The property of the Aylesbury Dairy Company, St Petersburgh Place, Bayswater, W. London Published by Rogerson & Turford, 265, Strand. 1880. THE PROPERTY OF THE AYLESBURY DAIRY COMPANY, ST. PETERSBURG PLACE, BAYSWATer, W. To Mr. G. Mander Allender, the managing director of this well-known Company, we are indebted for the following ;-"The three mules are part of a lot of fourteen that I bought at Pau. They are of the breed known as the Pyrenean or Spanish, and are by the ass out of well bred mares. Their height is about fourteen hands three inches. They were imported in the winter about two years ago, and for the first few months were very delicate, our climate not seeming to suit them. They now appear to have become acclimatised and answer our purpose very well, but their small feet are not quite adapted for street work, and we have had many of them down. There is no doubt that they cost less to keep than horses, and they eat anything the horses leave. I think if they were bred in this country they would be most useful animals. Those we have were picked ones, and cost us £10 each in the country, to which must be added some £7 10s. each for carriage and freight. These mules are used for carriage work in Spain. For heavier draft purposes, we have two pairs of large ones, of the Poitou breed, which are as distinct from the Spanish as the cart horse from the ordinary nag." The brown, on the left of the plate, takes so much after the horse in form, that had its credulous looking ears been a size smaller, it might have passed for a Melbourne, and the bay in the centre though with a head, shoulders, quarters, and makings of the ass, has lengthy limbs and is very bloodlike, while the sturdy looking iron grey taking stock of the other two has throughout the cut of the unadulterated, genuine, jackass. Mules bred as these, are more intelligent and better animals than those got by horses. We leave the reader, if a disciple of Lavater's, to decide on which of the trio is the most intelligent, or ought to be. VARIOUS Plenro-pneumonia has been discovered at Anlaby, in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The Preston Agricultural Society has been dissolved on account of "the difficulty experienced in obtaining a suitable show ground, the diminished subscriptions, and the appareat apathy of the council and the subscribers." We are sorry to bear of the collapse of any agricultural society, but the amalgamation of all the smaller societies with the larger ones, would be a reform in our show system which is greatly needed. The eighth joint-sale of pure-bred Shorthorns and Scotch polled cattle took place at Aberdeen, March 11. The Banffshire Journal states that there was a very large attendance from all parts of the North of Scotland, aud The direct result of the successful experiment in conthe result of the sale must be held as on the whole satisnection with the Strathleven's cargo of foreign meat from factory. The number of cattle was the largest that has Australia, is a proposal on the part of Messrs. been exposed at one time at these sales, but taking the Mellwraith, McEacharn, and Co., of 34, Leadenhall whole season of 1878 and 1879 into account, there was Street, the importers, to form a limited liability company this year a decrease in the entries of Shorthorn bulls. In to develop and carry on the traffic. It is to be called the autumn of 1878 the number was 142 bulls, and in "The Australian Fresh Meat Company (Limited)," and the spring of 1879, 129, making a total of 271. In the the capital required is £150,000 in £10 shares, the whole autumn of 1879 the number was 80, and in the spring of of which are now offered for subscription. The pros-1880, 168, giving a total for the season of 248, and a repectus states that "at the present time meat (of the quality of that sent in the Strathleven) can be purchased OLD SERIES, duction in 1879 as compared with 1878 of 23. The number of Polled bulls ia seasons 1878 and 1879 was VOL, LXXXVII.-No. 4. S exactly the same. The demand for Polled and Shorthorn bulls was brisk, and except in the case of the youngest lots there was no difficulty in effecting transactions, little over half-a-dozen being turned out of the ring unsold. In point of quality the Polled bulls were by far the best draft that has been produced at the joint sale. The Shorthorn bulls were somewhat deficient in average merit, although comprising a considerable proportion of exceptionally good animals. The actual results of the sale are published in the Banffshire Journal, giving the names and addresses of the purchasers, and the prices made in each individual case-a marked contrast to the action recently taken by the Birmingham Exhibition Society on a similar occasion. The summary is as follows:-151 Shorthorn bulls averaged £25 16s. 4d.; 10 Shorthorn females £24 Os. 10 d.; 41 Polled bulls, £24 3s. 2‡d.; and 13 Polled females, £19 12s. 6d. The annul show and sale of pure-bred Shorthorns and Scotch Polled cattle was held at Perth, March 17, by Messrs. Macdonald and Fraser. The stock exhibited comprised 132 Shorthorn bulls, 28 Shorthorn cows and heifers, 21 Polled bulls, and 11 Polled cows and heifers; together, 196 animals. The prices realised for the bulk of the animals were from £20 to £30. At the sale of pure-bred Shorthorn cattle, consisting of drafts from the herds of Sir W. Lawson, Bart., and Mr. S. P. Foster, conducted by Mr. John Thornton a Brayton, March 17, the following averages were realised -6 from Mr. Foster's herd averaged £58 19s. 6d., and 17 from Sir W. Lawson's heid averaged £33 13s. 10d.; together, 23 animals averaged £40 5s. 9d. We are requested to record the following increase of pure-bred Shorthorns in the herd of Mr. Richard Reynell, Killymore, Killucan, Ireland: October 3, 1879, a roan heifer calf, sire Cato (41193), dam Hawthorn; Nov. 14, 1879, a roan bull calf, sire Agamemuon, (39357), dam Isabella Broughton; Jan. 13, 1880, a roan heifer calf, sire Agamemnon (39357), dam Violet 7th. A destructive fire has occurred on one of the Duke of Portland's farms near Ayr, and about forty of the cattle were burned to death. From the Buenos Ayres Standard, of Feb. 18, we learn that the Corrientes Government has put a new tax of 17 cents (8.) on every hide turned out of the new saladero at Mocoreta. The Ferro Carril (Con ordia) calls attention to the monstrous growth of taxation in the Argentine Republic, aud publishes a table of duties which shows the suicidal policy of the Provincial Governments towards their best industries, whilst all cattle may be exported from these Provinces to the Banda Oriental (Uruguay) Republic, and to Brazil. " The following useful remarks on milk fever are taken from the columns of the Agricultural Gazette: Although the practice of some parts of the country appears to discountenance the clean milking of newlycalved cows, the nature of the milk fever justifies the conclusion that the cow liable to this disease should have her bag drawn dry as soon as she calves, and that the operation, if needful, should be repeated several times daily. No harm, we believe, results from milking thoroughly three times a day, or oftener; much harin, the other hand, may ensue from allowing the milk to accumulate, as it is apt to do in a good cow in the prime of life in high condition, and milked only night and morning. Against the practice of clean repeated milking, it is urged that in a state of nature the young calf does not empty the udder. But the cow liable to milk fever is far from being in a natural state. Selection, cultivation, and liberal feeding, have produced an on artificial state of matters. The cow's greatly improved blood-making capabilities have been in increasingly active operation for several months, nourishing and growing her big calf. In former years she has yielded four or five times the amount of milk given by a cow in a natural state. The vascular system of the udder is extraordinarily developed. If all goes well with such a bountiful cow, the full stream of rich blood which hitherto has been directly nourishing the calf must be promptly turned to the manufacture of milk. If any hitch occurs in this change of function, mischief is sure to result. If, at this critical period, any of the important purifying or excret. ing channels are torpid or tardy in the performance of their duty, milk fever is apt to ensue. The skin, from exposure to cold, sometimes fails in its important service, and congestion of internal organs supervenes. The bowels in like manner, if locked up, leave noxions matters in the blood, which retard vascular and nervous circulation. To prevent this unfavourable contingency, reiterated doses of salts are wisely ordered both before and after calving. Precisely the same principle applies to the udder. If it does not take on its duty fully and quickly after nutrition, there accumulates in the blood materials which should be eliminated, and which, when retained, promptly paralyse the great nervous centres, and develop the train of symptoms which constitute milk fever. If this, the generally accepted view of the production of milk fever, be correct, it follows that full early and repeated milking, by encouraging the flow of milk, helps to combat the tendency to milk fever. It is unwise to leave milk in the udder at any time, and especially when the organ, as well as the cow herself, is in a sensitive, irritated state. Ia hot weather particularly, rentention is besides prone to cause irritation, and such udder irritation is liable to be propagated to the nervous centres, which in cows of a certain type and condition appear specially liable to derange ment at the time of calving. It is not worth while to controvert the absurd supposition that taking all the milk out of the udder starved it, and so allowed the cow to ca'ch cold.' If on this plea milk is to be left undrawn, it might as reasonably be suggested to promote the an mal's warmth by endeavouring to retard the action of its bowels and bladder also." A gentleman who has spent considerable time the past season among the large stock farmers in Colorado gives some facts in Harper's Monthly respecting the profitableness of sheep husbandry. These facts are obtained from the practical operations of large ranchmen who make a speciality of this industry. He takes as a basis a flock of 2,000 assorted ewes, two to three years old, bought at 3 dollars (128. 6.1.) per head, 6,000 dollas (£1,250); and 60 rams at an average of 30 dollars (£6 5s.) each, 1,800 dollars (£375). A pair of mules and saddle horse at a cost of 275 dollars (£57 5s. 101.), and working capital 1,900 dollars (£395 163. 8d.). Capital invested, say, say October 1st, 14,000 dollars (£2,916 13s. 4d.). The result of the first year is estimated to show a net profit of 2.596 dollars 40 cents (£51) 188. 4d.), and using the same process in estimating the second year, and adding 15 per cent. to value to the 1,500 lambs, and adding also the value of the wool from the lambs, and then deducting the items of expense lesses, the ranchman has as net profit for second year, 3,406 dollars 40 cents (£709 133. 4.1.). Estimating by same process, adding lambs and product, and dedacting expense and loss, the profit for third year is 4.899 dollars 90 cents (£1,020 6s. 3d.). These estimates apply to one who has bought a ranch worth 4,000 dollars (£833 6s. 8d.), with cabins and corrals on it, and large enough to accommodate 5,000 head of sheep. The yield of wool and is put at five pounds each for the ewes, worth 21 ceuts (10.) per pound, and 17 pounds for the rams at 15 cents (71d.) per pound. The one-year old lambs average four pounds at 21 cents (10d.) per pound. Thus it is seen that there is profit in sheep husbandry to a careful, practical man with some capital to invest, enough to go at once into business without delay of fitting up, and one may gather, from these facts, something of the nature of the business in the middle Western States. The decline of the sheep-breeders' industry in the colony of Queensland has been made the subject of editorial comment in the columns of the Queenslander (Brisbane), January 10. It is therein stated that there has been a gradual decline during the past ten years. “And yet” continues the Queenslander "there has been nothing in the soil, herbage, or climate of Queensland to forbid rather everything to have encouraged the expectation, in any person reviewing the condition of the pastoral industry ten years ago, that we should by this time have been able to reckon on a total number of 20,000,000 instead of something like 7,000,000 sheep. The falling off in the number of sheep is the result of our own acts, it has not in any way been forced upon us by circumstances. Except a comparatively small belt of east country, the whole of Southern and Central Queensland is well adapted for sheep raising, most of it being unequalled for quality in Australia. In fact, owing to the elevation of the interior plateaux the winter frosts necessary to maintain the quality of wool extend far to the north of the tropical line. Nor can the want of railway communication be admitted by any person who takes the trouble to investigate the matter as a sufficient explanation of the decrease. In the districts naturally fitted for sheep that are within sufficiently easy distance from port there is ample room for twice our present stock. The Darling Downs, Maranoa, Leichhardt, Kennedy, and Eastern Barcoo, when first taken up were unmistakably sheep districts, and, during the ten years that our stock has been declining, the prevailing rates of carriage there have never been sufficiently high to prevent sheep-raising from being profitable; and no one will deny if their grazing capabilities were fully used they would maintain fourteen million sheep. It may be urged that some parts of the country named are no longer good sheep country; they are spoiled by too much grass seed, too many wallabies, and other nuisances to the sheep farmer. But the fact supports, it does not disprove, our conteution-it was good sheep country when first occupied. Overstocking and reckless management have spoiled it. Nature had done her part, but man in his blindness wasted her bouuties. We have no means of ascertaining how far the process of deterioration has gone, but we have it on the authority of the Premier that the sheep are going further west, and that we must follow them with our railways. If we are to understand that the transfer has been rendered necessary by any general deterioration of country admirably fitted only a few years ago for sheep-raising, then the prospect would be indeed a deplorable one. if we are to spoil country at so rapid a rate, we shall bardly be able to overtake good sheep country with our railways-it will recede before them as the mirage which deceives the eyes of thirsty travellers on our Western pains. For our part we see no reason to believe that the process of deterioration has either gone far or wide enough to account for the decline in the number of sheep in certain districts. Statistics show that the newer dis tricts have not gained anything like what the others have lost when the natural increase on the recently formed stations is taken into account. The decline has been general. Our squatters have deliberately got rid of their sheep, not because their country had been spoiled, or because it was unsuitable, but because they preferred to go into cattle, and that during a time when our squatters For, found sheep a more profitable description of stock. This brings us very near to the root of the evil. The preference for cattle over sheep is due to the fact that the former require very little expenditure in the shape of permanent improvement. Cattle can feed long distances from water; a run on which there are one or two permanent waterholes will do for this kind of stock. Sheep require water close to their grazing grounds, and a sheep ruo must have permanent waterholes in a great many places. This, in country like ours, demands the expendi ture of capital in water storage. Besides, the appliances for working a sheep run successfully are much more costly than those needed for cattle-proper machinery for wash ing wool clean, well-arranged shearing sheds; and improvements of this kind cost a great deal of money. The attractions possessed by cattle for a Queensland squatter lay in the fact that when he had purchased his herd he was not compelled to go to any appreciable expense ia preparing his country for their maintenance. The extremely liberal terms on which pastoral country is leased by the Government enabled such a one to command a wide extent of grazing grouud for a trifling annual pay. ment, and when a dry season came on his cattle could travel many miles from water in search of pasturage. Sheep owners, on the contrary, have had to begin with a heavy outlay, and to provide for a considerable annud expenditure. In short, of the two great divisions of the pastoral industry, the one-sheep breeding, with its great ultimate profits-would possess most attractions for the man who intends to reinain in the country, and can afford to wait for wealth; cattle raising, for the impatient occupaut of a bush tract in a colony which he never regards as a permanent home, aud who is auxious to realise quickly some profit which he can take elsewhere. The advantages offered to squatters by this colony are greater than in New South Wales; their rents are lower, their tenure more secure, and it can scarcely be maintaiued that the climate of the interior in Queensland renders it more objectionable as a place of residence than the great sheep districts of the inother-colony. It must be remembered that there is a radical difference between New South Wales and all but the older settled parts of Queensland. There quatting preceded the squatting tenure. The country was occupied by the graziers before the Government began to define their position by legal enactments. Hence the grazier took root in the soil naturally, and pastoral occupation became settlement of a very real kind. When the free selector came subsequently to ask for his share of the soil he found men firmly settled on it who resented his intrusion, and subsequent legisia. tion defined the conditions on which the struggle between occupier and intruder should be carried on. With us on the contrary, the squatter went out into the wilderness under the direction of laws which contemplated extinction of his tenure at some undefiued date, which might be distant, or which a gold rush or some exceptional movement of population might bring very near. Hence the Queensland squatter never felt himself bound to the soil, be never for a moment lost sight of the fact that his occupation was in its very nature transitory. The New South Wales squatters have always had a tendency to regard their runs as estates in their permanent occupation; the Queensland run-holders, as stretches of pasturage from which they ought to make as much profit as possible before it was taken from them. Hence the tendency in the one colony to sheep, in the other to cattle; permaneat investmeut in the hope of a large future profit as against small temporary expenditure with the hope of smaller but more rapid returns. There can be little doubt that on a Queensland grazing farin, where the excellent native herbage can be supplemented by any description of feed that it may be thought advisable to cultivate, it is easy to make sure of plentiful food for cattle throughout the year, where no frosts and snows come to pinch the stock. It is sufficiently evident that we can have plenty of settlement in this colony, but very little of it will be, strictly speaking, agricultural settlement. On a great deal of the freehold land the main industry must be the rearing and fattening of stock; for crops cannot be profitably grown at any considerable distance from market. At present the holdings are for the most part used as grazing paddocks, and the holders lead a very shiftless and precarious life." Hacks The schedule of prizes offered for competition at the seventh annual horse show to be held at the Pomona Palace, Manchester, on the 6th of May and four following days' has been issued. As usual, prizes are offered for roadsters, agricultural, cart, and pony stallions. There are four classes for hunters, and prizes of £50, £20, and £10 are offered for five and four-year-olds. and roadsters have two classes, cobs one, harness horses four, and ponies four. There is a class for agricultural geldings or mares, one for gelding or mare for dray purposes, and two classes for donkeys. Special prizes will be given for trotting either in saddle or in harness; as well as for jumping and racing. No horse that has won a first prize at a previous Manchester Show will be eligible to compete in the same class this year. All entries must be made on the official printed forms, and be accompanied by the entrace-fee. A correspondent of the Albany Cultivator asks whether a new wheat pest, which many think will utterly destroy the wheat crop, is likely to isjure clover. Professor Lintver replies:-Until the history of the new wheat pest, the Cicadula exitiosa, has been worked out, it will scarcely be prudent to predict what crops it may attack, and the extent of its ravages. It has just come under scientific investigation, and even its name, as above given, is only a manuscript one. It has been observed for several years, infesting wheat in Maryland, and has been popularly referred to as the "hopper." I do not know that it has been recorded as attacking clover or corn. If it should prove to have but a single brood annually, then, from its abundance so early as the latter part of January in North Carolina (see Country Gentleman of Feb. 19th, page 120), there is but little probability that its period in the winged state would extent to a growth of clover sown about the middle of March, or to the young corn. Investigation may show that its depredations are confined to wheat alone, or that they extend to other and quite different food-plants. Thus the chinch-bug (Micropus leucopterus), which belongs to the same order of insects with the Cicadula, feeds upon several of the grasses, and on wheat, barley, rye, &c. But as a rule, our more injurious insects are confined to a single food-plant. ltivator In relating to wool growing, the Albany says:"There are in Great Britain and Ireland 120,000 square miles, and in Texas alone of the United States as much marketable wool as the whole United States. Last year we imported over 65,000,000 pounds of wool, and over 35,000,000 the year before, although the area suited to wool growing is practically unlimited. The risks in sheep farming are few in immense tracts of this country, and the business is attractive from its comparative freedom from the excessive toil and anxiety conse quent upon other agricultural pursuits. As bearing upon the future prospects of this industry, the following from the United States Economist is in point : Irish horses form the subject of a letter to a contem-274,356 square miles, yet the former produces very nearly porary by a writer who evidently naderstands his subject. He says:-Mr. Hill is quite right in saying that the average Irish farmer of any position knows more about high-class horses for the field-and, therefore, as I think, for every useful purpose-than does his English brother; but I think he errs in ascribing any Arab origin to the native Irish horse pure and simple, He was, I fancy, merely an enlarged hardy pony, of utterly untraceable development. The causes of the long proverbial excellence of the Irish hunter are not far to seek. Except on the home farms of the nobility and gentry, the tillage is imperfect, the ploughing shallow; light horses suffice for the work. There is blood' in every Irish horse-the English thoroughbred having been used almost since it acquired a name. For the Irish have taken a wild interest in real sport from time immemorial. I may add that their fences are not so well kept as those in England and the young things soon learn to jump con amore over obstacles impossible to average English hunters. I have seen a pair of Irish plough horses, loosed from work and feeding behind a hedge at dinner-time, 'join the hunt, chains, traces and all, but riderless, and, with their long dirty, sweaty coats-dirty our tops for a couple of miles, at first with their heads in the air, at last blown, when we were glad to leave them behind. Another time, I saw a ewe necked bay, about 15 3 high, up to his knees in a pond, drinking, with cart harness on, as he trotted with the hounds through the yard of the farm, take a standing jump to the top of a bank 5ft. high. This horse was bought then and there by an astute Irish sporting land agent for £20, and sold next season to a crushing Dragoon rider for £150. Fancy English farm horses doing these things! The perfection of English tillage, and the requirements of cartage in manufacturing towns, accounts for the ignorance of many Englishmen of high-class horses. Excepting among private gentlemen and officers, I noticed little betting at the Curragh or at any of the many steeplechases. Here crowds of men bet who know no more of a horse than they do of a bullock. And few, saving real sportsmen and exceptional dealers, know anything of the better-class horses. Hence our weeds, and what some writer called 'our squabby cobs.'" "There never was a time at this period of the year when stocks of domestic fleece and pulled wools were sold up as clean in all markets, and were it not for the large quan tities coming from all foreign countries it is fair to conclude that prices would have ere this risen to exalted figures, Prices are advancing in the markets abroad for all classes of wools adapted to our necessities in consequence of the large demand for this country, and it is getting more difficult every day to obtain the grades of wool we require unless at prices which will materially enhance the cost of the scoured pound. There is no safety left manufacturers but to diversify production (if a modification of the wool tariff is not reached), because it is now clear that any class of fine wool when scoured will cost from 80 c. to 1 dol. 50 c. this season, while last year manufacturers were enabled to purchase the bulk of supplies at from 40 c. to 75 c. scoured. The cause of this enormous advance is founded on demand and supply. We do not grow suffi cient wool for the wants of manufacturers, and the result is seen in the sharp competition to obtain the necessary supplies adapted to the wants of our woollen mills.'" The following circular removing the prohibition against the importation of neat cattle into the United States from Canada has been issued from the Treasury Depart ment: Feb. TREASURY DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C., 26, 1880.-To the collectors of Customs and others: It appearing to this Department that by an order in Conncil of the Dominion of Canada, of the 4th of October, 1879, all neat cattle coming from Europe are subjected on entering the ports of Quebec, Halifax, and St. John |