40 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZHnE. 



was got by a Shorthorn bull out of a Shorthorn cow I 

 And the man, though previously civil enough, was 

 rather indignant when we ventured to doubt so legiti- 

 mate a means for obtaining half-bred produce." As 

 we have already intimated, the same sort of loose entry 

 was admitted this year again, and the Birmingham 

 management may look with advantage to what is about 

 to be done at the Smithfield Club. At the meeting of 

 the members to-morrow Mr. Thurnall will move " that 

 all exhibitors of cross-bred animals shall be required to 

 specify the exact nature of the cross — that is, the breed 

 of sire and dam respectively, and whether the animal 

 exhibited is the result of a first or more remote cross." 



The sections where the Birmingham show of this 

 season did not decline, but the rather if anything ad- 

 vanced, were the sheep, the pigs, and the roots. The 

 shortwools were perhaps never previously so good, and 

 the Duke of Beaufort, Lord Radnor, LordWalsingham, 

 Sir George Throckmorton, and Mr. Overman would 

 seem all to have improved upon their sample of the 

 Southdown, the Duke and Lord Walsingham particu- 

 larly. The judges, in fact, commended every pen of 

 Southdown sheep exhibited,; the only reason why the 

 younger class was not so generally commended was from 

 the fact of there being a Hampshire Down in it which 

 they could not include in any such order of merit. The 

 names of one or two new men here went to still further 

 assert the superiority of the Yorkshire, or more properly 

 the Driffield Leicesters, which Mr. Jordan does so 

 much with in London. There were one or two lots of 

 better-looking Cotswolds than usually travel thus far ; 

 while the trump-card of all the sheep was of course 

 again the Shropshire. The class, indeed, was thought to 

 be too good for the Judges, amongst whom there was not 

 one breeder of the Shropshire, and common opinion did 

 not go altogether with the awards. The first prize 

 for the younger wethers they gave to some handsome 

 sheep of Mr. Holland's, and the second to a useful 

 lot of Mr. Mansell's ; and had they stopped here all 

 might have been well enough. But they went out of 

 their way to commend two pens of Lord Aylesford's, 

 really as it would seem for no other reason than that 

 they were Lord Aylesford's. Sheep with plain, coarse 

 headS; very middling frames, and "frills" and fronts 

 of dark wool and "scuts" as black as night — the 

 most unsaleable of so saleable a commodity. Then, 

 both the first and second prizes for the older wethers 

 went to Lord Dartmouth for some true and straight 

 useful farmers' sheep, while they utterly ignored Mr. 

 Orme Foster's magnificent lots, one of which certainly 

 included the best Shropshire in the show. If Lord 

 Aylesford's were worth commending at all, Mr. 

 Foster's, Mr. Smith's, and Mr. Holland's other 

 pen were far more so. For the future it will be better 

 to have at least one Shropshire man as a Judge of 

 Shropshires, and there are many who do not exhibit. 

 This breed it must be remembered are the first both in 

 point of excellence and numbers of all the sheep shown 

 in Binghley Hall, and two Devonians and a gentleman 

 from Berkshire were called in to pronounce upon them ! 



The same trio tried their hands, with more success, 



on the swine, all three, if we place them aright, having 

 some position as -pig-men. 



There was ample opportunity for the exercise of their 

 abilities in this way, and the chief difficulty must have 

 been in discriminating between the several merits of 

 blacks and whites. The confusion of colours was terri- 

 ble. Mr. Crisp, for instance, showed " improved 

 SufFolks" blacJc, and " improved SufTolks'" white, in 

 the same class, but as different in their breeds as in their 

 hues. The judges themselves were known to have a 

 leaning to the darker shades ; but so far as we could 

 follow them, they appear to have acted very impartially, 

 although Mr. Wiley did, we believe, for the first time 

 in his life, rank no higher than second in Binghley Hall. 

 However, the chief prizes in both the " pen" lots of fat 

 pigs went to the whites. Mr. Morland's are very 

 handsome to look upon, but they are rather coarse in 

 quality and harsh in the hair ; while Lady Chesterfield's 

 very pretty specimens are doing more and more to 

 establish the Bretby breed. For second place here the 

 Butley Abbey blacks were preferred to the Canterbury 

 prize whites from the same homestead, while in the 

 single fat pig class Mr. Mangles' "Royal" sow could 

 only get second to another of the Chilton entries, and 

 Mr. Harrison and Mr. Sexton, both first prizes at Can- 

 terbury, had to be content with simple commendations. 

 But it took not merely the three pig judges proper, but 

 four others were called in before it became quite safe to 

 say that Mr. Morland's boar was really better than Mr. 

 Mangles' sow. The Tam worth pig no longer gives a 

 speciality to the Birmingham Show, as he has been found 

 not to tell much upon parade. We rather regret this, 

 as he has many useful points, particularly for a cross ; 

 and it did strike us that some ' ' improved Leicesters" here 

 owed their increased size and length to such a source. 

 The " rosy" tinge in their coats went all to confirm the 

 supposition. The Berkshires, in Bingley Hall, have 

 become so good a class that, following the example of 

 the Shropshire sheep-breeders, their supporters are 

 about to ask of the Council that these pigs may have a 

 similar section all of their own, at the meetings of the 

 Royal Agicultural Society. Certainly the show of last 

 week went far to warrant a gracious answer to " the 

 prayer of your petitioners." Never has there been so 

 strong a one, and a known man like Mr. 

 Hewer could get no actual rank in such good 

 company ; notwithstanding that the judges doubled 

 their allowance of premiums. Sir Francis Holyoake 

 Goodricke's pigs are so perfect — with such short fine 

 heads, lengthy backs, and true shoulders — that it will 

 be a difficult task even for the home-breeders of Berks 

 and Wilts ever again to excel them. There were more 

 than twenty lots of five each, with scarcely an indiffe- 

 rent pig amongst them, if we only except the last pen 

 in the entry. Mr. Fowler, of Aylesbury, is clearly not 

 that authority over a pig that he is with a duck or a 

 ^oose,and long snouts and razor backs are wofully below 

 his '' form" in other ways. In the little pigs, as we 

 have already mentioned, the very handsome Bransburys 

 were only second, Mr. Steam's white SufTolks coai- 

 mended, and Mr. Watson's Cumberlands not even no= 



