202 The Agricultural Features of the Paris Exhibition. 
were imported. Of this last importation twelve bulls were at 
once re-sold to leading French agriculturists ; while the others 
were located at Pin, where they formed what might be called a 
Government Experimental Herd. The first sale of bulls reared 
at Pin and Alfort was held in 1839, when the demand was 
found sufficient to warrant more importation. 
Between 1836 and 1848, 108 male and 89 female Shorthorns 
were thus introduced into France ; while in 1849 an importa- 
tion of considerable importance was made for the foundation of 
a Herd at the General Agricultural Institute at Versailles, an 
institution which, unfortunately, flourished only for a short 
period. Pin being found more suitable for the strange breed 
than Alfort, the two herds were united, and carried on success- 
fully at the former centre. The demand for the young stock 
was, as a rule, fully equal to the supply ; and around Pin they 
proved prolific and throve well. When, however, they were 
sent into districts, the climate of which differed materially from 
that of Pin, they did not succeed so well. To overcome this 
difficulty as far as possible, it was resolved to acclimatise the 
breed in several localities ; and accordingly the herd at Pin was 
partly broken up. In 1843 two bulls and eighteen cows were 
sent to Saint-L6, Dep. de la Manche, and in 1844 seven bulls and 
twenty-two cows to Poussery, Nievre ; and, three years later, two 
bulls and eight cows went to a Government farm in Mayenne. 
After some time these breeding depots successively disappeared ; 
and since 1861 the national Shorthorn herd has been kept at 
Corbon, a Government farm, which was established as an 
annexe to the depot at Pin in 1854, and which is well situated 
in the celebrated grass-land district of the Pays d'Auge in the 
department of Calvados. The favourite English breed had by 
this time got a footing in the country ; it had earned a good 
name among French agriculturists, particularly for the wonderful 
ameliorating influence it displayed when crossed with native 
breeds ; and it has grown in numbers, and gained in popularity 
year by year — " its partizans are numerous, and its numbers 
could no longer be counted." The French ' Shorthorn Herd 
Book,' which seems carefully conducted, has reached its eighth 
volume. It contains the pedigrees of over 19,000 pure-bred 
Shorthorns. 
The Shorthorn Section in the French Division was not only 
the second largest in the Cattle Department (the largest having 
been the Norman breed), but, to Englishmen at any rate, it was 
one of the most interesting in the Exhibition. The Cata- 
logue contained no fewer than 138 entries, and the absentees 
were, indeed, very few. That the average merit of the display 
of French Shorthorns was superior to that of the English must 
