THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



413 



lie recommended. For our own part, we consider the 

 distribution of the labourers' prizes after the dinner of 

 the Society to be altogether a mistake; conducing in 



reality to no possible good whatever, but rather to 

 the contrary, in keeping men, at a comparatively long 

 distance from their homes, to a late hour of the evening. 



THE BEDFORDSHIRE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Owing perhaps to a lucky accident, this Association, 

 though peripatetic in its principle, has now held a 

 sec&nd meeting in succession at Bedford. From the 

 success of this experiment it is not improbable that for 

 the future the county town will alternate with other 

 places the anniversary celebration of the Society. Such 

 a course is adopted in Suffolk, where Ipswich comes in 

 every other year, and Bury, Saxmundham, and other 

 sites at longer intervals. Leighton, Biggleswade, 

 Woburn, and Luton might, on the same system, in turn 

 " relieve" the head-qnarters of an institution that has 

 now seen its sixty summers. But in its great feature, 

 the ploughing match, there never was a better show 

 than this. It was in every way worthy of the re- 

 putati<m that the county, and more especially the town, 

 has already achieved. There were seventeen half-acres 

 of the straightest and best ploughing the judges had 

 ever seen in their lives; cleanly cut, well laid, and alto- 

 gether sightly in appearance and true in workman- 

 ship. The ground, nevertheless, was more than 

 usually trying — a wheat stubble recently ma- 

 nured. In fact, so difficult was the spread 

 dung to deal with, that Mr. Beam, one of the adjudi- 

 cators, strongly recommended that for the future even 

 Bedfordshire ploughmen should not be subjected to so 

 severe a test, but the more general clover ley be again 

 resorted to. The marked success which has this 

 autumn attended the working of Howard's plough was 

 only further confirmed at home. It was first in the three 

 divisions, and first and second in the great Champion 

 class, where a Hornsby plough finished third ; while Page 

 claimed one second, as well as a fourth place in the 

 other trials. Frederick Purser, in the employment of 

 Mr. Street, must be recorded as the champion himself 

 — a young man of much promise, that will most pro- 

 bably have the opportunity of further distinguishing 

 himself. George White, a commended entry of last 

 year, when he was thought by many to be worthy of 

 more distinction than he obtained, was a good second ; 

 and James Madden, another capital hand, who took a 

 Hornsby in preference to a Page plough, maintained the 

 excellence of the class as the third best. The plough- 

 ing of the lads was also remarkably good, but owing 

 to illness and accident, the farmers' sons and pupils did 

 not compete for their cup. 



The shorthorns were the mainstay of the stock show ; 

 and Mr. Robinson, of Clifton, was as pre-eminent 

 amongst the cattle as the Howards with the implements. 

 He brought Hayman, a low, level white bull, never 

 shown before, that quite spoilt the look of the entry 

 beside him. In fact, he was the only good bull amongst 

 them. The show of cows and heifers was much better, 

 and went more to mark the strength of the many 



budding herds in Bedfordshire. Amongst those so re- 

 presented were Mr. Fowler's, of Henlow ; Mr. Law- 

 ford's, of Leighton ; Mr. Charles Howard's, of Bidden- 

 ham; Mr. Barnett's, of Stratton ; Mr. Burton's, of 

 Northill; Mr. Crouch's, of Lidlington ; and Mr. 

 Pawlett's, of Beeston. Mr. Fowler's hope was 

 the curly-horned Warwick prize heifer, and the 

 commended of Canterbury — now a roomy handsome 

 cow, but for the crumply horn, which is taking 

 a more awkward turn than ever. Mr. Pawlett was 

 second with a bargain from Milcote, while 

 half-a-dozen others were commended. Mr. Robinson 

 was amongst them, but he became more prominent with 

 both the three and two-year-old heifers, taking the first 

 prize of one with Northern Belle, and of the other with 

 the still better known Claret. In the generally com- 

 mended class of heifer calves he was also first, while his 

 young bull Champagne, by May Duke, only six months 

 old, was pronounced to be the most perfect animal in 

 the show. Whether for looks or touch, there was no 

 finding fault with him, and great was the congratulation 

 accordingly to the owner of so promising a youngster. 

 But Lord Spencer and Mr. Beazley had anticipated 

 what Mr. Sandy or Mr. Ladds might think of him. 

 On only the day previous, in a stroll through the Clifton 

 pastures and homestead they had selected him, and, win 

 or lose at Bedford, he was booked for Althorpe, at a 

 hundred guineas. Of course his Lordship is so already 

 the owner of a prize bull. The Duke of Bedford and 

 Mr. Paxton sent three very capital Herefords as butcher's 

 beasts, which were preferred to the Shorthorns entered 

 against them ; and his Grace had also premiums for his 

 Southdowns, as Mr. Charles Howard for his Oxford 

 Downs, Mr. Twitchell for his Leicesters, and Mr. Hine 

 for his cross-breds. But the competition here was 

 weak, although some of the entries themselves were of 

 much excellence. 



Lord St. John sent a two-year-old filly, which united 

 size, symmetry, and quality in a very remarkable degree ; 

 and there were a few clever cart- marcs. But altogether 

 the agricultural horses were by no means imposing to 

 look upon, and " the nags" less so still. Mr. Thomas, 

 of Bletsoe, took the hunter premium with a moderate 

 four-year-old filly by Hesperus ; while— a long way the 

 best-looking one — a Rochester horse was disqualified 

 from an injury he had received in the back when a foaL 

 He could neither trot nor turn. Mr. Thomas had a better 

 Galloway, so superior, indeed, to a mere " cob" in the 

 common acceptation of the term, that the judges had to 

 go for something with more beef and barrel, but of 

 nothing like the style, or fashion, or action of the little 

 chesnut. There were a few pigs, and the now cusiomary 

 curiosity in the way of two couple of Bretonue cattle, 



