NEAT STOCK. 355 



report that has yet been made this year, on fat cattle, will gain 

 nothing in figures by a comparison with this exhibition. 



The accumulation of 6,000 lbs., or even 5,600 lbs. of beef, 

 under one yoke, is a sight but seldom witnessed. We labor 

 under a sudden impediment of speech, when we seek words to 

 describe such animals as were presented yesterday. We can 

 think of nothing better than the Behemoth of Job, that " cateth 

 grass like an o.'r.'" Such specimens of r>.^-cidental grandeur we 

 never saw before ! We can only say, in taking leave of this 

 subject, with the poetical biographer of John Gilpin — 



" When next he rides abroad, 

 May I be there to see !" 



And we wish to say here in a parenthesis, that the prospects 

 of the two largest of these pairs of fat cattle \v\\\.\\gvgt brighten ! 

 When they have received their last in-5to//-ments of feed, they 

 will " lay their bones " in Springfield. So that the inhabitants 

 of southern Hampden will have, at least once, the pleasure not 

 only of paying for good beef, but of eating it. They are already 

 sold to a dealer of the " infant city ;" one will " grace an obitu- 

 ary notice " about the first of January, and the others after due 

 intervals. We speak of this here, because it is meet that the 

 lovers of good English beef should know it. 



We next pass to the sheep. Knowing ones pronounced this 

 part of the show exceedingly good. Slieep-raising has become 

 almost a tradition in many parts of the Connecticut Valley. We 

 doubt whether the change has been altogether for the better. 

 We noticed many interested spectators around the sheep-pens, 

 thinking, no doubt, of the time when Norval 



" Penned the flock, and fed the fold." 



New Oxfordshires and South Downs seemed to carry the day. 

 Some fine specimens of the former, belonging to Lawrence 

 Smith, of Middlefield, won universal praise. This breed is 

 sometimes called the Improved Cotswold. They base their 

 pretensions not so much on the fineness of their wool, as on the 

 weight of their carcass. They thrive on ordinary feed, and 

 grow with wonderful rapidity. A pair of twin lambs were 

 exhibited, weighing at six months old, 94 and 114 lbs. Such 

 sheep evidently find it less true than formerly, that " four quar- 

 ters make a hundred weight," though it still may be as true as 



