THE PROPERTY OF LORD BERNERS, OF KEYTHORPE HALL, LEICESTERSHIRE. This cow was the only animal exhibited in the | Irish classes at the last Smithfield Club Cattle Show, when, however, she was very deservedly awarded the first prize of £10 as the best cow or heifer. Our report spoke to her at the time as a very nice one, a Kerry by nature, but wonderfully developed during her sojourn in England." 66 Lord Berners tells us that this cow was bought with twenty others, sent up from the county of Kerry, at the Mullingar Fair in the summer of 1859. During the ensuing autumn and winter they were put upon the worst coarse grass on the farm; but in the course of the next spring this one was selected with three others showing the greatest aptitude to feed, and grazed in the following summer. She was then stall-fed for the show, and her growth was very rapid after once being put upon better food. Indeed to our eyes, so accustomed to the pretty little Kerries of the South of Ireland, she looked "something more" than a Kerry when in Baker-street; but Lord Berners bought her as a fine bred beast, though her breeder is unknown. She was sold as she stood in her solitary state to Mr. West, of Croydon, and when slaughtered gave upwards of twenty-two stone of fat inside a very large proportion even for a prize animal. PLATE II. JOE LOVELL. Joe Lovell, bred by Mr. John Scott in 1841, is, by Velocipede, out of Cyprian, by Partisan, her dam Frailty, by Filho-da-Puta-Agatha, by Orville. Velocipede, bred by Mr. Armitage in 1825, was by Blacklock, out of a Juniper mare, her dam by Sorcerer, out of Virgin, by Sir Peter. Velocipede was altogether one of the most famous horses of his time, of high renown on the turf, and of still greater repute in the stud. During the time the well-known Dr. Hobson, of Leeds, had him at the Shadwell Lane Paddocks, the following remarkable advertisement appeared in The Book Calendar: "Velocipede is the sire of Queen of Trumps, winner of the Epsom Oaks and the Doncaster St. Leger in 1835; of Amato, winner of the Epsom Derby in 1838; of Vanish, winner of the Doncaster Two-years-old Stake in 1845; of Hornsea, second in the St. Leger in 1835, and of Carolina, second in the Oaks in 1839. His stock have won the following sums: in 1833, £500; 1834, £3,510; 1835, £13,364; 1836, £6,745; 1837, £4,128; 1838, £9,196; 1839, £3,565; 1840, £3,401; 1841, £1,828; 1842, £5,801; 1843, £7,674; 1844, £7,911; 1845, £6,340; 1846, £5,730; total, £79,693. Velocipede's stock have obtained 27 cups, and the following horses have individually won as follows: Amato, £3,825; Armitage, £1,415; Capote, £1,055; Chit-chat, £2,803; Draco, £1,900; Ebberston, £1,665; General Pollock, £1,582; Hornsea, £2,135; Joe Lovell, £4,280; Knight of the Whistle, £3,427; Lady Sarah, £1,005; Lord Kelburne's colt, £1,500; Meteor, £1,500; Mickleton Maid, £1,630; Millipede, £2,165; Queen of Trumps, £6,590; The U Skater, £1,143; Valparaiso, £1,400; Vanish, £1,190; Verbena, £1,465; Vertumnus, £1,005; William-le-Gros, £3,792; Winesour, £1,410; Wood Pigeon, £1,055." This elaborate calculation was made up to the close of 1846, while Wood Pigeon (running on), Bravissimo, Quiver, King of Trumps, and many others subsequently added to Velocipede's account, which reaches in all to near upon £100,000. The first winner out by him was Valparaiso, in 1833, and the last old King of Trumps, at Northampton, in 1856. Velocipede died at Corney Hall, Cumberland, on "Waterloo Day," 1850, at 25 years old. Cyprian, bred by John Scott in 1833, takes rank as an Oaks winner, and perhaps still higher precedence as the dam of Songstress, another Oaks winner, Miss Horewood, Parthian, Joe Lovell, Newsmonger, Meteora, The Artful Dodger, Tom Tulloch, and others. Cyprian went to the stud in 1837, and threw her last foal, May-bud, by Stockwell, in 1857. Her produce in all numbered eight colts and eight fillies, with one dead foal. She died herself in 1859, when still in Mr. Scott's possession. Joe Lovell is a rich bay horse, standing 15 hands 3 inches high, and with all the Velocipede "white facings about him-three white heels and a somewhat peculiar bald face. He has a good head and neck, with especially fine shoulders, and lengthy arms, a fair middle and quarters, but with not very large hocks, and if anything rather high on the leg. He has the sweetest of tempers and the best of action, and the way in which he gets his foot up and bends his knee in his trot has won the heart of many a looker-on in the marketplace. Joe Lovell was a wonderful horse in work, or rather without work, for John Scott never could train him, and as a consequence never knew how good he really was. Joe was always lame, or if you did him up sound at night he was most likely dead lame in the morning. It was thought that he suffered from rheumatism; but he was a remarkably fine winded horse, and won the races he did pull through without anything like a proper preparation. Indeed, it was said he had done no work for a fortnight when he was put into the van, and started for Goodwood, on the off-chance of the rich four-year-old stake, which his clean pipes, his thorough game, and great pace just landed for them. There is no question but, as all this was well known, that Joe Lovell went to the stud with the recommendation of being one of the most promising stallions in England; but he never quite fulfilled the opportunity afforded him. In fact, his whole history is something of "a splendid failure." He stood at the Dring-houses, York, in 1849, where he continued for the five following seasons. He next travelled south to Willesden Paddocks, where he was stationed in 1855 and 1856, and then William Day, who had always a high opinion of the horse, gave him a trial at Alvediston for the two following seasons; after which Mr. Pishey Snaith made a swop for him with Pompey, and Joe Lovell came to Boston for 1859 and 1860. He was subsequently sold to Mr. Gant, of Leicester, where the horse now travels. On John Scott's express recommendation Lord Derby put Miss Bowe to Joe Lovell as being "a horse that could not get a roarer ;" and the produce was that smart, sound mare Target, whose dam has thrown sixteen colts and fillies; but all with the exception of Strongbow and Target herself, "high blowers," or something more. Joe Lovell is also the sire of Noisy, a fairish filly in her time, as well as of Lamb's Wool, Lady Rohallon, Mary Lovell, Whitewall, Princess Royal, Lainstone, Spero, Sobersides, Stratagem, Nugget, Sir Edward, and a few more winners on the flat, while Xanthus and Lord Lovell have done something for his fair fame over a country. At the Dereham show of the Norfolk Society this summer we saw a good-looking threeyear-old colt by him take the premium as the best thorough-bred stallion for getting hunters against half-a-dozen older horses; and Joe Lovell himself won a similar prize while in Mr. Snaith's possession, at the Horncastle meeting of the North Lincolnshire Society in 1860, the only time he was ever shown in such a class. It is, in short, rather as a sire of hunters than race-horses that the highbred son of Cyprian and Velocipede has now a place here. His half-bred stock are particularly good, with big limbs, extraordinary action, white faces, and bright bay coats-as handsome as "paint," and as sound as "roach." Lord Gardiner's famous Jack O'Lantern, a four-hundredguinea nag, was by him, and we have heard that his lordship had another son of old Joe's almost as good; whilst Mr. Darby, the dealer of Rugby, was very strong in his recommendation of him as "the best horse to get hunters he knew of," There are plenty of his stock about Ashby-de-la-Zouch and that district to support this opinion, and one was recently sold by Mr. Hames for a very high figure. But with such size, temper, action, and blood they ought to make money. Joe Lovell is a very sure foal_getter, and "Squire Banks," of Tattershall, near Boston, has a mare, now twentyeight years old, suckling a remarkably strong, biglimbed, good-looking colt by him. Our portrait was taken while Joe Lovell was in Lincolnshire, and Mr. Snaith writes to assure us that "Mr. Corbet has also got a good likeness of my groom, John Hayes, who has looked after every thing I have had since he was a child, and is well known in all the market-towns in Lincolnshire from going with Augur, Theon, Captain Cornish, Joe Lovell, Pompey, and Father of the Turf. He is a very good lad, and I like him much: for I never had occasion to find fault-it is very pleasant." As it undoubtedly must be to both master and man, LAYING DOWN PASTURES. BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S, from the same considerable Berkshire authority we derive the remark that we should choose a fine day, when the land is tolerably dry, but when there are indications of approaching rain. These are much more favourable conditions for the seeds to fall on the land than rainy or showery weather, as they are more likely to be evenly covered, and will be very gradually absorbing moisture from the soil previous to the fall of rain, which they will be in condition to receive with benefit; whereas, if sown after a shower, as is too frequently done, these advantages are not obtained, but after the seeds have become saturated with moisture the dry weather returns, and they become "malted." The conversion of our arable soils to pasturage will, in all probability, now proceed at an accelerated rate. The greatly increased value of stock will induce that movement, This will lead, as almost a natural consequence, to more care in the preparation of the soil, in the selection of the grass seeds, and the choice of the seed-sowing season. It is only within the last halfcentury that any great care has been bestowed either on the kind or the quality of our grass seeds. We owe to the Bedford family the first really valuable researches on the indigenous grasses of England, It was to John Duke of Bedford that we owe the establishment of the celebrated grass garden at Woburn Abbey, which, under the care of George Sinclair, led There is little doubt but that the soil can hardly to such considerable results in determining the habits be too carefully cleansed, pulverized, and rolled and the agricultural value of the grasses. Those Wo- smooth, before the seeds are sown; and there is hardly burn labours formed a solid foundation, from which less doubt but that the grass seeds are best sown other laborious and valuable improvements have since without a corn crop; but, as Mr. Sutton remarks, proceeded experimental researches which the Gibbs, "It not unfrequently happens that a field already the Suttons, the Buckmans, and others, have so con- sown with wheat is desired by the farmer for adding to siderably extended. his grass-lands; and if it is pretty clean, there is no Until the time of the Woburn Grass-garden the sow- objection or difficulty in effecting this, provided the ing of the grass seeds was indeed a very rudely-seeds are sown sufficiently early, before the wheat is too conducted affair. Many of us are old enough to high. Upon autumn-sown wheat the grass seeds remember the time when the grass seeds were obtained might be sown as early as the middle of February, if by the farmer chiefly from the hay-loft; and in the the weather be open, as the wheat will defend the days of the Tudors even this little trouble was but young grass from any injury by frost; but if the rarely taken, the soil, exhausted by continued cropping, wheat is very backward, or stands thin on the ground, being left to "rest," and become tenanted by the the sowing may with advantage be deferred. germination of the grass seeds brought by the birds or waited by the winds, As this month is commonly deemed the best time for laying down land for pasturage, we may usefully dwell a little upon this very practical theme. That this is the best month for sowing the seeds Sinclair long since contended. He told the farmers of our country, half a century since, in his valuable work, the Hortus Gramineus Woburnensis," that he had sown the seeds of the same grasses in every month of the year, January excepted; and though much depends on the weather and the state of the ground, the results were always in favour of the month of September and the beginning of October, and next to that time, the middle or latter end of May (Hortus. Gram. Wob., p. 248). After long experience Mr. M. N. Sutton rather inclines, on the whole, to spring sowing (Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc., vol. xxii, p. 417)—meaning by spring sowing, to use his own words, sowing during the months of March, April, and May; and, generally speaking, April will be, he deems, the safest month of the three. My own experience, however, rather leads me to incline to the opinion of G. Sinclair. As to the weather to be selected for the seed-sowing, On spring-sown wheats the grass seeds should be sown as soon as the corn is two or three inches high; and as all the tillage required will be bush-harrowing before sowing, and rolling afterwards, no injury to the wheat plant need be feared. "In sowing corn with the grass seeds, some of the finer kinds of grasses are almost sure to fail, especially if the corn crop is heavy and becomes lodged. Still much might be said, and is said, in favour of this latter practice; and, seeing that the obtaining a crop of oats or barley is an important matter with most farmers, we should not condemn the practice, especially as the seedsman can, if duly informed of the intention of his customer, provide such sorts and proportions of grass and cloverseeds as will, under ordinary circumstances, ensure a full plant. The quantity of corn sown should not be more than two bushels per acre, and oats are generally less injurious to grass than barley." The mixture of grass seeds which the great Reading seedsmen deem the best possible mixture for a good medium soil, as being of excellent properties, and from coming to maturity at different seasons of the year, producing a permanent and ever-green sward, are |