30S HIGHLAND AND AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The stallion to be used ought to have a sound constitution, 

 good temper, easy action, short legs, straight back, round 

 rib, strong over the loins, deep chest, good ends, lengthy 

 quarter, and plenty of bone and muscle. Such properties 

 in a horse cannot fail to improve his kind. Mares, too, 

 instead of possessing imperfections, hereditary diseases, 

 and bad forms, and being either worn out or too young, 

 ought to have short legs, broad deep chest, back rather 

 long than too short, a broad, well lifted, and rounded loin, 

 quarters long and oval on the top, haunches wider than the 

 hips, fine animated head, pleasing countenance, density and 

 firmness of muscle, sinews, and structure, clean, muscular, 

 and sinewy leg, large knee, with broad, wide hock, the shank 

 or canon-bone and sinews both in the fore and hind legs 

 well developed, and straightly dropped below the hock joint.' 

 In sheep, far the best display was in Leicesters. Of 

 the breed there were 115 lots, and 286 head. In the 

 class of tups not exceeding forty-five months, there were 

 thirty-nine entries ; and in the dinmont class there were 

 forty entries. In both these classes, all the prizes were 

 carried by tups shown by Samuel Wiley, Brandsby, York- 

 shire. The first prize for ewes went to Mr Douglas, 

 Athelstaneford, the second to Lord Kinnaird ; and the 

 first prize for gimmers to James Mitchell, Little Knox, 

 Castle Douglas, and the second to George Thomson, Hay- 

 mount, Kelso. The official report, in noticing the remark- 

 able success of Mr Wiley's sheep, says, ' The prize tups 

 were bred with infinite care, entirely from Leicestershire, 

 and from the fine stock of that breed for upwards of half a 

 century, and they now possess a uniformity of character 

 only to be obtained by such means.' The report notices, 

 as regards the other sheep exhibited, that ' it seemed as if 

 size had been attended to by the breeders, to the sacrifice 

 of form and quality ; and it was obvious that a large pro- 

 portion of the dinmonts, as well as a portion of the aged 

 rams, intimated a recent cross with a larger description of 

 sheep than the pure Leicester — the wool, in many instances, 

 being of inferior quality, and the heads and offals coarse, de- 

 noting a want of disposition to fatten on ordinary keeping.' 



