370 Rq)ort of the Stewards of Stock at the Battersea Shoto. 
The catalogue contained 1986 entries, of which 183 must be 
credited to the foreign, and 238 to the Scottish departments ; and 
the whole was contributed by 535 exhibitors. Unusually few 
stalls or pens were vacant, and the trying ordeal of keeping the 
animals for nine or ten nights under canvas, was rendered light 
by the remarkably favourable weather. Public judging was 
introduced for the first time ; and the keen interest with which 
the process was watched, both by the members of the Society 
and the public (of whom 1146 paid the sovereign admission), 
went far towards showing how highly this new privilege is valued. 
In consequence of the limited space at command, rings for the 
cattle had to be dispensed with. It is to be hoped, however, that 
in future years the system will not be thus crippled in its opera- 
tion ; and it may be well to consider a suggestion which was 
made to us, that the sheep and pig sheds might each be 
arranged so as to form the four sides of an oblong space, and 
thus prevent that proximity of the spectators to the judges, 
which cannot be avoided, even with a large body of assistant- 
stewards, when the animals are judged between the rows. 
The Short-horn entries numbered 250, which is an advance 
of 20 per cent, upon those at Leeds ; the Herefords rose from 38 
to 97 ; and if the Devons did not form a "juicy red line" of 
125, as at Exeter, a grander lot of 66 has been rarely brought 
together. 
In point of horses, it had not been anticipated that a meeting 
in Middlesex could vie with one in Yorkshire, but the fresh 
inducement which was given to the owners of Suffblks restored 
the balance, and the 284 entries (inclusive of 23 Shetland ponies 
and 27 Clydesdales) were 30 above those of last year. The 
English sheep entries were 576, as against 359 ; and while the 
Leicesters (73) were only 7 in advance, the Southdowns (96) 
were more than doubled, and the Shropshires (95) were the same 
number within 1. The large money-vote for the encouragement 
of other long and short woolled sheep was well responded to : in 
the one instance by 161, or 100 more entries ; and by 121, or 
nearly two-thirds more, in the other. The pig entries increased 
from 115 to 194. 
Professor Simonds reports that there were very few disquali- 
fications among the cattle, sheep, and pigs ; one sheep in the 
Hampshire and West Country Down class was put aside, in 
consequence of having a defective hind limb, from atrophy of 
the muscles, although otherwise a very excellent animal ; 7 pens 
of pigs were disqualified for exceeding the age stated, and it is a 
singular circumstance that 3 of them belonged to the same 
person. No cattle were disqualified, as the few defects observ- 
able were not of sufficient practical importance to waiTant such 
