THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



55 



tho three, went more by tlie hand than the eye, and 

 Lovelia was " bad to handle," " wiry in the hair," 

 and so on. This kind of criterion was yet more no- 

 ticeable in the pairs of heifers, where one coujile, es- 

 pecially of Mr. Pope's, a long way better than any- 

 thing else to look at, were passed over in silence, and the 

 award given in favour of "quality." Of course the 

 orthodox thing is that a Somerset Devon should be 

 coarse and a pure Devon fine ; but Mr. Pope's can- 

 not well be called coarse. They are by his own first 

 prize bull, and trace back one way or the other to the 

 Quartly " Hundred Guineas," a rather high-sounding 

 pedigree, when we remember that Napoleon the Second 

 is a son of Bodley's Napoleon, a prize animal where- 

 ever he was shown. Many of these entries will come 

 together again at Canterbury, and, as we expect, with 

 Bome material alteration in Ihe awards. Mr. Bod- 

 ley's second prize bull is an own brother of Mr. Pope's 

 in the aged class; but " the fancy" of all the males 

 was a yet younger animal, Mr. Mogridge's Forester, a 

 very level perfect one in shape, and equally excellent 

 in his touch. So neat and so good is he already, that 

 all such a little wonder has now to do is to grow on to 

 his present form. This bull was far from well the first 

 day, and never got quite right in his coat. 



The horse shows of the West of England have never 

 been extraordinary. There are no cart stallions to 

 show at the time, and not many cart mai-es at any 

 time. Hacks and hunters, again, cannot be brought 

 to much affect the show-ground, and the only strong 

 feature, and that a recent one, has been the ponies. 

 Even this fell back at Dorchester. There was only one 

 New Forester in the entry, and he was of a bad colour, 

 common appearance, and no action. Then there was 

 only one Exmoor ; and she was beaten cleverly by a 

 couple of Welsh mares, that with Mr. Wall's stallion, 

 another Welsh one, had all the cream 'of it. Lady 

 Pigott, tell it not in Ipswich, sent a Sufiblkmareof a 

 bay colour, with a black leg, a hairy heel, and a ches- 

 nutfoal, and the judges gave her the prize ; but with- 

 out any idea whatever of her pure Punch origin, or of 

 being by Catlin's Old Duke. A long way the best 

 " agricultural horse" was Mr. Josiah Hill's two-year- 

 old filly, of famous quality, great jiower, and size, and 

 clean and lively-looking. Mr. Hill's young things de- 

 servedly distinguished him, whether it were the pair 

 of short-horn heifers with which he beat Mr. 

 Stratton, or the bay filly that beat everything 

 about her. The Judges withhold one or two of the 

 other premiums. Mr. Pain, of Salisbury, furnished 

 the chief attraction of the riding-horse division with a 

 yearling Joe Lovell colt, whose most noticeable defect 

 was a rather mulish head ; he had, otherwise, a deal of 

 fashion about him, with a fine shoulder, and plenty of 

 bone. He also sent a good three-year-old filly, by 

 Safe Guard, that was well backed in her class by a 

 Bowstring colt of Mr. Gapper. Still, neither the 

 make up of the cart-hoi'ses, " nags," or ponies, was 

 worthy of a meeting so strong in so many other matters. 

 By far the most interesting feature of this section of 

 the show wove the Special Prizes, given by Mr, Mile«, | 



author of the well-known Treatise on Horse-shoeing, 

 for smiths to make and fix shoes. There were pre- 

 miums of three guineas, two, and one guinea, with 

 copies of Mr. Miles' work, and pairs of models of the 

 horse's foot when properly shod. Ten men came to 

 Mr. Galpin's forge on Wednesday morning, when they 

 were divided into two sections, each taking his chance 

 of a forge and the horse to work upon. The first 

 division took the near fore-foot, and the other the ofi". 

 The old shoe being then removed, and the foot left in a 

 rough state, a time-keeper was appointed, and the 

 sons of Vulcan set to work. They commenced by 

 lighting their own fires, and then making tho shoe 

 and the nails from a fixed weight of bar-iron ap- 

 portioned out to them. This occupied from 25 to 

 32 minutes, when the judges inspected the work. The 

 performance concluded with putting on the shoe, a job 

 of from five to seven minutes more. No filing was al- 

 lowed, the object being a genuine trial of work and art : 

 and the award embraced not only the three prizes, but 

 also three commendations. 



, As an agreeable variety to these duties, that is of 

 passing sentence on men as well as horses, the same set 

 of judges were solicited to pronounce an opinion on the 

 pigs. This was no great demand either, for the entry 

 was a very short one, represented by good Berkshires in 

 the large, and neat Essex in the small sort. Mr. 

 Hewer's pen of Berkshire sows were vei'y handsome, 

 and Mr. Turner and Mr. Marden would have won the 

 heart of the Fat Boy, by their knowledge of the 

 art of breeding "nice pork." There was only 

 one white pig in the exhibition, and he had better 

 have been out of it. The show of sheep was far more 

 important. The Leicesters and Cotswolds furnished 

 some very good entries, and the Southdowns and 

 mixed Downs were much better than usual. Still the 

 Dorchester Meeting was chiefly noticeable, in this re- 

 spect, for its Dorset or Somerset — much the same — 

 horned sheep. These are the active, useful, good- 

 constitutioned ewes that breed not two, but, as often as 

 not, four lambs a-year. Mrs. Pitfield showed some 

 famous pens of them; and, "under the circum- 

 stances," what with the wet and cold, no breed were 

 seen in the way of a comparison to so much advan- 

 tage. Much to be preferred by some, no doubt, were 

 Mr. Holland's Shropshire Down ewes, while Mr. 

 Turner's two-shear Leicester rams were declared to be 

 as good as need be. The first prize one measured five 

 feet three inches round, being four inches more 

 than the Cotswold of the same year. Nearly all the 

 latter were in sheets, and miserable enough they 

 looked. Mr. Tombs and Mr. Game sent two or three 

 good rams, but the entry of them was very limited. 

 In fact, the breeders complain that they do not have 

 fair play in the prize list. They do not, perhaps, ask 

 for as many premiums as the Leicesters, but they 

 maintain whiit ... j do have should be of equal amount, 

 whereas at present the rates are £0 and £4: against 

 £ij and £^, and so on. Of course it is not the mere 

 value of the prizes that is the consideration, but the 

 estimate the difference would seem to put on the two 



