FOREIGN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCES. 47 



ers. There was also a third ring, for judging cattle, about 

 one hundred and fifty feet long by one hundred feet wide. 

 Each of these rings had two swinging gates at either end, 

 one having "Entrance" and the other "Exit" over it, in 

 white letters on a black ground. The former was conspicu- 

 ous only from outside the rings, and the latter was readily 

 seen from the inside. All chances of confusion were thus 

 very much lessened. In the centre of the judging rings 

 were seats for the judges, and a signal-board, upon either 

 side of which w^ere posted the number of the class, as shown 

 in the catalogues, and the numbers of the animals receiving 

 the prizes ; the numbers w^ere changed as each class left the 

 ring. 



Each animal carried a white cardboard label, bearing its 

 catalogue number in bUick lettering, which was tied between 

 the horns of cattle and on the breast of the horses, as a means 

 of ready reference to the catalogue, where full descriptions of 

 all entries were given. The prizes are awarded and the rib- 

 bons attached to the animals by the judges before they are 

 sent from the rings. 



On the last day of the Yorkshire show, which lasted three 

 days, there was a parade of the Shorthorns, at 10, a. m. ; 

 and at 10.30, a parade of all the horses, in the largest ring, 

 in front of the grand stand. The several rings were inclosed 

 by a wooden fence, formed by driving three-inch by four- 

 inch joist into the ground, about eight feet apart, leaving 

 about four feet out of the ground, then nailing a similar piece 

 of joist along their tops. The cattle were in open sheds, 

 twenty feet wide and of the required length, divided in the 

 centre by a partition, which reached to their top and extended 

 their whole length, and on either side of this partition, stalls, 

 ten feet square, were formed with boarded sides, about four 

 and one-half feet high, to hold one animal. These sheds 

 were covered with canvas, as were all the other buildings, 

 except a few of the largest. 



One cattle-ring was sufficient, as, it being the home-county 

 of the Shorthorns, the other breeds were represented by 

 a very small number of animals. In the same way among 

 horses, the hunters so largely predominated that one ring 

 sufficed. 



