228 Tlie Agricultural Features of the Paris Exhibition. 
various animals ; but the large majority seemed to be either first 
or second crosses, though in a few cases the crossing had evi- 
dently gone on for several generations. 
The Shorthorn-Manceau carried off the lion's share of the 
prizes, and were, indeed, very excellent beef cattle. Eighteen 
specimens of this cross were shown, and no fewer than eleven 
prizes and four tickets of honourable mention were awarded to 
them. They showed an evenness, compactness, and quality 
which distinguished them from all the others. Some of them 
were rather small, and some defective in form ; but, all over, 
they were so much superior to the others, especially in regard 
to fineness of bone and quality, that they could at once be 
recognised. The best specimens of this cross were shown bv 
M. Cherbonneau, of Contigne, Maine-et-Loire, to whose lot fell 
one first and four second prizes, and two tickets of honourable 
mention. The Manceau race is stated to be one of the oldest in 
France, and to have at one time been the most numerous in the 
country. These animals are small but compact, and of fair quality. 
For his own herd M. Cherbonneau selects pure-bred Shorthorn 
bulls of considerable merit, and mates these with the best Manceau 
cows. During the last 20 years he has reared those crosses which 
gained him so much honour at the Paris Exhibition. He allows 
the calves to suckle for about six months, and afterwards sends 
them out to the pasture part of the day, and feeds them with cake 
in the house the other part. For seven months of the year he 
keeps his cattle out on the fields, but takes them in during the 
hottest hours of the day, and allows them green fodder and roots. 
Towards the month of December they are housed for the winter, 
and are kept in till about the month of May. Besides fodder, 
they are twice a day fed with cabbages, or something similar, 
and part of the time an allowance of cake is added. Water is 
supplied to them twice a day. The gem of this fine lot, which 
made so creditable an appearance in the contest for the beef- 
group prize, was a dark-roan heifer, which came first in the young 
class. Though only twenty months old she seemed almost fully 
matured, would have " dressed," perhaps, 7 cwts., and was one of 
the best butcher-beasts in the Exhibition. She was fine in the bone, 
broad and deep in the frame, neat about the head, grand in front, 
of very fine quality, and literally beef from head to heel. On 
the back she might have been stronger, but her straightness 
below fully made up for that. Though small in size and barely 
so even on the top, she reminded us of Mr. Stratton's handsome 
Birmingham champion of last year (1877). M. Cherbonneau 
was second in the bull class with a twenty-one-month white of 
fair size, good quality, and wealthy coat of flesh, but lackirtg 
character, though his head, horn, and shoulders were almost all 
that could have been desired. The others were thoroughly good 
