Beiiort of tlio Senior Steivard of Stoclc at Windsor. 547 
Steward after the Birmingham Meeting of 1876 He was 
aorain nominated as Steward of Stock for the Norwich Meet- 
ing of 188G, and it thus fell to his lot to be Senior Steward 
at the historic Windsor Meeting, a position of which he was 
justifiably proud. Always courteous, always open-minded, 
always anxious to see right done, Mr. Wakefield was one of 
the most prominent members of the Society's Council, and 
his painfully sudden death has given a great shock to his 
colleagues and fellow-workers. — Ed.] 
I AM reminded by the Editor that it devolves upon the Senior 
Steward to write an introduction to the professional reports of 
the Stock exhibited at the late Windsor Show. Time was when 
it was the duty of the Steward to write the report itself, and 
there have been those in ofiice both able and willing to do this 
satisfactorily. But, for many years past, the Council have called in 
the professional assistance of experts who should have nothing 
else on their hands during the Show to prevent their devoting 
their whole time and attention to examining carefully and report- 
ing upon the whole of the classes. They may, more or less, be 
guided, in the drawing up of their reports, by the decisions 
arrived at by the Judges, who, as a rule, are the best men to be 
found in the United Kingdom for their special task. Occasion- 
ally, however, the professional report conflicts with the Judges' 
decisions, and this, on the face of it, has an appearance of incon- 
sistency, by all means to be avoided if possible. But it must be 
remembered that the decisions of the Judges are arrived at 
under the particular circumstances of the judging day — possibly, 
as has not infrequently been the case, under the disadvantages 
of cold and rain, more trying to some animals than to others. 
We have only to fancy high-class animals delicately nurtured, 
standing out in bad weather before the Judges. A horse, for 
instance — ears back, tail tucked in, back up — could he possibly 
do himself justice ? The professional reporter, of whom we 
must also take it for granted that he is fit for his work, has the 
advantage of arriving at his conclusion after repeated inspections 
in the boxes or elsewhere, and the parades on four consecutive 
days afford great advantages in the case of horses and cattle. I 
would here draw attention to the fact that the entries of live- 
stock at the Society's first Show in 1839 were 251 ; at Windsor 
this year they were 3,997 — a development in keeping with the 
general progress of the last half century, and also a number 
amply sufiicient to monopolise the undivided time and attention 
of the best qualified reporter. 
