellington. She is really extremely fine; 
especially in the head, horn, and neck, with beau¬ 
tiful eyes, and a brisket projecting something like 
Mr. Bates Duchess 34, as figured in April No. 
for current volume. Mr. Vail’s Duchess is out of 
Nonsuch 2d, by the Duke of Northumberland, 
whose portrait is given in our May No. He is the 
best Short-Horn bull we saw in England, and has 
always taken the first prize when exhibited at the 
Royal Agricultural Society Show, as also at that 
of Yorkshire. In importing this stock, Mr. Vail 
aimed to combine deep-milking qualities, with 
good handling, symmetrical forms, and early ma¬ 
turity. How well he has succeeded, the public 
have only to call and judge for themselves. 
Mr. Vail had two young bulls from Duchess, 
by Wellington, when we were at Troy, and by 
this time she has probably dropped a third calf. 
The first, Meteor, now 2 years old, was exhibited 
at the Show of the American Institute in this city 
last month, and took the first prize for bulls of any 
age—a silver cup. He was generally admired, 
and in appearance is much like his sire. The 
other bull is quite as promising as Meteor was at 
his age; but we can tell better how he will look 
when more fully developed. 
We were shown several other fine animals when 
at Mr. Vail’s, of which we made notes at the 
time; but these unluckily being mislaid, we can 
not speak more particularly as to their merits, fur¬ 
ther than to say, that we believe they are from deep¬ 
milking families. The produce of these cows, by 
Wellington, show a great improvement over their 
dams. Victoria, a 2-year-old heifer, is a remark¬ 
able animal; and one has only to look at her deep, 
wide brisket, fat rumps, and well-developed quar¬ 
ters, to be convinced of the great advantage of pos¬ 
sessing a well-bred and well-chosen stock. In our 
judgment, Mr. Vail has not in all cases had that 
justice done to his animals which was their due; 
it, therefore, affords us the more pleasure to speak 
of them as we think they merit; and if others 
differ with us, we can only hope they will allow 
us the same freedom of opinion that we are at all 
times willing to accord to them. 
A TRIP TO LOG HALL. 
Owing to the hot weather coming on unusually 
early when recently in Mississippi, we made so 
short a stay in the state, as to deprive ourselves 
of the advantage of seeing many things in that 
country, which it would have given us great pleas¬ 
ure to do. Not the least among these was a visit 
we had planned to Dr. Philips of Log Hall. To 
make amends in a measure for our loss, we give 
some extracts from the Southwestern Farmer, de¬ 
tailing a trip which the editor recently took there. 
We trust one of these days that we shall be able 
to follow in his footsteps. 
We found the Doctor busy in his barn-yard— 
for he is hardly ever away from home, dressed in 
very proper farmer-tike habiliments—a home-made 
woollen roundabout, cottonade pants, buckskin 
shoes, &c. It is something unusual to see a barn 
in Mississippi: the one at Log Hall is a spacious 
structure, put up in an excellent style of workman¬ 
ship. In this barn and the surrounding sheds, are 
vast stores of hay, fodder, oats, straw, and other 
provender; and in one of the apartments a patent 
cutting-machine, turned by crank, in which every¬ 
thing is cut up—hay, oat-straw, fodder—all is cut 
up—racks are not used at all; but a wide trough 
is in every stall, as well as under sheds in the 
yard, where cattle and other stock find the food 
cut up and brought down to a level with their re¬ 
spective capacities. 
The hog-pen showed the same provident care. 
A furnace and a capacious kettle were there, to 
cook food for the fattening hogs; and a series of 
troughs, for alternately cooling and feeding with. 
All the different pens and lots about the barn-yard 
opened into it by means of small gates, substan¬ 
tially and neatly made. 
The piggery was a sight entirely new to us ; a 
“long-drawn aisle”-extended from end to end of 
this establishment, along the middle; and on either 
side of this aisle were suits of rooms for the dif¬ 
ferent madams and their young families of porkers, 
the troughs being on the side next the aisle, so 
that each apartment could be fed from the centre. 
The entrance to each apartment or pen, was by a 
gate opening on the outside. 
