THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



his rank, while Lord Kinnaird's second and third to him 

 stood first and second as a year younger at Edinburgh. 

 The second then and third now was bred by the Prince 

 Consort, and shown previously by Smith and Co., at 

 whose sale Lord Kinnaird gave 150 gs. for him. He has 

 since much developed and furnished, and his touch was 

 always good. Only half-a-dozen of these two years old 

 were entered ; and of the fourteen yearlings the best 

 was pronounced to be a long way the best bred of them, 

 by Frederick out of a Towneley Duke of Oxford cow. 

 He has already this season beaten a large field of year- 

 lings at Coldstream ; but, like most of the others here, 

 he was not much to look at, and taken as a lot it is sel- 

 dom that a National Society has got together so indif- 

 ferent a collection of Shorthorn sires, try them where 

 you would, either old or young. 



But the ladies came handsomely to the rescue — and 

 ladies of high quality too. Captain Gunter gallantly treat- 

 ed his Young Duchesses to a northern tour ; and Mr. 

 Douglas, bachelor though he be, had a bevy of Queens, 

 and Ladies, and Maids of Athelstane under his protec- 

 tion ; while that fair enthusiast. Lady Pigott herself, kept 

 her protegees in good countenance, and talked learnedly of 

 rich roans and Bates' blood. And seldom has there been 

 so much "talk." The twin Duchesses came from 

 Canterbury to Dumfries only to be second-best after all. 

 The white was this time preferred to the roan, but this 

 is but a matter of taste between them, as no doubt it 

 always will be. For our own parts, however, we would 

 give fifty for choice, and go with the English award. But 

 the Duchesses were beaten ! And not by the ladies or the 

 ladies' maids from Athelstane, but by an Irish lass that 

 many had never heard of before, but that we crossed 

 with from Belfast to Glasgow in the August of last year. 

 At the Dundalk Show, Mr. Wood, an Irish breeder, 

 entered a yearling heifer that could get no nearer to 

 Mr. Eastwood's Souvenir first, Captain Ball's Letltia 

 second, and three others highly commended, than 

 just a simple commendation. But Mr. Douglas 

 thought rather better of her, and took her home 

 with him at two hundred. She is well bred enough for 

 all the money — by Booth's Prince Arthur, dam by 

 Comet — and has now developed into a great fine useful 

 heifer. She is heavily fleshed, very large in the girth, 

 with a capital quarter, and in fact, with two good 

 ends — although a little " lumpy" on the rump — and 

 a handsome cow's head. At six months older and 

 well on in calf. Clarionet, as she is called, looked a good 

 deal "over" the handsome Duchesses, but she has 

 neither their fine quality nor that ostensible " breeding" 

 about her for which the twins are so deservedly famous. 

 In a word, as " the model" of a Shorthorn, it is diffi- 

 cult to prefer her, and the award was terribly canvassed, 

 and all sorts of reports and charges flying about. 

 Amongst these Mr. Knowles for Captain Gunter would 

 stake five hundred on the Duchesses against the Irish 

 heifer at the next place she was entered — Alnwick, we 

 believe ; and against this Mr. Douglas oflTered to show 

 one animal of his against the if/iree Duchesses for a fifty. 

 But then he has got a groat selection to make from, at 

 least if we can take his success here as any criterion. 

 First in the order of these, there was the beautiful, level, 

 thorough-bred-looking Lady of Athelstane, the first 

 cow of her class. Then, there was the perhaps yet 

 better Queen of Athelstane, the best yearling ; and 

 the Maid of Athelstane as good as either, but 

 who, alas ! has not yet qualified as a breed- 

 ing animal, and was entered accordingly amongst 

 the extra stock ; and with her the Rose of Athelstane 

 and the Rose of Sharon debarred more active com- 

 petition, from their previous successes at the meetings 

 of the Society. Then, Mr. Douglas supported these by 

 the second and third prizes for yearlings, and wound up 



his week by refusing eight hundred guineas for two of 

 them — the Irish heifer and the Maid of Athelstane. 

 After the Duchesses, the nearest "squeak" he had 

 was in the cow class, where Mr. Atherton finished very 

 close to him with a good well-bred cow, of more size, 

 but hardly all the appearance of the Lady. They were 

 both, though, wonderfully good. The Duke of Mont- 

 rose had another capital cow behind them ; and Lord 

 Strathallan, in three or four sections, proved the spirit 

 with which he is taking up the sort. Mr. Atherton 

 came again amongst the two-year-olds, with a heifer 

 full of further promise, and which, although undistin- 

 guished in such company, has a local fame in Lancashire 

 to go on. Colonel Pennant's agent, Mr. Doig, bought 

 her, unnoticed as she was, for a couple of hundred. The 

 Lady of Bonhill was also amongst the other good ones 

 over-paced ; and Mr. Stewart had three or four entries 

 in this class, but without commendation. There was 

 more showing for this, as the South wick herd 

 had not a creditable animal in the entry, nor 

 — we had almost said — in the catalogue. The 

 pufi preliminary on his sale was dreadfully overdone, 

 for a more common lot of things, as it was declared, 

 were never offered. The cows averaged about thirty 

 pounds a- piece. The two years old did better, but the 

 yearlings made no more than £^17, and young bulls sold 

 for twenty, fifteen, ten, four, or anything anybody 

 would give for them. Lady Pigot took the top lot, 

 Rose of Promise, for 270 guineas, and Mr. Douglas the 

 old Rose of Autumn herself for 80 — more, we should 

 think, to sai/ he had got her again than for anything else. 

 M'Turk, the bull they have been using at Southwick, 

 made 81 gs. ; and Mr. Young bought the best bull, a 

 yearling called Heir of Killerby, for Mr. Stirling of 

 Keir, at 150 gs. — and this was supposed to be " the 

 bargain" of the day. But bargains at any price were 

 not plentiful, and the owner of the Cherry tribes must 

 surely have something better in store. The general 

 average was a little over £Q0 a-piece. 



The cross-breds — and cross-bred pretty generally 

 means the Shorthorn bull put to some country cow — 

 were chiefly remarkable for two oxen exhibited by Mr. 

 Stewart, of Aberdeen. These were twins by a Short- 

 horn bull out of a black polled cow. They both come 

 of light colour, but one with the poUed-shaped hornless 

 head, and the other with a nicely turned horn, and, 

 of course, more Durham character. The judges awarded 

 them the second and third places, but we cannot say 

 whether they knew this when separating them. How- 

 ever, twins, whether Duchesses or half-breds, are rather 

 perplexing studies for judges ; not in this case, though, 

 because they were so much alike, but rather for just the 

 reverse reason. Mr. Collie showed a red-SiUd-wMte 

 polled beast, which one would suppose to be as much 

 out of order as a brown Suffolk or a chestnut Clydes- 

 dale. However, he also took a second prize. 



And there was, in fact, a chestnut or a very ruddy 

 bay Clydesdale with an unmistakable silver tail, that 

 the judges again, in utter defiance of her colour, 

 honoured with a second place on the prize list. The 

 entry of Clyde horses was thought to be very excel- 

 lent, as it was certainly the great attraction of the 

 day. But we can only repeat what we have 

 so often had to say before, that no animals show 

 so unevenly. Here, you have a compact, powerful, 

 weighty, short-legged draught horse ; and in the next 

 standing to him, a leggy, small armed, weak thighed, 

 light naiddled one, but still as clearly a Clydesdale. The 

 Dumfries display of them was more than usually re- 

 markable in this way, and amongst the young things 

 more particularly we never remember so mixed a 

 lot. The aged stallions included many of high cha- 

 racter, and a prize horse at Edinburgh could get no 



