(378 
"Rnjpnri on the Sheep Exhibited at Windsor. 
Dairy Cattle. 
Tlie chief interest of this department attached to the tests 
of quantity of milk with percentages of solids and butter-fat, 
but as these belong to the report on the Dairy department of the 
Show, further reference here would be out of place. 
Much has been said and written at different times and in 
various places in disparagement of " the show system." The 
writer of this Report, having frequently attended the Society's 
exhibitions for more than thirty years, and, for the purpose of 
contributions to the agricultural press, having on several occa- 
sions traced the history of the principal British breeds of cattle 
in connection with the Society's meetings and influence, ventures 
to suggest that no one who has gone carefully over the same 
gi'ound, with or without prejudice at the beginning of his work, 
can fail to recognise the vast benefits conferred upon both the 
agricultm'ist and the consumer of his produce by the Royal 
Agricultural Society of England, in the impetus which its 
influence has given to the development and extension of the 
most useful breeds of cattle ; nor is it possible, he believes, to 
doubt that in the same direction lies further work of incalculably 
great importance. 
XXXI. Beiwrt on the Sheep^ Goats, and Piqs Exh ihifed at Wi7idsor, 
1889. By R. Hexry'Rew. 
Sheep. 
Sheep are still the backbone of husbandry. If we do not now, 
as in ancient times, express wealth in terms of sheep, never- 
theless the tale of the national flocks is even yet a not un- 
fair indication of agricultural prosperity. " If," said Professor 
Owen in his lecture delivered in connection with the Great 
Exhibition of 1851, "the test of the value of a domestic animal 
be the numbers on the preservation of which human care is 
bestowed, and on the extent of the habitable globe over which 
mankind has diffused the species, then the sheep takes the first 
rank." Just as the origin of the domesticated sheep is wrapped 
in obscurity, so also its agricultural importance dates from time 
immemorial. A history of sheep would be a history of agricul- 
ture. The brother of the earliest tiller of the ground was a 
shepherd. The most ancient records — sacred or profane — speak 
