of the Animals of the Farm. 
387 
have from time to time been made in compliance with the 
urgent demands of owners of disqualified animals ; and those 
who have been most sedulous in searching for the truth are 
aware how vague and incomplete the evidence in support of the 
owners' certificate has been in most cases. Not uncommonly 
the entry has been proved to be incorrect, and in the few 
cases where the decision of the expert has been reversed, it has 
been done only on the plea that the exhibitor should have the 
benefit of the doubt. 
Whenever a considerable number of disqualifications occur 
at the principal Agricultural Shows the aggrieved exhibitors 
avail themselves of the aid of the press to vindicate their 
systems of recording the ages of their animals, and to show 
how impossible it is for any mistake to happen. In no 
case, however, within my own recollection, have any useful 
facts been brought to light as the result of these periodical 
effusions. 
On the occasion of the exhibition of the Smithfield Club in 
1881 several pens of pigs were disqualified, and some of the 
exhibitors expressed their views on the subject of dentition, as 
indicative of the age, in the agricultural press. 
Mr. James Howard, M.P., wrote a letter to the 'Agricultural 
Gazette,' from which the following paragraph is quoted : 
" According to my own observation, the dentition varies 
much according to families, and to a considerable extent in the 
same family ; but in the majority of cases dentition in the same 
litter is tolerably uniform when three months old ; at six 
months the boars, and particularly the more robust ones, show 
a marked forwardness ; at nine months the dentition is often 
very varied ; at twelve months some of the pigs of the same 
litter will show a state of dentition from two to three months in 
advance of others, and also in advance of the condition laid 
down in Professor Simonds' treatise." 
This definite statement of the results of his own observations, 
by an eminent breeder and exhibitor, was far too important 
to be passed over without notice. It will be observed that 
Mr. Howard's remarks had reference to the most critical 
ages, viz. six months, nine months, and twelve months ; and 
I, perhaps not unreasonably, indulged a hope that I might 
obtain an exact account of the particular variations which 
had been noted at the ages named ; I therefore wrote to 
Mr. Howard for the information. In reply, Mr. Howard 
enclosed a memorandum from his farm manager, expressing, 
at the same time, his regret that " he did not take notes," 
adding that the farm manager " is a most reliable and truthful 
man." 
2 c 2 
