666 Report on the Exhibition of British and Foreign Sheep, 
efforts were not made to place it in its true position before the 
public (of all countries) upon so important an occasion as the 
Show at Kiiburn. The entries of Mr. Wheeler, of Long 
Compton, the Rev. W. Hooper, Mr. M. Walker, Mr. C. E. 
Duckering, and of the Duke of Hamilton, were the best 
specimens exhibited. 
The Berhsldre classes were strong in number, but not very 
even in quality. A little weeding would have given them a 
better appearance. Mr. Heber Humfrey maintained the long- 
established reputation of his breed by winning the first prizes 
for sow and boar. Mr. Arthur Stewart successfully exhibited 
some very good specimens in all the classes; and a couple of 
second prizes told favourably of the Latimer Berkshires. The 
Royal Agricultural College Farm also contributed some of 
superior quality ; and Messrs. Walker, Fowler, Duckering, and 
W. Hewer, sent animals which fairly maintained the prestige of 
their several strains of this very useful breed. With the Large 
White Breed, the Berkshire has shared considerable danger of 
losing its typal peculiarities, from attempts to imitate the 
special features of other breeds ; and the same tendency to 
cultivate extreme concavity of the outline of the head, which 
has been the mistake of some breeders of the large white sort, 
has manifested itself among the Berkshire breeders. Without 
the mention by name or number of any examples at Kiiburn, 
the fact will be remembered that not there only, but at the 
shows for some years past, perpendicular foreheads and broken- 
bridge snouts have become more common than they were 
formerly ; and it is perhaps not so certain that this " improve- 
ment" is accompanied by a proportionate improvement in 
either the quality of the flesh grown or the power of cheaply 
growing it. Are we not, indeed, in various breeds, sacrificing 
to the perfection of mould, which appeals to the eye in an 
inspection of living animals, much of the internal excellence 
which constitutes the worth of animals when they pass into the 
hands of the butcher and the bacon-curer ? By establishing 
quickly fattening breeds, we have certainly made progress in 
the direction of economical food-production ; but we must take 
heed not to go so far in improvement of the old-fashioned lean 
flitch as to leave nothing that can stand the fire. Now the 
Berkshire has a good character for " cutting-up," and he has, or 
had originally, a certain recognised type ot head. Such coinci- 
dences are sometimes found to be inseparable (according to laws 
not yet, perhaps, traced out), and if one peculiarity of a breed be 
deliberately sacrificed, we sliould unquestionably assure ourselves 
that we are not with it losing some other property of more 
practical value. The Judges at Kiiburn, happily, were wide 
