604 
Report on the British and Foreign Cattle 
rate charged by tlie several railway companies to whom I applied 
for information is 3c?. per mile for each division, or each horse ; 
hence, the cow occupyincr one compartment pays 4^rf. per mile ; 
the next, using two divisions, ; and the costly brute re- 
quiring an entire box, Is. per mile! I have been induced to 
touch upon this subject of railway-charges through hearing that 
a North-country friend, an extensive breeder of Shorthorns, had 
been charged the enormous sum of 13Z. 3s. 4rf. for carriage of a 
heifer-calf from Wateringbury, in Kent, to a station a few miles 
west of Carlisle, being at the rate of about 9f/. per mile, while 
the owner himself could have done the journey, and very com- 
fortably too, at a penny per mile!* 
Having made these somewhat tedious, though, as they ap- 
peared, necessary digressions, I will now turn to an examination 
of the Cattle Classes, beginning with 
Shoethorns. 
I have felt that the following remarks on this department of 
the Show may not unfittingly be prefaced by a short but well 
and kindly meant allusion to one who helped on, perhaps more 
than any man now living, the profitable breeding of high- 
class, beef-growing Shortborns, and whose sudden and early 
death, in December last, sent a pang of true sympathetic sorrow 
to the hearts of his many admirers, not only in this country, 
but far beyond the shores of the British nation. Indeed, 
wherever Shorthorn-cattle have been introduced, the name of 
" Tom Booth " (if 1 may be pardoned the familiarity) had long 
]>een received with a degree of admiration bordering on devo- 
tion, and therefore very many dwellers in far-distant lands shared 
with Englishmen deep and sincere regret at the loss of a much- 
valued friend. I never belore attended a Royal Show where 
Mr. T. C. Booth was not conspicuous by the side of the Short- 
horn ring, his large experience and keen judgment often en- 
abling him to "spot" the winners before the Judges-proper had 
* The reporter has drawn attention to a continual source of complaint from 
exhibitors, and the Council have ni:ide several eflforts to modify the cliarges 
specified. The utmobt timt they Imve been able to ertect is to pre»erve for the 
exhibitors the choice of us-ng I one-lioxes for Show unimals even at these rates. 
But for the action of the Coui;i i!, a tegulation whieli had alri.a<ly been issiud by 
the chief railway companiee, jirninbiiing the lire ot horse-boxes for tlie conveyance 
of cattle, would have l^eeii < nlbrcKl al>oiit two years ago. The high churges 
mentioned are levied in cons qu nee of the necessity of disinfecting tlie horse- 
boxes after each journey, an^l as a payment for the consequent rutting of the 
padding with which tUe horse-boxts are lined. — Ed. 
