36 



CATTLE. 



Shorthorns. Out of a total of 826 cattle entries 349 were represented by 

 Shorthorns that is to say, over 42 per cent, of the total entries. Beyond 

 this fact a visitor to the show could not but be struck by the extent to which 

 genuine farmers tended to cluster round the Shorthorns, whilst other sections 

 were left very largely to casual visitors. That the exhibition of Shorthorns 

 was magnificent cannot be denied. To me these cattle did not appear to 

 have been fattened up to the abnormal extent that we have been accustomed 

 to in the Adelaide and Melbourne shows. They were sufficiently fat to 

 show off their wonderful symmetry of form, but not to the extent of practical 



" Daisy Queen "1st Three-year-old Shorthorn Cow at the 1910 Show of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society at Liverpool. 



deformity. That in aiming at the production of beef-producing animals 

 the milk-producing capacity of the breed has been very considerably impaired 

 has not been lost sight of by the English farmer. On all sides I heard it 

 stated as the opinion of apparently competent men that the introduction 

 of Scotch bulls to English herds had had the effect of ruining the dairy in- 

 dustry. The show authorities themselves have not been slow to recognise 

 the turn of the tide, and numerous prizes are offered for both bulls and cows 

 of good dairy strains. I notice in this connection that bulls competing in 

 these sections must have sprung from dams having secured a certificate 

 of merit in a milking trial or test, or in classes set apart for pedigree dairy 

 Shorthorns. From what I have been able to see there is no doubt that in 

 the capable hands of English breeders the Shorthorns are rapidly acquiring 



