THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



403 



lace by Sunrise, and Captain Ball's Pride of Adare by 

 Sol. Cactus had the beautiful crops of her sire in the 

 very hfghest perfection, but her top was not very level, 

 and she might have been better behind ; and Golden 

 Dream's legs were so wrong, that the judges, when they 

 commended her, put on the Society's records, that, but 

 for them she would have held a much higher place. Mr. 

 W.T, Crosbie's two heifers, Florentineand Veronica, had, 

 with Pride of Adare, nearly the whole of the last quarter 

 of an hour's discussion to themselves. Veronica, who 

 was a month younger, and considerably less than her 

 herd companion, seemed the popular favourite, in spite 

 of her twisted ankle and slight plainness behind ; but at 

 last she was beaten, and we think juslly, by Florentine ; 

 and Pride of Adare, whose principal fault is that she 

 has a slight tendency to be high behind, slipped in be- 

 tween them. The last time they met, Veronica beat 

 Florentine. Lady ^^Ifrida was highly commended, 

 and Princess Royal was commended ; so that, after all, 

 the praise was more sparingly dealt out than we expected 

 to have found it. Eight of the two-year-old heifers 

 were then drawn for decision, and Lady Pigot's Victoria 

 35th was the first favourite. Nothing could be much better 

 than she was, till you came to her head and neck, which 

 were both decidedly stumpy, and blessed with very bad 

 horns ; and not all John Ward's artistic halter handling 

 of her could communicate any lustre to that dull, 

 half-weeping eye. In fact, on these points she so sadly 

 lacked Shorthorn character that the judges seemed quite 

 justified in not giving her more than third place. Their 

 choice for first fell upon Captain Ball's Nightingale by 

 Monk — no great handler, but a very neat heifer, much 

 of the Towneley Fidelity stamp ; and for second, upon 

 Lord Wdterford's Chaplet by Orator, which we had not 

 expected to see quite so forward. The result was rather 

 a surprise to the Captain, as he had fully expected to 

 beat the Marquis with his Recherche, another daughter 

 of Monk's, and reminding us much of what Woodrose 

 once was — as he had done at Limerick County only the 

 Thursday before. However, she could only win a high 

 commendation, along with Sir Robert Paul's Sunrise ; 

 while Mr. Rowland's Campion's Ophelia by Lord Garlic, 

 and Mr. A. PoUok's Picottee by Carlisle were com- 

 mended ; the latter was a plain robust-looking heifer, 

 with gaudy legs, which she inherits from Royal Buck. 

 She will onlybetwo years old on May 24th, and her calf 

 has been born some weeks — " a great fact," which could 

 not be put to the credit side of any other animal in the 

 class. The result, as regarded Captain Ball's heifers, 

 was a complete reversal of the Cork one, where Recherche 

 was first, Chaplet third, and Nightingale fourth ; although 

 if Mr. Wiley had not then been outvoted by Messrs. Torr 

 and Smith, she would have been higher up. She and 

 Recherche have done good service to Captain Ball, as 

 they formed two out of the three which won the 100- 

 Guinea Royal Challenge Cup for him a second time at 

 Cork ; and later in the year defeated Golden Vein and 

 Chaplet, which had been specially purchased by the 

 Marquis of Waterford to save the challenge cup at 

 Waterford from its now final resting-place on the Mon- 

 dellibj sideboard. 



Another pause for luncheon brought the second act 

 of the drama to an end ; and then Mr. Ambler's Woodrose 

 was scarcely taken out of her stall to defeat Empress for 

 the three-year-old heifer prize. The cows made quite a 

 little sensation as the whole ten were brought out, John 

 Ward in charge of his favourite Second Duchess of 

 Gloster, and his son with Stanley Rose. Mr. Ambler's 

 compact White Necklace by War Eagle, and the dam of 

 two calves last year, looked not a little dangerous to 

 Branches Park, when she was drawn up between them, 

 and unconsciously shadowed forth her final destiny. 



Mr. Christy's immense Queen of Beauty 2nd was kept 

 to the last, when the other six had to retire ; and al- 

 though they had evidently no thought of her, it was some 

 time before they could make up their mind among her 

 three English rivals. Stanley Rose's attempts at walk- 

 ing were piteous, as her truck had got off the line near 

 Holyhead, and she had gone nearly two miles "over the 

 stones" to the quay. Still she left nothing but nn H C 

 to Necklace, and a C to Second Duchess of Gloster on 

 this occasion, and made short work of the thick-fleshed 

 but not very attractive Woodrose, when the winning 

 cows and heifers in milk were out for the gold medal. 



The fat cattle, which contained three gigantic speci- 

 mens of seventeen-hand oxen, were good ; but the rest 

 of the Show, towards the Black Hole Corner, where 

 Kerries, Alderneys, Devons, and a Hereford stood, was 

 a strange medley mixture. No Ayrshires came, and 

 only one West Highlander ; and one of the two Scotch 

 polled heifers got a man down, and knelt upon him, and 

 savaged him so severely, that he was carried out ap- 

 parently in an almost hopeless state by four policemen. 

 Luckily it turned out that he was only " kilt" not 

 killed. The pigs showed a steady progress, and 

 were in nice breeding condition ; and the sheep show 

 was especially excellent, although Mr. Beale Browne's 

 wonted array of Cotswolds were absent. Mr. Owen's 

 Leicester, and Mr, C. W. Hamilton's Shropshire 

 ram, would have most richly deserved their gold medals, 

 even in the face of a still stronger competition. Their 

 position in the show-yard, if it is a wet day, is an espe- 

 cially unfavourable one. On the first day it was with 

 the greatest difficulty that they could be reached at all, 

 owing to the slush ; but the committee will carry a relief 

 bill next year, if they can only get a coveted half-acre 

 behind to enclose. Nothing can be more melancholy 

 than the present arrangement, and the implement 

 makers, as they sat on during Tuesday, for ten mortal 

 hours, in the pour-down, waiting for the customers 

 who never appeared, were subjects of the liveliest com- 

 passion, and more especially so, as they had done every- 

 thing to deserve success. 



The sale of bulls was exceedingly slow. Mr. Barnes 

 got 110 gs. for Master Harbinger, from Mr. Jones, co. 

 Waterford ; Mr. Richardson 100 gs. for Red Knight, 

 from Mr. Barton, co. Kildare ; and Mr. Leslie the same 

 for Victor Emmanuel, from Lord Talbot. The first- 

 named breeder refused 120 gs. for Friar Tuck, as he pre- 

 ferred keeping him for Belfast, and perhaps Leeds. 

 The general run of bull prices was from i,'20 to ,£70, 

 but certainly not one-half of them were sold. About 



