40 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE BIRMINGHAM AND MIDLAND COUNTIES FAT CATTLE 

 AND POULTRY SHOW. 



The success of a fat cattle show is scarcely susceptible 

 of a purely agricultural test. Such exhibitions have 

 ever been popular with the general public, who regard 

 them as an agreeable prologue to " the festivities of the 

 season." Town people feel by no mcaus so much at 

 sea here, as when opposed to all the progressive arcana 

 of the art. On the contrary, they stand up for their 

 rights and privileges as the consumer, assume know- 

 ing airs, and handle beasts and stir up pigs in the most 

 business-like manner. They have, in fact, a thorough 

 consciousness of the important part they will play 

 in the proceedings, and estimate the different speci- 

 mens of perfection arranged before them in much the 

 same spirit the connoisseur did the water-fowl in one of 

 Herring's farm-yard scenes : — " Beautiful, certainly ! 

 How I should like to have them — stuffed with sage 

 and onions!" And so Paterfamilias mentally cuts up 

 Mr. Stratton's Shorthorn into Christmas beef, or carves 

 a delicate slice from the chine of one of my Lady 

 Chesterfield's pigs ; while mamma thinks of her dear boys 

 coming home from school, and the famous suet that will 

 mmgle in pies and puddings, or bargains for the prize 

 turkey, to be served with a City Sheriff's chain of office 

 hung about him. 



This general interest in the occasion is especially ob- 

 servable at the Birmingham meetings. It is not every 

 one, after all, who can properly appreciate a fat bullock, 

 or a much-enduring pig. But here we have the most 

 agreeable variety. Indeed we question very much 

 whether wives and daughters do not enjoy the show 

 even more than the good man himself. The attrac- 

 tion, moreover, extends to all classes. The select 

 day, for instance, is quite an assemblage of rank 

 and fashion, and one honest citizen openly admitted 

 that he paid his five shillings more for a sight of " the 

 company" than anything else. And rank and fashion, 

 be it understood, have strictly a right here. The 

 Countess of Dartmouth, the Lady Evelyn Stanhope, 

 and the Lady Sophia Desvceux are the keenest of rivals 

 for Dorking chickens. The Honourable Mr. Vernon 

 plumes himself on his black-breasted game cocks. The 

 gallant Colonel Clowes has a first prize for Polands, 

 while the Premier of England is only mildly commended. 

 And then, clergymen, heads of firms, heads of families — 

 that is, ladies of course — tenant farmers, country squires, 

 little boys, and boarding-school Misses have each a pen 

 for sale, or a prize to take. The general attendance, 

 however, of the whole week was not what it has been. 



" The Midland Counties," however, is equally and as 

 deservedly well-known fur the excellent entries of stock 

 it has now for some years collected together. And cer- 

 tainly there was no great evidence of falling markets in 

 the show of this past week. Without going back to the 

 figures themselves, we believe the numerical strength 



and support of the meeting by breeders and feeders was 

 quite up to what it has been. At the same time the 

 character of the exhibition was, in many leading features, 

 by no means so good as heretofore. With a few prime 

 beasts to select from them, it was one of the roughest, 

 most moderate, and unequal lot of Herefords we ever re- 

 member. Then the Shorthorns, as a class, were not re- 

 markable for their quality ; while the Devons, good as 

 they were, counted up to even less than usual, and were 

 far too few to create anything like interesting com- 

 petition. Taking the whole range of these three estab- 

 lished breeds, a really good beast had every opportunity 

 for distinguishing himself, as one most unquestionably 

 did. This was Mr. Naylor's first prize Hereford ox, 

 the best steer at this meeting last year, and that we then 

 spoke of as promising to still further improve. He has 

 now grown and fed into one of the neatest Herefords 

 ever seen. His symmetry is so perfect, that, as is the 

 case with all well-formed animals, he looks much smaller 

 than he really is. Neither is he so " upstanding" as the 

 sort often are, but more compact and close in his frame. 

 With this he unites all the btst points of his race- 

 has a sweet head, is beautifully marked, and is as fine 

 a handler as a butcher ever touched. Of course he 

 carried ofi' a whole accumulation of premiums. He 

 had one as the best of his class, another as the best 

 Hereford, a third as the best of all the oxen, a fourth 

 as the best bred and fed by the same man, and a fifth as 

 an especial compliment to his breeder. There wanted 

 but the culminating honour as the best of all the animals, 

 male or female ; but with all their ingenuity in this way, 

 the council have not yet arrived at that insignia. Mr. 

 Naylor's ox cannot go on to Baker-street, having been 

 exhibited there as steer last Christmas, when he was 

 hardly done justice to, reaching no higher than a third 

 prize. Curiously enough, the second prize Hereford 

 was also second at Birmingham in the steer class last 

 year, being then as the property of Mr. Child. 

 He has also improved, but his proportions are by 

 no means so perfect as those of the Gold Medal ox. 

 Mr. Shaw, the gentleman who took this in 1857, has 

 sent another good beast, and Lord Aylesford and his 

 Royal Highness the Prince Consort contribute to the 

 merit of the class. With these, however, are associated 

 some very inferior animals, so much so as to prove that 

 a lesson, although ever so often repeated, may be still 

 thrown away upon some people. The Hereford steers 

 were a good, but not a grand class ; the cows neither 

 in numbers nor excellence up to an average, but the 

 heifers as a whole by far the best of the breed. Over 

 the first and second prizes (standing side by side) it was 

 difficult to make a decision: Mr. Steadman's had the 

 best of it for size, and Mr. Price's for beauty and quality. 

 There were but six shown here, while the judges highly 



