THE FARMER'S MAGAZIFE. 



NOVEMBER, 18G0 



PLATE I. 



A HEREFORD STEER. 



THE GOLD MEDAL BEAST AT THE BIRMINGHAM AND SMITHFIELD CLUB BHOWS, 



December, I860, 



This steer, bred by his exhibiter, Mr. Richard 

 Shirley, of Baucott, Munslow, Salop, and calved 

 May 3, 1857, was got by Marlow (a son of Big 

 Ben), out of Silky, by DoUagan, her dam Tidy, 

 by The Count. The Count was by Old Dewsall, 

 out of a mottled-faced cow, of the Tomkins breed. 

 Silky is also the dam of a steer calved in 1853, 

 which took honours at Rugby, Birmingham, and 

 the Smithfield Club in 1857. 



At the Midland Counties or Birmingham Fat 

 Cattle Show, in the December of last year, this 

 steer took the following series of premiums : —The 

 first prize of £10, as " the best steer of his class;" 

 the President's prize of £25, " as the best ox or 

 steer, bred and fed by an exhibitor;" the extra 

 prize of £20, as " the best Hereford ;" the Gold 

 Medal, as " the best of all the oxen or steers ;" and 

 the silver medal, as an especial compliment to his 

 breeder. 



At the Smithfield Club Show in the week fol- 

 lowing he took the first prize of £25, as "the best 

 steer of his breed," and the Gold Medal, as " the 

 best ox or steer in any of the classes," with another 

 silver medal for the breeder. 



Mr. Shii-ley's steer was only two years and seven 

 months old when he achieved this proud pre- 

 eminence at the two great Christmas shows of the 

 season. For his age he was nearly faultless, but 

 this is how we spoke out, on first meeting with him 

 in Bingley Hall : — " From the very first, and even in 

 the time of the temporary decline, the summons to 

 Bingley Hall : has always brought together a good 

 muster of Herefords. Never, however, has the 

 entry produced a better beast than that which this 

 year takes all the great prizes of the show. Mr. 

 Shirley's steer is not only the best of his class, 



OLD SERIES.] 



and the best of all the Herefords, but the best male 

 animal, and the best bred and fed by the same 

 man. And he really deserves this accumulation 

 of honours, notwithstanding that he is scarcely 

 the stamp of Hereford the eye has latterly been ac- 

 customed to. He is darker in colour, rougher in 

 the coat, shorter on the leg, and with a spotted, or 

 more properly a mottled face, in place of the pure 

 white now so commonly accepted as a signal of the 

 sort. But it is a question whether all these diversi- 

 ties be not in his favour. As was said in our report 

 of Hereford Fair, the mottled faces were once the 

 great favourites, and Mr. Shirley's ox may bring 

 them round again. He is to begiti with, of excellent 

 quality, and with a coat thick and rough, but at 

 the same time beautifully fine in its texture — a 

 happy combination that argues hardihood of con- 

 stitution and goodness of flesh. Then he has a 

 sweet head, a deep, famously filled frame, and al- 

 together the style of a superior healthy animal. It 

 is almost ungrateful to find fault with so good a 

 specimen of what a Hereford should be, and that 

 breeders will do well to keep in their eye ; but he 

 has a very perceptible dip in the back, stands a 

 little in behind, and finishes rather narrow over the 

 quarter." His girth was 8 ft. 7 in., and he was sold 

 as he stood in Baker-street, to the'! Messrs. Davis, 

 of "the Black Bull," New Cattle Market. 



Professor Tanner in the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Prize Essay on the .Farming' of Shrop- 

 shire, instances Mr. Shirley as a successful feeder 

 of stock : — " He brings his bullocks, at two year's 

 old, to average 11 scores per quarter, and for the 

 last two years he has sold his bullocks at this age 

 for £25 each." 



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[VOL, LTII.— No. 5. 



