344 A HISTORY OF 



Agricultural Shows and the Horse Show 



The last spring cattle show held in Kildare street 

 in April 1880 was the fiftieth of a series of shows held 

 annually without intermission, beginning in the year 

 1 83 1. There were still earlier cattle shows, but they 

 were not held on the Society's premises, nor were they 

 under the direct management of the Society ; they were 

 held by the Farming Society, a body founded in 1800, 

 which carried on its operations " under the patronage of 

 the Dublin Society " ; it received a subsidy of ^200 a 

 year from the Society's funds, and held its meetings on 

 the Society's premises. The shows were held at Smith- 

 field, Dublin, in the months of April and November, and 

 at Ballinasloe in the month of October. A report on 

 one of these shows held on November the 20th, 1800, 

 which shows the extraordinary care that was taken in 

 awarding the prizes, is published in the Transactions of 

 the Dublin Society, vol. ii. pp. 353-364. In some 

 classes, the animals were weighed, and after slaughter, 

 detailed weighings and measurements of the various 

 cuts were made. In the case of two three-year-old 

 wethers, there are eleven measurements and seven 

 weighings given, and in the case of two heifers there 

 are the weighings of ten different parts of each animal. 

 So completely did the Farming Society withdraw agri- 

 cultural interests from the parent body, that we find it 

 stated in evidence before the Parliamentary Commission 

 of 1836, that the Society had " lost its original character, 

 and become more an institution for the encouragement 

 of Arts and Sciences." 



The spring cattle show of 1 83 1 was the Society's 

 response to the appeal that had been made by the 

 Marquis of Downshire, who had urged the Society to 

 resume its agricultural work. The show opened on 

 Tuesday, April the 26th, 1831. The first two days 



