THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



341 



Meeting. They appeared to have suiFered but little in 

 condition from the trip; but the present company was 

 rather too good for them, creditable animals as tluy 

 are. 



The Oxfordshire pig is a nice cross between the 

 Improved Essex and the Berkshire, combining the 

 quality of the one with something of the size of the 

 other. Mr. Druce and his sons have been long famous 

 for these, and Messrs. Ilutt, Hewer, and Marriott were 

 also amongst the more successful candidates for dis- 

 tinction. The latter entered a white pig of Mr. Wiley's 

 breeding, but the run was on the Berkshire and O.s.- 

 fordshii-e. 



Neither the draught nor hunting mares, to which 

 the horse show is confined, were remarkable for merit. 

 The lighter breed gave one but very little idea of the 

 good hunting country the meeting was held in. There 

 must be surely something superior in the neiglibour- 

 hood ! The cart foals were better than their dams. 

 There was no distinguishing character about the latter, 

 and there was not in reality a prize animal amongst 

 them. But somehow or other these disti'ict cullings 

 rarely gather the cream of horse-flesh. 



The exhibition of implements included some well- 

 selected collections, depending, as they should, chiefly 

 on local makers for their merits. Samuelson, of 

 Banbury, stands amongst the first of these, although 

 the town numbers some half-dozen other dealers or 

 manufacturers — Gardner, Barford, Kirby, Mascord, 

 and AUgood and Gibbs. In addition to these Messrs, 

 Hart and Gibbons, and Nalder, came from Wantage j 

 Mr. Sawney, from Beverley ; and Mr. Billing, from 

 Hazely. There was scarcely a good implement but 

 was to be had here] but the only novelty was a new 

 chaiF-cutter, just patented by Mr. Gardner, and now 

 exhibited for the first time. Its principle is one of 

 double action, and its great merit the ease and small 

 expense of power at which it is worked. It is, more- 

 over, very simple in its construction and arrange- 

 ment, and promises accordingly to come fast into 

 fashion. 



During the week preceding the show the Society 

 devotes a day to the labourer, when a series of pre- 

 miums are given, not merely for good service, but for 

 skilled work — ploughing, draining, hedge cutting, 

 sheep rearing, and so on. This seems to be by no 

 means the least successful branch of the proceedings, 

 while it adds materially to the influence of the associa- 

 tion, and brings the three classes most directly con- 

 cerned all well together. 



The dinner, so far as the dinner itself went, was a 

 mistake. A very fair provision of cold meats was 

 preceded or interrupted by an ambitious course of tepid 

 fish. The attendance, as usual, was not equal to this; 

 and when it did come, a man ate turbot without sauce, 

 cod without oysters, or flabby salmon— not much of 

 a treat at Michaelmas — just as he could get it. At least 

 half an hour was cut to waste in this way; whereas had 



another eighteen-pence or so been put on to the ticket, 

 and a pint of wine included, the company would have 

 been greater, and the thing have gone far better. But 

 we are tired d protesting against these attempts at fine 

 banquets, badly served, doubtfully cooked, and never 

 really enjoyed. The wing of a fowl, a slice of tongue, 

 and a glass of decent sherry would always bring us well 

 on to the speech of the evening. Mr. Henley delivered 

 this, not as a country gentleman, not as president of an 

 agricultural association, but as one of Her Majesty's 

 Ministers. His definition of a Conservative and his half- 

 promise for more " Reform," have already gone the 

 round of the papers, either for or against him, as party 

 purpose may prefer. Colonel North made a very good 

 straightforward chairman, preceding the business on his 

 list with a request that every speaker would keep him- 

 self as much to the point, and "cut it as short" as 

 possible. Up to the time we left, he had been very 

 generally obeyed, and at no cost either to the addresses 

 of Lord Leigh, Colonel Cartwright, Mr. Langstonc, or 

 Jlr. Cother. It was Mr. Cother who suggested the 

 more thorough union of the two societies, and at the 

 same time the extension of the premiums for wether 

 sheep. We scarcely see the force of this in what is 

 essentially a show of breeding animals. He himself, 

 however, already gives one for the best pen from rams 

 of his own flock, introduced on the catalogue with this 

 somewhat peculiar notice : " Mr. Cother declines show- 

 ing theaves because of injuring his best breeding 

 stock." 



LINCOLNSHIRE RAMS IN DEVONSHIRE. 



Sir, — Two years ago in October next, I travelled by rail 

 from Peterborough to Northampton, with a gentleman who 

 had been to Peterboiough fair, to buy two Liucolu rams. He 

 said he was trying to obtain great size, a very heavy fleece, 

 and great weight of leau flesh at early maturity ; he was 

 not very particular about the handsome bust or frame. His 

 great aim was profit, a great weight of wool and matton, 

 with a strong constitution, which is the foundation of profit, 

 aud is actual merit. The old adage is, "A sheep with a bad 

 constitution is like a bell without a clapper." 



He had, he said, a flock of 800, aad he had used Lincoln 

 rams five years which had improved bis flock of light wools 

 greatly ; so much so, that he had gained by the cross with the 

 Lincoln, 3 lbs. of wool each sheep, and when fed 12 lbs. of 

 mutton each, " which is an increase in my flock," said he," of 85 

 tods of wool and 9,G00 lbs. of mutton." Wool at £2 per tod, 

 he gains in his flock £170 in wool ; and mutton at 6d. per lb., 

 he gained £240 ; " aud in wool and mutton added together," 

 said he, "I gain by the cross, or alloy with the Lincoln, £410.' ' 

 But the best of it is, he keeps the same number of large sheep 

 he did small. 



I am informed some first-class Devonshire farmers intend 

 goiug to Mr. Kirkham's Biscathorpe ram show on the 2ud 

 September. Samuel Aknsby. 



MiUfield, Peterborough, Aug. 26. 



