48 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



the small chiefly remarkable for the re-appearance of 

 the Fisher Hobbs' Improved Essex in great force. Mr. 

 Turner seems particularly partial to the sort, and we 

 do not wonder at it. They are like his own Devons, so 

 sightly, and of such quality, and so subject to the same 

 commentary — " It's a pity there's not a little more of 

 them." If a good big horse is better than a good little 

 one, we are afraid it is the same with a really good pig. 

 And talking of horses. It is a very short time since, 

 some two or three years after its re-establishment, 

 the West of England, like some other Societies, was 

 quite in despair as to ever getting any show of horses. 

 Two or three ragged draught horses, an Exmoor pony, 

 and an Arab stallion, went far, if we recollect aright, to 

 make up the horse entries at Bath. Within a few years 

 we have a truly good show at Newton. T ivo or three fair 

 prize cart mares ; the first and second very good — Mr. 

 Miles' black Lincoln mare, in our humble opinion, for 

 choice. There were a far better lot of hunting mares, 

 and some young stock for the chase or the road, even 

 better still. Mr. Watson, of Dorsley, had the call here 

 with some very promising stock by the Bishop of Rom- 

 ford's Cob. His three-year-old colt disputed with the 

 Devon bull and the Short-horn heifer the centre of 

 attraction. One of the judges from the North of Eng- 

 land fell in love with him at first sight, and an ©O'er 

 of two hundred was, it is said, refused. This colt 

 unites gi-eat power and substance, with an immense 

 deal of style and fashion in his appearance. Like many 

 of the Bishop's get, he is in colour a light chesnut, which 

 with a plainish head must be rather against him. Mr. 

 Gapper had also some neat young ones by Bowstring ; 

 and Mr. Northcote as gay and handsome a filly 

 by Young Hark away, as a man need wish to see. 

 Then there was, too, a kind of miniature model of a 

 horse in the Exmoor prize pony ; and a capital cross, 

 shown by Mr. Watson, of an improved cart colt, be- 

 tween a Suflolk stallion and a West of England draught 

 mare. The judges thought him only a little too good : 

 he moved too well, and was hardly hairy enough about 

 the heel, although it was very evident he was worth moi-e 

 than the first and second prize colts put together. 



So far so good. We have already said that the 

 Newton meeting had one drawback. It was simply that 

 the implement exhibition was not equal to that of 

 stock. Some of our great firms would not enter, or at 

 least would not send their wares. The Society would 

 not agree to their conditions, which we believe came 

 very much to this : — that for the future, at local meet- 

 ings — that is at all but the Royal ^Agricultural So- 

 ciety's — there shall be reports from judges rather than 

 prizes ; or only prizes in each year for certain entries, 

 as our great implement makers may decree. The ar- 

 gument for this course is, that the trials are only half 

 trials, or at best but imperfect and unsatisfactory. The 

 Council of the West of England Society not seeing the 

 matter exactly in this light, refuse to be dictated to; and 

 the great implement makers don't come. We should be 

 the last in the world to advise anything like obstinacy, 

 or blind adhesion to doing anything merely because 

 it had been done so before. At the same time we think 



the Society quite right in maintaining its own dignity, 

 while we are by no means so sure but that the course it 

 is persevering in is the right one. The trials it is urged 

 are not sufficient — the test taken of an implement is 

 not enough. Pei-haps not. But what is the fact? 

 The trials now are much closer. The judges are much 

 better up to their work ; and the award in every way 

 bears more the stamp of worth and character than it 

 could have done years ago. And yet to this very hour 

 you will find our great implement makers placarding 

 their stands with " The first prize for this at Bristol, or 

 Exeter, or Lewes," or some place half forgotten ere 

 now. In this age of progi'ession what we want to know 

 is, how do they stand by this ? Whether there is anybody 

 approaching them ? Or whether it is still all Ransome, 

 Garrett, Howard, Shuttleworth and Co. ? If it is, they 

 will mostdeservedlycontinuctorank as highasthey have 

 done. If it is not all so, they will quite as deservedly be 

 placed only second to some new man who has surpassed 

 them. There is not a fairer, better, or more conscien- 

 tious judge than Mr. Caldwell, just elected — and with 

 every credit to his fellows— as one of the Council of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England. This gentle- 

 man was one of the judges at Newton, and in that ca- 

 pacity returned thanks for himself and the other judges? 

 at the dinner. The purport of his speech was the 

 strongest possible condemnation of the course of con- 

 duct pursued by our great implement-makers. His 

 advice was, that if they could do without the Society, 

 the Society should do without them ; that the West of 

 England was coming, day by day, more and more to 

 supply its own wants; that the Society itself could 

 make little men into big men ; that the big ones were 

 already afraid of the rising men — and so on. We must 

 add — not as our own, but as the commentary of the 

 meeting on all this — that Mr. Caldwell was cheered and 

 recheered at almost every sentence ; and that amongst 

 the many good and well-known men of Devon, his was 

 the speech of the evening. Honestly, we never saw a 

 more significant or unanimous expression of public 

 feeling. 



As it was, one leading firm made a large entry, 

 but did not send anything ; while another had a steam 

 engine at work in the yard, " for exhibition, but not for 

 competition !" — A simple absurdity — a self-contra- 

 diction ! — a sort of half-advertisement, calculated to 

 leave quite as bad an impi-ession as a good one. Not 

 for competition I That is for sale and not for test. How 

 a man with a really good machine can put himself in 

 so equivocal a position we really cannot understand. 

 Two years ago this very House had as severe and as 

 successful a trial as could have been wished at Carlisle. 

 We will undertake to say Messrs. Caldwell, Reade, 

 and Co. would have given them a good one at Newton. 

 Quite probably, too— we say it on due consideration — 

 they might have won. And here they rest on the very 

 doubtful ground of" not for competition." 



However willing, it would be impossible this week to 

 enter on any critical dissection of the Implement De- 

 partment. We must so leave the prize list to speak for 

 itself. In justice, though, let us at once record that, in 



