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XXII. — Report on the Exhihition of Live Stock at Bury St. 

 EdmriiuVs. By C. Randell, Senior Steward. 



WlIKX in the early part of 186G the Council of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society reluctantly came to the conclusion that the 

 increasing^ ravages of the Cattle Plague rendered it expedient to 

 suspend for a year the show at Bury St. Edmund's, they Avere 

 influenced not alone by the apparent certainty that a show from 

 which cattle would necessarily be excluded must be a failure in 

 reference to the immediate interests of the Society, but also by 

 the conviction that a meeting so deprived of one of its greatest 

 attractions would prove a disappointment to the inhabitants of 

 the town and district where such meeting should be held. It 

 was therefore resolved, with the concurrence of the Local Com- 

 mittee, that a year should elapse, in the hope that the plague 

 might then be stayed, and a Cattle Show be held in 18G7. The 

 liberality and energy which the inhabitants of the town and dis- 

 trict had already shown through their Local Committee, and their 

 readiness to meet every wish of the Council as to the preparation 

 of the showyard and the approaches to it, materially influenced 

 the Council in their decision to wait a year, in order that a suc- 

 cessful meeting might compensate the district for the exerti(ms 

 which th(! inhabitants were ready to make to ensure that success. 



But the plague remained, and the Council felt that although 

 they had by the appointment of a Commission to inquire into 

 and report upon the results of steam-cultivation, done the greatest 

 good in their power to the general interest of agriculture in 1 8()G, yet 

 that a show must be held in 18G7, It has been held, and although, 

 as was anticipated, the result to the Society in a pecuniary sense 

 is a failure, it is satisfactory to record that the exertions of the 

 Local Committee continued unabated to the last — that the show 

 of horses was partially successful — of implements, sheep, and 

 pigs entirely so, and that the agricultural j)()pulation of Suffolk 

 and the adjoining counties evinced the most lively interest in the 

 contents of the showyard, and the exhibition of steam-cultivation 

 outside of it. 



It had been a primary object of the Council to make the 

 show of Horses at Bury St. Edmund's compensate as far as 

 possible for the absence of cattle, and very liberal prizes were 

 offered ; the result was a larger entry than at any previous show, 

 Battersea excepted, still not so large as the Council had a right 

 to expect, and the deficiency was noticeable in the liorses of the 

 district, which in some classes have often been more numerous 

 at the local shows — it may be that those local shows having lieen 



