242 The Agricultural Features of the Paris Exhibition. 
texture. The first-prize pen in the female class was composed of 
three good thirteen-month-old sheep, with fine bone and capital 
wool. One had a magnificent top ; another was a very tidy little 
sheep, a trifle light on the quarters and thighs, but wide and deep 
in the rib ; and the third was a little deficient in the quarters, 
but of superior quality. A Manche breeder, M. Millard, fol- 
lowed M. Tiersonnier in both classes. His second-prize tup, 
three years old, was uniformly grown, well-covered with flesh, a 
trifle short in the body, fine in the wool, and excellent on the 
rib and bosom. His second-prize pen in the female class, three 
two-year-old ewes, showed style and quality. They had immense 
fore-rib and shoulder, and a good coating of flesh, but deficient 
quarters. The third prize in the tup class went to a very heavy, 
thick, fine-woolled tup, splendidly covered, and owned by M. 
Abafour, Maine-et-Loire. A neat little shearling, well-sprung 
in the rib, good over the shoulder, narrow in the quarters, of 
fine quality, and fine long curly wool, exhibited by M. Masse, 
Cher, was very highly commended ; while a similar honour was 
conferred on a good fourteen-month tup, not very fine in the bone, 
shown by M. Noblet, of Chateau-Renard, Loiret. A supplemen- 
tary prize was deservedly awarded to a very good tup shown by 
M. Gillain, of Carentan, Manche. Our note-book says that 
another tup had excellent top, but coarse bone ; another, short 
and thick ; another, bare below and flat on the rib, and lacking 
character. M. Gillain was third in the female class with a pen of 
fine-woolled but slightly strong-boned ewes. Several of the other 
pens in the female class handled well, but were rather big in the 
bone. As a rule, the animals were in good showing condition. 
Southdowns. — This breed may almost be said to have had the 
Section for foreign (not French) Short-woolled sheep to itself, 
as was the case with the Leicester in the corresponding Long- 
wooUed classes. In this Short-woolled Section, however, 
there were four classes, and about 175/. of prize money, as 
against two classes, and 87/. for Long-woolled foreigners — 
a preference which must be set down to the popularity of the 
Southdown in France. Of the fifty entries, the majority came 
from the departments of Nievre, Loiret, Vienne, and Mayenne. 
The principal exhibitor was M. Nouette-Delorme, of Ouzouer- 
des-Champs, Loiret, whose flock of Southdowns is one of the 
largest as well as one of the best in France, and who, as already 
stated, purchased Lord Walsingham's fine group of South- 
downs. The honours, however, were equally divided between 
him and Count de ]?ouillo, of Villars, Nievre, whose name is 
perhaps better known than that of any other gentleman in France 
in connection with the rearing of Southdowns. The Count cSme 
to England to make himself acquainted with the breeding of 
