1851. 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
247 
nl ancl lu t>ie breed, and disappear only with its change. 
Ihe valuanio qualities and characteristic points of the 
Ayrshire were prominent ;*» the descendants from Mr. 
Ward's importation. The greet r>f your Com¬ 
mittee was to ascertain as well as could be done, the 
merits of the several breeds. 
Mr. Daniel Barnes, who has on his farm fine blood 
Ayrshires from Mr. Ward's stock, exhibited four two 
years-olds, of the half-blood, of greaf excellence. If 
they were fair average specimens of the cross, we feel 
entirely safe in recommending it to the special attention 
of breeders of fine cattle. Mr. Richard H. Walker, 
exhibited eight yearlings, all with more or less of Ayr¬ 
shire blood, which attracted by their good points, the 
attention of your committee, and every one upon the 
grounds. 
The conclusion to which your committee were brought, 
by their inspection of the stock upon the ground, is, 
that as milkers and feeders the Ayrshires are worthy 
the attention of graziers and dairymen, and are suited 
to our soil and climate. 
The Great .Exhibition—-English Agriculture. 
Since the receipt of Mr. Johnson’s letters of the 6th 
and 16th of May, (which are given on other pages of 
this number,) we have received the following, which we 
are happy to lay before our readers: 
London, May 27, 1851. 
Editors Cultivator —Since my last, the exhibition 
has been full of interest, and the people come up in 
great numbers; and its success, in a money point of view, 
seems no longer doubtful,-—-though the result of yester¬ 
day’s receipts, from the first day of shilling tickets, has 
not been as encouraging as was expected. To pay the 
expenses of the Exhibition and purchase the building, 
would require £300,000. Of this sum £66,000 was 
raised by subscription,—£65,486 have been received for 
season tickets, and up to Saturday night last, upwards 
of £40,000 received at the door for single tickets—-mak¬ 
ing upwards of £170,000 realized in three weeks. Should 
the receipts average hereafter £1,500 per day, it will 
pay the £300,000, and leave a surplus for other purposes. 
The goods are not fully arranged—some of the depart¬ 
ments not yet completed. The Russian goods arrived 
last week, and are being arranged; and several other 
departments are completing their arrangements. . Some 
few additional articles are arriving from the United 
States, and our exhibition is attracting more interest. 
The grain reapers, plows, &c., and the machinery, are 
being examined with interest. The grain reaper of Mc¬ 
Cormick attracts much attention, and one person could 
be constantly employed in answering inquiries in regard 
to it. An English farmer and member of Parlirment, 
said to me a few days since, on my explaining the reaper 
to him, that if it succeeded here as it had done in 
America, the cost of the whole exhibition would be 
amply repaid by the introduction of such an implement 
into Great Britain. 
I took a ride, a few days since, to a farm in Surry, 
about 18 miles from town, owned by Mr. Combe, a large 
brewer of the town, and a partner in the firm of Combe, 
Delafield & Co. Mr. Del afield is a relative of the re¬ 
spected President of our Society. He has a fine herd 
of Short-horns and is to have a sale of about 40 head on 
the 10th of June, by Mr. H. Strafford. Mr. C. has a farm 
of 800 acres, most of it freehold. It is clay soil mostly 
and very moist, and has required much expense in drain¬ 
age—at the rate of about £7 per acre. It is now, how¬ 
ever, in good condition, and supports a large stock of 
cattle and sheep. When Mr. Combe first introduced 
Short-horns upon his farm, it was said he could not suc¬ 
ceed ; but the result has proved that Short-horns do 
well. He lias 92 head of cattle. His overseer, Mr. John 
Giles, is a capital man, and the stock are in fine condi¬ 
tion, and many are very choice animals. He has strains 
of Mr. Bates', Lord Ducie’s, Earl Spencer's and Mr. 
Booth’s stocks, as well as other distinguished breeders. 
He is breeding for a medium sized animal, and has 
some animals that are not easily excelled. Some of his 
heifers are, in my judgment, equal to any I have seen 
brought over to America, and would do no discredit to 
any breeder, and I think will probably be sold at fair 
prices. 
He has 1050 sheep fattening on pasture and turneps. 
They are Hampshire Downs, crossed with South Downs, 
and Cotswolds crossed with South Downs. He gets about 
10 shillings ($2.50) per head advance on his sheep, 
besides the fleece averages 6s., which pays very Well. 
The farm is more profitable for grass than grain, though 
a considerable breadth is kept in grain yearly. 
The farm buildings are admirably arranged, with all 
that neatness and completeness of arrangement, which 
is so important in a large farm. The stables and yards 
for the cattle, sheep, and swine, seem almost perfect, and 
the dairy cows have a most comfortable and convenient 
building, where every facility is had to make work light. 
Water is supplied in the manger to every cow, the troughs 
or mangers being of iron,—the floor of brick, and an 
iron gutter in rear of the cows to carry off the urine. A 
finer show of cows I have never seen than 32 Short¬ 
horns in this stable, put up for milking. Mr. Combe 
has several cows that are very large milkers. I design 
to attend his sale of stock—as it is the first that is to 
come off in this part of the kingdom. 
Mr. Combe keeps 20 horses for his farm work—four 
large sized dray horses for drawing manure from town, 
and taking down sheep, cattle, &c. to market; the others 
lighter animals, more like ours than we often see here, 
though I was informed by Mr. C.’s overseer that the 
lighter horses are found to he much the most profitable 
for farm work, and are coming into use to a considerable 
extent. 
The neatness with which farms are managed here, 
strikes an American with surprise. Everything is at¬ 
tended to in time, on a good farm; the plowing well 
done; the ground in all respects well prepared; the seed 
drilled in, generally, (and I think this system is gain- 
ing,) and when the weeds appear, they are carefully 
eradicated, giving the grain the full benefit of the nutri¬ 
ment in the soil—which properly belongs to it. Gar¬ 
ret’s horse hoe performs among the drilled grain, the 
work formerly performed by old men, women, and child¬ 
ren. It is a capital implement, and I have seen it at work 
here, and can testify to its admirable adaptation to the 
purposes for which it is used. It might be somewhat sim¬ 
plified, but as it is, I conceive it a very valuable imple¬ 
ment for the farmer. 
The hauling work on the farm here, is performed with 
carts mainly, instead of wagons, as with ns. The old 
fashioned carts with broad wheels, the felloes six to eight 
