REPORT ON SHEER 



BY JOHN C. DILLON. 



The display of sheep at the Hampshire Society's thirty-seventy 

 exhibition was a very respectable, and, considering the weather on 

 the first day, a remarkably good one. There were fourteen entries, 

 comprising 121 sheep, and not an inferior animal among them. 

 In fact your committee were puzzled how to make a fair return to 

 the several exhibitors (many of whom had had to keep their sheep 

 over from the preceding day) for the labor, skill, patience, and public 

 spirit they had manifested. 



And this leads me to say a word or two about the business of 

 awarding premiums at Agricultural Fairs, in which I feel sure I shall 

 have the sympathy of many who have been in the habit of serving on 

 committees of award. 



Where premiums are offered for specific, well defined objects, as 

 for the best Ayrshire bull, or the best Jersey cow, it is plainly the 

 dutv of the committee to award them to the animals which, in their 

 judgment, nearest approach the recognized standard of excellence in 

 the respective breeds. 



But where the offer of premiums is more general ; as for the best 

 buck, or the best eight lambs ; it is usual and proper to take into con- 

 sideration circumstances and conditions which would have no weight 

 in determining the award, if the premiums had been for the best 

 South Down or the best Leicester. For instance an exhibitor shows 

 a lot of sheep remarkai)le for pureness of blood and neatness and 

 uniformity of appearance ; while another flock, though less uniform 

 and perhaps a little coarser, shows a size and rugged vigor which 

 would commend them to the butcher, or to those farmers who buy 

 instead of raising the sheep they feed. In this case, it is usual, and 

 I think justifiable to distribute the premiums among the meiitorious 



