The little town of Beverley, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has lately been heard of in every quarter of the globe-chiefly from the activity and enterprise of the well-known agricultural implement maker whose portrait appears this month in the Farmer's Magazine. Mr. William Crosskill owes his position in life entirely to his own industry and perseverance. The son of a whitesmith in a small country town, left fatherless at the early age of thirteen, with a widowed mother and younger brothers and sisters to provide for, his early struggles were well calculated to call forth all his energy of character. By hard work, he succeeded in gradually extending the little workshop left by his father. As soon as practicable, he exchanged it for a larger one, and erected an iron foundry, to blow the furnace of which, and to drive a few simple tools, he fixed a steam engine at a period when such a machine was considered a prodigy in a remote agricultural district. The establishment increased rapidly, and became well known as an agricultural implement manufactory; until the invention and successful introduction of the celebrated clod-crusher spread Mr. Crosskill's name and fame far and wide, as OLD SERIES.] one who had rendered essential service to the cause of agricultural progress. The difficulties and obstacles that had to be overcome in bringing this implement into use, would afford materials for a striking contrast between the manner in which agricultural improvements were received twenty years ago, and the avidity with which they are now-a-days seized upon and turned to account. In the first year after the invention of the clod-crusher, only three were manufactured; and in order to bring them into use, two of these had to be given away. But the obvious excellence of the implement, whenever it was tried, could not fail to vanquish all prejudice. The yearly sales increased rapidly; and, after awarding prizes to the implement at their annual exhibitions in 1843 and 1844, the Royal Agricultural Society of England in 1846 stamped it with the highest mark of their approval, by passing a unanimous resolution of Council, to the effect that the Gold Medal of the Society should be presented to Mr. Crosskill for his valuable invention. Since that time, its introduction has been rapid and complete. A clod-crusher is now an indispensable requisite on every well-managed farm, both on light and heavy land, as its utility in rolling young wheat, fully equals its efficiency in pulverizing the roughest clods. Without further adverting in detail to the different branches of machinery that have engaged Mr. Crosskill's attention, enough has been stated to show that his claims are of a very high order. The extensive manufactory which he has built near the town of Beverley, occupying upwards of six acres of ground, and containing the most improved machinery for executing every kind of work, either in wood or iron, is an enduring monument of what may be accomplished by a man of industry, skill, and perseverance. Mr. Crosskill has always been foremost amongst the advocates of the use of machinery for agricultural purposes. In the year 1841 he proposed to apply the steam engine to drive thrashing machinery; and at the meeting of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society at Hull, in that year, he exhibited a combined thrashing machine driven by a portable steam engine. Agriculturists were not, however, at that time, prepared for such an innovation. The scheme was unfavourably regarded; and it was not until seven or eight years subsequent that agricultural societies offered any encouragement for the exhibition of portable steaming upon the exhibitors at their shows. Amongst engines, or that such engines were to any extent brought into practical use. Another object which for many years engaged Mr. Crosskill's attention was the application of machinery to the manufacture of wooden wheels. He arranged and constructed on his own works a complete set of machinery for this purpose. By means of these, the wheels are not only made at less cost, but are more accurately fitted, and therefore more durable, than those put together by hand-labour. By keeping a very large stock of timber, and using nothing but the driest and soundest materials, Mr. Crosskill has obtained a well-deserved reputation for his patent wheels, 'while the demand for them is still increasing. Mr. Crosskill is further justly entitled to credit for his sagacity in discerning the uses to which a small railway might be applied in agricultural operations. In 1847 he brought out his portable railway, by means of which two men can easily lay a road that will carry fifteen to twenty cwt. over the softest land, move it about where necessary, and take it up when done with. The large quantity of the portable railway that has since been sold, proves the high estimation in which it is held by the owners and occupiers of strong soils, who are often compelled by the seasons to draw turnips from or lead manure to their land, when it is in too soft a state to bear the pressure of cart-wheels upon it, At the Great Exhibition of 1851, the American reaping machine attracted Mr. Crosskill's attention. With characteristic ardour, he set to work to aid the introduction of machinery into the English harvest-field; and, after encountering and successfully overcoming more than the usual number of difficulties with which the introduction of new agricultural machinery is too often beset, he had the gratification of seeing his improved reaping machine fully recognized as a standard implement. | Like his most successful contemporaries in business, Mr. Crosskill has received his full share of the medals, prizes, and commendations which our agricultural societies take pleasure in bestow his large collection of medals, he may especially feel proud of the gold medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, the Council medal of the Great Exhibition of All Nations, and the gold medal of the Universal Exhibition in Paris. In the year 1852, when the artizans of most of the great engineering establishments in Lancashire and Yorkshire were at variance with their employers, and had resorted to the desperate and distressing expedient of a general strike, Mr. Crosskill's workmen showed their appreciation of his conduct as an employer by entering into a subscription to present him with a handsome timepiece, as a testimonial of their regard and esteem. The value of the gift was greatly enhanced by the remarkable contrast shown in such a presentation, to the relations which at that time existed between many other employers and their workmen. Mr. Crosskill retired from business in the year 1855. The Agricultural Implement Works at Beverley have since been carried on under the management of his two sons, who had assisted him for some time previously. In his own neighbourhood he has for many years been known as an active and determined politician; has for a long time filled the office of alderman for the borough of Beverley; and taken a prominent part in the election of members to represent the town in Parliament. Shortly after his retirement from business, he received from Government a valuable appointment, in recognition of his political services. All who know him will, doubtless, concur in the wish that he may live long to enjoy the reward of his active exertions-labours, the more important of which have been the rather for public good than party purpose. PLATE II. A SHORTHORN OX. THE PROPERTY OF MR. E, WORTLEY, OF RIDLINGTON, RUTLAND, This ox, bred by Mr. Wortley, is by a son of Father Mathew, a bull bred by Lord Spencer, and bought at the Wiseton sale by Mr. Syson, of Erpingham. The dam, bred by Mr. Wortley himself, is well descended, but has no registered pedigree. At the Oakham Show in December, 1856, this ox took the first prize of 7 sovs. as the best steer under three years of age. At the same show of the following year he was awarded the first prize of 15 sovs., as the best ox or steer of any breed or weight under five years old-open to all England. At the Leicester Show he carried off another open first prize of 15 sovs., as the best ox under five years old, of any breed. At the Smithfield Club the following week, he took the first prize of 25 sovs., as the best shorthorn ox, with the silver medal for the breeder, and the Gold Medal as the best ox in the yard. and his length six feet. His dead weight was 206 stone, with 22 stone of loose fat. His age was 3 years 11 months and 6 days, when slaughtered by Mr. Smith of Hampstead. Mr. Wortley, the breeder and feeder of this famous beast, had never before entered one at the Smithfield Club. His success was so altogether extraordinary; for with the two shorthorns he sent up last Christmas, he took the Gold Medal with the ox, and the third prize, in an exceedingly good class, with his cow. Mr. Wortley, who farms under Lord Gainsborough, has been a breeder of shorthorns on a limited scale for the last fourteen or fifteen years. His stock are chiefly from the herds of Mr. Baker of Cottesmore, the late Mr. Samuel Cheetham, and the Messrs. Chapman of Whitwell. Although so entirely unknown in London, Mr. Wortley has exhibited at the local meetings with much success, having in the last ten years taken no less than forty premiums for shorthorns. Notwithstanding this, his average does not exceed the raising of more than six calves a year. He was thought by some good judges to be the best beast ever sent to the Baker-street Bazaar. He had extraordinary length and breadth, with most beautiful symmetry and compactness of form. His chine and ribs were most wonderfully extended; This is, we believe, the first Gold Medal steer his immense weight of flesh most evenly laid on, from the little county of Rutland. Mr. Baker once and of first-class quality. His head was very hand-won it with a heifer, so that the honours so far are some and bone fine. His girth was nine feet well divided. PULPING FOOD. BY CUTHBERT W. JOHNSON, ESQ., F.R.S. The best state of the mechanical division of food has recently excited considerable inquiry. The pulping of roots has been strongly urged upon the attention of the stock-owner. The asserted advantages of this system of finely dividing the food of animals would seem to arise from either the masticating labour of the animal being saved, or from the food by this mode of division being more completely digested. It will not, then, be a useless labour if we briefly consider these two asserted advantages of well dividing our food, and glance at certain errors which are to be avoided in giving a fair trial to the pulping, or any other system having the same objects. The importance of the form in which the food is administered to cattle did not escape the attention of Dr. Lyon Playfair, when he was, some time since, addressing himself to the very important subject of the application of physiology to the rearing and feeding of cattle (Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc., vol. iv., p. 234). He very clearly perceived that the form in which food is given to cattle is far indeed from being a matter of indifference, If, as he remarked, the food be in a state in which it is either difficult for the animal to attain, or difficult to masticate when obtained, much of it will be lost in the production of force necessary to adapt it for the organs of digestion. The cutting of hay and straw to chaff is unwittingly done, in fact, with a view to prevent any unnecessary expenditure of force. Less mastication being necessary, corsequently less of the tissues of the body are expended in grinding down the food. Then, as to the better digestion of mechanically |
