274 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



agriculturists, but among the community at large, and the 

 first day 30,ooo people attended the show, many having come 

 great distances by road. Everybody and every exhibit had 

 to get to Oxford by road ; some Shorthorn cattle, belonging 

 to the famous Thomas Bates of Kirkleavington, took nearly 

 three weeks on the road, coming from London to Aylesbury 

 by canal. But such a journey was not unusual then, for 

 cattle were often two or three weeks on the road to great 

 fairs, and stood the journey best on hay ; it was surprising 

 how fresh and sound they finished.^ The show ground 

 covered 7 acres, and among the implements tested was 

 a subsoil plough, Biddell's Scarifier, and a drill for deposit- 

 ing manure after turnips. There were only six classes for 

 cattle — Shorthorns, Herefords, Devons, Cattle of any other 

 breed, Dairy Cattle, and Oxen; one class for horses, and 

 three for sheep — Leicesters, Southdown or other Short Wool, 

 and Long Woolled ; with one for pigs.^ The Shorthorns, 

 with the exception of the Kirkleavingtons, were bred in the 

 neighbourhood, and many good judges said long afterwards 

 that a finer lot had not been seen since. The Duchesses 

 especially impressed all who saw them. The rest of the live 

 stock was in no way remarkable. 



From this small beginning, then thought so much of, the 

 show grew fast, and the Warwick meeting^ of 1892, after 

 several years of agricultural depression, illustrates the excel- 

 lent work of the Society and the enormous progress made 

 by English agriculture. The show ground covered 90 acres ; 

 horses were now divided into Thoroughbred Stallions, 

 Hunters, Coach Horses, Hackneys, Ponies, Harness Horses 

 and Ponies, Shires, Clydesdales, Suffolks, and Agricultural 

 Horses. Cattle were classified as Shorthorns, Herefords, 

 Devons, Sussex, Longhorns (described as few in number and 

 of no particular quality, ' a breed which has now been many 



^ McCombie, Cattle and Cattle Breeders, p. 33. 



^ These classes, however, did not comprise all the then known breeds 

 of live stock. ^ R.A.S.E. Journal, 1892, pp. 479 sq. 



