602 
Report on the British and Foreign Cattle 
has long been proverbial for its flavour, its fineness of grain, 
and its juicy richness. All these excellent qualities were most 
amply illustrated and successfully maintained at Kilburn, and 
any one doubting the fact had only to turn from the Foreign to 
the English cattle department. Never before was there drawn 
to one spot such a magnificent display of British animals of 
the farm. 
Over-feeding (by which is meant that laying on of fat to such 
an extreme as must either destroy altogether the powers of 
breeding, or must render the produce not only few and far 
between, but also small and unhealthy), though not in excess of 
former years, was nevertheless far too prevalent at Kilburn, 
both amongst the Shorthorn, Hereford, Devon, and other 
principal breeds. Not a few exhibitors of sheep were in sad 
dismay when it became known, on the opening day, that a 
large number of entries had, and very properly too, been dis- 
qualified on account of unfair shearing and trimming. They 
were debarred from competition because, instead of being- 
clothed in a fleece of three months' growth, they were found to 
be enveloped, disguised, disfigured in a covering partly of two 
years' production ! And is it not equally unfair and unjust 
towards the few high-minded exhibitors, whose cattle are 
brought to the Show in a reasonable state of fatness, to stand 
by, time after time, season after season, and see their animals 
unfairly beaten by others whose natural form and framework are 
entirely hidden from the Judges by a superabundant, oleaginous, 
and often unsightly covering, which, started at calfdom, has 
cost the owner much anxious care and expense to bring to the 
requisite Showyard thickness? Even if this frequent and 
highly objectionable obesity had no other effect than to divert 
the prize-tickets from the right to the wrong animals, it would 
be bad enough ; but it has an effect far more baneful than that ; 
for, in nine cases out of ten, no less in males than in females, it 
entirely destroys their fecundity, while in the case of females, 
if they breed at all, they almost invariably fail to produce 
enough milk for their newly born offspring. To many a well- 
known and successful breeder, met with at Kilburn, I put the 
question, " Have you any of your cattle here ?" and the imme- 
diate answer was "No." 1 naturally, in some instances, in- 
quired " Why ?" when I was told, " Because, if you mean to win 
nowadays, not only at the ' Royal,' but even at your own little 
county-show, you must make up your mind to feed from in- 
fancy, and my beasts are too valuable, and have cost me too 
much to breed, to allow of my making any such silly sacrifice." 
Evidence such as this, coming from authorities of the highest 
