Report upon the Exhibition of Horses at Kilburn. 571 
think of ploughing with oxen as of scratching the surface of 
their fields with a harrow tacked on to the long tail of a 
ragged pony, after the fashion portrayed in the title-page of 
' Paddiana.' 
Enough has already been said to show that within the last 
half-century the amelioration of the English cart-drudge has 
been rapid and unintermittent ; and if the International Exhibi- 
tion of horses at Kilburn is entitled to the fame which many 
unthinking, and a few thinking, writers have lavishly bestowed 
upon it, as being the grandest display of equine stock that the 
world has hitherto seen, sober after-thought will, there is little 
doubt, ultimately decide that it is upon the superiority of the 
cart-horse classes that this claim to pre-eminence must be based, 
in order to meet with general acceptance from the most com- 
petent judges. There are many reasons, to some of which 
brief allusion will hereafter be made, why large numbers of 
thoroughbreds, of hunters, and of first-class hackneys are never 
likely to be brought freely into the show-yard. But competitive 
examinations between heavy draught-horses, although at one 
time less encouraged by attention from the Royal Agricultural 
Society than was happily the case at Kilburn, are among the fun- 
damental raisons d'etre which have called local agricultural shows 
into existence, and which demand unceasing support from the 
parent society in Hanover Square. One of the first authorities 
upon the subject, Mr. Frederic Street, has lately remarked that 
" cart-horses have not hitherto received so much attention from 
the Royal Agricultural Society of England as some of the more 
favoured classes of cattle : for instance, at the recent meeting 
held at Bristol, the total amount giv^^n in prizes for all breeds of 
cart-horses — viz., English, Clydesdales, and SufTolks — was 475/., 
while the Shorthorn cattle alone had a prize-list of 495Z." The 
amount given away in money-prizes to the horse-classes at Kil- 
burn left nothing to be desired on the score of generosity, but, 
at the same time, exception has in some cases been taken — and 
in quarters, moreover, which command the highest respect — 
to the selection of Class 13 — "Thoroughbred stallions suitable 
lor getting hunters " — as the exceptional recipient of the highest 
prize — to wit, lOOZ. — while only half that amount was offered in 
the classes for Agricultural stallions. It is true that there were 
nine classes for cart-horse stallions, in each of which 50Z. was 
awarded to the taker of the first prize ; but the single class 
of thoroughbred stallions for getting hunters appeals to a far 
narrower circle of farmers than those for Agricultural stallions ; 
seeing that, according to the evidence given before Lord Rose- 
bery's Horse Committee in 1873, it is certain that even the 
high prices obtainable for a first-rate article have failed to induce 
