THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



239 



rank here, while the first prize two-year-old of 

 the Carlisle Royal, now grown into a very good- 

 looking horse, was also passed over unnoticed. 

 The best stallion, as it was, did not show 

 to advantage, as he was suffering from a sore back, and 

 also disfigured by something very like a rupture; neither 

 was his action quite that one looks for in a picked nag 

 of a breed so famous for stepping out. But he is a 

 horse of great substance, although for the several points 

 of symmetry, power, and activity combined, we much 

 preferred Mr. Logan's three-year-old, the premier of 

 the next division. The best colt of the succeeding lot, 

 again, Mr. Salmon's two-year-old, was thought so well 

 off as to command three hundred there and then, al- 

 though it is by no means uncommon to hear of some of 

 them reaching a higher figure. " Blackleg," a horse 

 so called, from his being curiously marked, 

 was sold after the Edinburgh meeting last year, to 

 go to Australia, for, it was said, five hundred guineas. 

 But one has always to deduct the lucky penny, which 

 goes to swell up the price to considerably more than it 

 actually is. It is high time that so undignified a system 

 were discountenanced, as everybody more than under- 

 stands what it means and aims at. Some of the colts 

 here were very inferior, and on the other hand 

 many of the mares as remarkably good. The latter 

 were led off by a now very celebrated old mare 

 the property of Mr. Douglas, and one of the 

 " cleanest" Clydes we ever met with. Her head and 

 neck, though a little light, show a deal of breeding, 

 and, in fact, for strength and style well put together, 

 we seldom saw her equal. But the natives pronounced 

 her "just too good looking" for a real Clydesdale, 

 although, fortunately, the judges could not be brought 

 to think with them. Her success, indeed, on the show- 

 ground has been something altogether extraordinary. 

 At Glasgow, the stronghold of the sort, she was the 

 best two-year-old, the best three-year-old — when Mr. 

 Douglas bought her — and the best four-year-old. She 

 took the first prize for draught mares at the East Lo- 

 thian meeting four years in succession, and was the first 

 prize mare at the Royal Agricultural Society's show at 

 Carlisle, in 1855. She took the first honours at 

 Alnwick in the same year, and was never second but 

 once — at the Highland Society's show at Berwick-on- 

 Tweed. She has now righted this by rising to 

 the first; and she backed her own merits at 

 Dumfries with a capital foal with great bone 

 and of fine quality. Her second was another very 

 grand mare, rather bigger and coarser, and for these 

 reasons preferred by many ; while Mr. Rigg's mare in 

 foal was as smart, active, and handsome as could be. 

 The mares, indeed, were very generally good, and the 

 fillies, if not so even, and there were some woful weeds 

 amongst them, still furnished many admirable illustra- 

 tions of the breed. The cart-horses of Scotland 

 would appear to be coming more and more con- 

 fined to this, for there was not an English horse 

 in the entry. The extra stock numbered half-a- 

 dozeu clever Iceland ponies, and some half-bred 

 odds and ends scarcely worth turning to. What 

 just cause or impediment is there to the Highland 

 Society, with all its ample means, having a class of 

 thorough-bred hunter stallions ? And further, why 

 should not the names of the horses exhibited be given ? 

 In this respect the catalogue is singularly deficient. One 

 would trust not to hear of " precedent" as the only rea- 

 son — or in other words that such information never will 

 be supplied, simply because it never has been. 



The black-faces are said to have stood the winter or 

 summer, whichever may be in fault, far better than the 

 Cheviots, and are so getting into more favour, to the dis- 

 placement of the other Scotch breed of Sheep. But they 



both showed admirably , and the Cheviot8,with theirgrand 

 forms and active habits, would promise to be very 

 fitting companions for the Galloways. They are, in 

 fact, the flock of the district, and the show of them 

 spoke equally well to their uses. The Leicesters, as a 

 breed, do not keep much to their characteristic points 

 in Scotland; but we question whether they are pre- 

 served here very purely. The only English sheep 

 amongst them was one of Mr. Pawlett's rams, now the 

 property of Mr. Collie, but he had no place '\i\ the prize 

 list. The few Southdowns numbered some pretty speci- 

 mens from the Duke of Richmond's Gordon Castle 

 flock, and the long-wools a few more Cotswolds, some ot 

 which Mr. Handy now brings regularly into the North. 

 But they only take here and there— with Lord Kinnaird, 

 the Earl of Wemyss, and one or two more. The York- 

 shire Meeting must have told against the pig show, 

 although Mr. Mangles turned up with bis second prize 

 Canterbury boar— the first here — and some lots of young 

 pigs that seemed to be selling, but with price as an ob- 

 ject, and the worst going the readiest. The butter and 

 cheese tent was very tastefully furnished, but such an 

 exhibition of poultry had far better be dispensed with. 

 It is somewhat of a burlesque to find a national society 

 countenancing so meagre a display. Day by day it 

 only becomes more and more evident that these sum- 

 mer shows of cocks and hens don't do. 



Perhaps, fortunately, in the present crowded state of 

 our columns there is no necessity to report the dinner. 

 The great run of the addresses were " immaterial" to 

 agriculture; but, in proposing "The Tenantry," Mr. 

 Maxwell, of Murches, said ; " To what were they in- 

 debted for the great show of cattle on the present occa- 

 sion ? He maintained that it was to the tenantry of the 

 county, and he was proud that a Galloway man had 

 carried off the highest honours. He was exceedingly 

 glad that the great stock of this part of the country — 

 the Galloways— stood so well in the estimation of 

 all who had carefully inspected it. It was not for him 

 to enter into any eulogium upon the character and posi- 

 tion of the tenantry of this country. In the presence 

 of so many of them it would ill-become him to do so. 

 They had hitherto occupied a very high position. 

 Though there must be many in various other parts of 

 the country who were coming fast up to them, still he 

 trusted that the Scottish tenantry would continue to 

 maintain their high position." And, in responding, 

 Mr. Laurie, of Terreglestown, declared " he 

 could speak from his heart in regard to the 

 tenantry of Scotland. He would not say anything 

 of their character for industry, for skill, for business 

 habits, or for intelligence, because every one present 

 had seen that day what kind of stock the farmers of 

 Scotland could exhibit. That stock, as Mr. Maxwell 

 had remarked, had exceedingly, nay, almost unprece- 

 dentedly improved since the first show of the Highland 

 Society was held in Dumfries, and it was undeniable 

 that that improvement was in a great measure owing to 

 the knowledge, industry, and application of the Scottish 

 tenantry. He was himself perfectly astonished to see 

 the Cheviot sheep in such excellent condition, notwith- 

 standing the exceedingly trying and severe winter 



through which they had passed In many cases 



the energy and activity of the tenant-farmers were kept 

 down in consequence of the restrictive nature of their 

 covenants with the proprietors, and his view of the 

 matter was that as the taking of the land on lease was 

 simply a commercial transaction, the tenant should be 

 at liberty to cultivate and use it in the manner that 

 might seem best to him, provided that during the ex- 

 piring years of the lease he took care that the interests 

 of the landlord did not suffer." 

 The plough trials ia the field excited little of the 



R 3 



