NATURE 



199 



THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1874 



SCIENCE IN THE SHOWY ARD 



IT is difficult to over-estimate the benefits whicfi prac- 

 tical agriculture has derived from the great country 

 meetings of our Agricultural Societies. Shifting from 

 year to year to different parts of England these annual 

 exhibitions have brought tlie general progress of agricul- 

 ture to bear in a direct manner upon local practice, and 

 made the country farmer acquainted with the improve- 

 ments that have originated in distant centres of activity ; 

 while at the same time the peculiar excellences ol the dis- 

 trict visited are prominently brought to light, and give 

 their own distinctive character and teaching to the exhi- 

 bition. The beneficial influence of such Agricultural 

 Shows is much increased when, as in the case of the 

 show now being held at Bedford, they are conducted by a 

 first-class Society. Not only arc the exhibitions in this 

 case of greater number, and superior quality, but the 

 character of the judging is superior also, and science is 

 really brought to bear in awarding the prizes in the various 

 classes. To refer to the present show of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society at Bedford, the official lists tell us of the 

 vast number of agricultural implements entered for com- 

 petition, the class of drills alone including 135 entries. 

 Every one of these implements, before this article is in 

 type, will have been carefully tested by actual work in the 

 field ; the quantity of power requii'ed to produce a certain 

 amount of work will have been ascertained by a dynamo- 

 meter contrived expressly for the purpose ; the construc- 

 tion of each implement will have .been thoroughly criti- 

 cised ; and finally, its merits in each department of its 

 work will have been expressed by an elaborate system of 

 marking. The repoits of these trials will in due course 

 appear in the Society's Journal, and the farmer will obtain 

 a valuable mass of information on the subject of imple- 

 ments such as no private individual could have given him. 

 Anyone who desires to see how thoroughly the work of 

 judging is done, and what wonderful skill is now brought 

 to bear on the construction of agricultural machines, 

 should read the two reports on Portable Steam-engines 

 and on Ploughs and Harrows in the last volume of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society's Journal. There can be no 

 question of the immense benefit resulting to practical 

 agriculture from such exhibitions, and from the publica- 

 tion of such reports. 



Anotherchiefitem in Agricultural Shows, and perhaps the 

 most attractive, is the live stock. The non-agricultural 

 public has seldom any notion of the points aimed at by 

 an intelligent breeder of stock, and those who have never 

 attended one of the country meetings of our great Agri- 

 cultural Societies may very likely expect to see a mere 

 collection of fat beasts. Our agricultural readers well 

 know that this is far from being the case. Bulk is by no 

 means the object which tlie breeder has in view ; his aim 

 is the production of an animal perfect both in form and 

 equality, and fitted in the highest degree for the various 

 purposes which it is intended to serve. The same 

 principle is also steadily kept in view by the judges, who 

 are instructed by the Society to form their decisions 

 entirely on the animal's character for breeding purposes, 

 and not on its present fitness for the butcher. We need 

 Vol. X. — No. 246 



hardly say that our Agricultural Shows have had a large 

 share in that wonderful improvement of our various breeds 

 of stock which has taken place to such a marked extent 

 in recent years. 



The subject of the varieties . and breeds of cattle is 

 full of interest ; indeed we hardly know a more instructive 

 field for the naturalist's study than that presented by 

 the showyards of our Agricultural Societies. Here he 

 will meet with abundant and striking instances of what 

 may be effected by artificial selection persistently carried 

 on with a definite purpose in view ; and here also he will 

 meet with equal evidence of the great influence of climate 

 and other ill-understood conditions, which put a limit to 

 the possible work of the breeder, and confine certain varie- 

 ties to certain districts. That so small a country as 

 Britain should have so many distinct breeds of sheep and 

 cattle localised in different parts of the island is certainly 

 remarkable, and the subject becomes more interesting 

 when we find that in many cases these local breeds can- 

 not be maintained true to their character if transported 

 to other parts of the island. Thus we have in Lincoln- 

 shire a breed of sheep remarkable for their long glossy 

 wool. Many attempts have been made to establish flocks 

 of these sheep in other parts of England, but as far as we 

 are aware the peculiar gloss of the -wool has always dis- 

 appeared after a few years. 



The effect of external conditions on the character of an 

 animal becomes still more apparent if, after making ac- 

 quaintance with British sheep and cattle, the naturalist 

 crosses the sea and pays a visit to a continental agricul- 

 tural show. The British farmer who visited the Vienna 

 Exhibition last year must have stared with wonc'.c.- at the 

 collection of animals there displayed. He would pro- 

 bably regard with contempt the long-Iojjed, woolly pig, 

 with large and powerful snout, quite unlike the inhabitants 

 of his own styes ; but when he learnt th- ': the Transyl- 

 vanian pig spends its life in the forest, and in winter time 

 has to grub for its food through a foot or more of snow, the 

 British visitor would begin to perceive that the animal 

 is really far better fitted for such a life than his own 

 favourite " Berkshire ;" and he would be prepared to hear 

 that English pigs in such districts have proved a failure. 

 Equally remarkable to an Englishman would appear the 

 curious Merino sheep, bred entirely \Vith a view to wool, 

 but worthless considered as mutton, and the fine Hun- 

 garian draught oxen, admirably fitted for hard work and 

 hard living, but which no amount of cake would turn into 

 beef at two years old. These would be striking exam- 

 ples of the effect of artificial selection and natural con- 

 ditions in producing different kinds of excellence from 

 those aimed at in our own country. 



In our autumnal shows the naturalist's attention might 

 be directed with equal advantage to the influence of culti- 

 vation on the characters of the various seeds and roots 

 exhibited. It is not so very long ago that the first Swede 

 and the first mangold \vere introduced into this country ; 

 the varieties are now endless, and there is probably now 

 quite as much difference between the roots originally im- 

 ported and their modern representatives as between the 

 greyhound-like swine one sees in old engravings and the 

 present English examples of the race. Artificial selec- 

 tion has, in the case of roots and seeds, taken a wide 

 scope, endeavouring to supply the very various wants of 



