2 Report upon the Agricultural Features 



in the catalogue is a sign of appreciation which should not be 

 passed unnoticed. 



No person could doubt that, judging the Cattle-show as a col- 

 lection of animals, he had before him at once the finest and 

 most interesting assortment ever summoned together by the 

 stimulus of competition. There were gathered in that arena, 

 not only materials to instruct the breeder and rearer of stock, 

 but also the naturalist, the " evolutionist," and the comparative 

 anatomist. Neither was the picturesque element wanting, and 

 the artistic eye might well be satisfied as it ranged over such a 

 diversity of colour and form, heightened by the rich-coloured and 

 picturesque clothing of the peasant attendants from the various 

 parts of the Austrian dominions. The International Cattle-show 

 was certainly to me the most interesting feature of the Vienna 

 Exhibition. It possessed a charm of novelty, which could 

 scarcely be said to belong to collections of silks, jewellery, 

 gold, porcelain, and glass. To form an idea of the interest of 

 the Vienna Cattle-show the reader must imagine the pleasure 

 of contrasting his favourite native Shorthorns with their relatives 

 bred for many years abroad, or with crosses effected between 

 British and foreign races. He must endeavour to picture 

 the majestic Hungarian ox as a larger type of the wild 

 cattle of Chillingham Park. He must call to his memory the 

 fawn-coloured cattle of Switzerland, black and white Dutch, 

 red and white Bernese, silver-grey Allgauers, swarthy buffaloes. 

 Merino sheep, and wool-bearing swine. It was allowed on all 

 hands that such a magnificent collection of domestic animals 

 had never been brought together, and the show of Merino sheep, 

 especially, was declared to be unprecedented. With such mate- 

 rials, all that was necessary to make the exhibition successful was 

 good arrangement. It was here, however, that the Vienna Cattle- 

 show failed ; and as a means of instruction this superb collec- 

 tion of animals seemed to have been called together for but little 

 purpose. The general scheme, as shown in the accompanying 

 plan (Fig. 1), was excellent ; but urifortunately the names of the 

 various nationalities, there so conspicuous, did not appear in 

 the actual show-yard until the last day of the exhibition. 



The scattered state of the various breeds made the work of the 

 jurymen peculiarly arduous. Their first work was to find the 

 cattle, then to go backwards and forwards across the show-yard 

 to compare one with another, and lastly they met in a tent and 

 voted. Theie was no show ring, and there were no classes. 

 The unfortunate juryman was requested to give his opinion as to 

 whether he preferred this yearling or that aged bull, this pro- 

 mising heifer or that blooming middle-aged cow. 



Under these circumstances it was perhaps as well that no 



