THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



405 



hibition. The judges had not much difficulty in making their 

 awaid for the " best ram of any age, bred, hired, or bouglit by 

 the exhibitor." Mr. J. E. Mann's rivetted every critical eye. 

 Assuredly he was a very fine fellow, both as regards size and 

 probable wool-bearing and mutton-yielding qualities ; a long- 

 woolled sheep with possibly some Leicester blood in him, he was 

 bred by Mr. Casswell.of Lincolnshire, and purchased at Peter- 

 borough fair ; Mr. J. Sewell was second, with a ram bred by 

 Mr. H. Aylmer. Mr. R. Webb was pre-eminent in shearling 

 ewes, and took the first and second prizes. Mr. Barton car- 

 ried all before him in fat yearlings, exhibiting three, which 

 excited general admiration for their size, condition, and sym- 

 .metry. Some black-faced Suffolks were shown for a special 

 prize, given by the town of Watton ; and although this is a 

 not very popular class of sheep, it was creditably represented- 

 The pig pens did not occupy much space, and did not call for 

 much remark. One entry in the class of breeding sows was 

 clearly too fat for breeding purposes, and the judges pro- 

 nounced her monstrous bulk a fatal disqualification. 



The remainder of the exhibition was made up with roots 

 and a few lots of implements, the latter being merely entered 

 in an advertisement sense. The present has not been a favour- 

 able season for roots ; and it was generally remarked that the 

 turnips were rather smaller than usual, although they had a 

 great development of stalk and leaf. Some of the swedes and 

 white turnips appeared to be, however, very sound and of first- 

 rate quality. The long mangolds were, some of them at least, 

 ''pipy." or hollow under the stalk, a very common fault. As 

 regards the implements shown by Messrs. Gedney, of East 

 Dereham, and Holmes and Sons, of Norwich, we have not 

 much to say, except that a portable engine by the latter firm 

 seemed to be of creditable and finished workmanship, and 

 worked steadily and smoothly, in consequence of being well 

 shored up so as to secure that necessary and essential element 

 in mechanics " resistance ;" for lack of which many a machine 

 of this kind throbs and shakes itself into expensive and em- 

 barrassing derangement. 



There was, of course, a dinner after the show : the Wayland 

 Hall being the scene, Lord Walsingham the chairman, and Mr. 

 T. Barton the vice. Thus far the proceedings have justly called 

 for praise ; but the same cannot be said of the after-dinner 

 oratory, which was, with one or two exceptions, dull and al- 

 most a blank. The noble Chairman made an attempt, with 

 however little success, to provoke some conference on agricul- 

 tural topics. "Now, it is always said," observed his lordship, 

 " that when farmers meet together they ought to talk a little 

 about farming ; and I don't know that I can do anything 

 more useful than to make a few observations upon some of the 

 improvements which appear to have taken place in the general 

 farming of the neighbourhood within the last year or two. 

 First of all, you know that we have a steam-plough working — 

 practically working, I may say, because it has been applied 

 to the cultivation of the land — during a great portion of last 

 year within five or six miles from here. It did a great deal of 

 work, although I don't know whether it did it well. Perhaps 

 if any gentlemen here have had an opportunity of seeing this 

 enormous and magnificent implement in operation, they will 

 give us their opinion upon it, I shall not go myself into the 

 question of steam ploughs, or make the mistake of talking 

 figures after dinner ; but there is another implement which I 

 think is even a more practical one, viz., the reaping-machine. 

 That I know has been in practical operation within our 

 district, and I should be very glad if any gentleman who has 

 had an opportunity [of seeing one at work, or who is working 

 one, would give us his opinion of its value. I had a reaping- 

 machine once myself, but it was a very imperfect implement, 



and I was glad to get rid of it; since then the machine has 

 been wounderfuUy improved, and Messrs Burgess and Key's 

 is, I believe, a very admirable implement. Another matter 

 wliich has attracted some attention has been the Scotch carts. 

 I have seen them at work, and I dare say there is a gentleman 

 in this room who has been working them ; at all events I shall 

 be very glad to hear anything which may be said upon the 

 subject. A nother matter in which I have observed a con- 

 siderable change within the last year or two is the breadth of 

 sanfoin grown in this neighbourhood, which is much larger 

 than it was a few years ago. I believe this is a most valuable 

 plan ; and if any gentleman is willing to give us a few prac- 

 tical observations upon the subject, I feel sure the meeting 

 would have great pleasure in littening to them. I have alluded 

 to the new implements of which we all take great notice, and 

 which, as auxiliaries to our farming, we are very often disposed 

 to employ ; but I would not have you suppose that I think 

 that success in agriculture wholly depends upon the success of 

 new and expensive implements. We have for some years had 

 good implements, which would do extremely well in the hands 

 of clever and practical men ; but I feel sure that success in 

 agriculture depends on the industry, capital, intelligence, and 

 good judgment which is brought to bear — and which you 

 know so well how to bring to bear — upon all operations con- 

 nected with farming. As a general rule, I should advise 

 tenant-farmers to wait till they see a thing well tried, for it is 

 dangerous and expensive to experiment in implements." Here 

 were four topics suggested by lordly lips :— steam ploughs, 

 reaping machines, Scotch carts, and sainfoin ; but the invita- 

 tion expressed so handsomely found no response, and fell 

 quite flat. Mr. Fulcher, in replying for the judges, said he 

 was most " taken'' with the half-bred shearlings and iambs, 

 two or three being particularly good. He was, however, a 

 little surprised to hear that some gentlemen in Norfolk were 

 not satisfied with once crossing, but continued to breed from 

 half-bred ewes. This he thought must be a mistake : they 

 should cross once, and then leave off, and not go on with a 

 mongrel breed. If they looked to Norfolk cattle they would 

 see the mischief of such a system. He must say he was 

 ashamed of the cattle bred in Norfolk, which had been crossed 

 in all sorts of ways, until they had almost nothing but mon- 

 grels. For his part, he said, " Stick to your pure breeds as 

 much as possible." Mr. Woods, in replying to the toast of 

 his health, also made one or two pertinent observations on 

 breeding, of which, however, he did not take so desponding a 

 view, so far as Norfolk was concerned, as Mr. Fulcher. Mr. 

 Woods remarked that the successful exhibitors had proved 

 themselves fully entitled to their prizes, because they showed 

 that they did not go on the hap-hazard system of their fore- 

 fathers. It was far easier and more economical to keep a well- 

 bred animal than an ill-bred one, for if one of the animals 

 exhibited in the show-yard were placed on the same amount 

 of food, whether artificial food or pasturage, with an animal 

 bred in the old-fashioned slip-shod style, it would be found 

 that, while in a few weeks the latter would have the appeaiance 

 of having been just landed from the Shetland Isles, the other 

 would look as well as if it had been fattened on the luxuriant 

 pastures of Watton. There could be no better proof of the 

 truth of this than the splendid cow exhibited by Mr. Matthews, 

 through the veins of which coursed some of the best shorthorn 

 blood in the country, which had taken a prize before as a short- 

 horn cow, and was now equally successful as a fat beast. These 

 are words of wisdom there can be no doubt, and they did 

 much to redeem the monotony of what was otherwise a dull 

 evening. Out-of-doors the society was decidedly successful ; 

 but in-doors it was less so. 



