Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire in 1888 : Class 1. 519 
return of tlie yields per acre of other produce would be found 
less favourable to the smaller holdings. 
It would be difficult to speak too bigbly of the types of 
live stock which are to be found on Lincolnshire farms. 
The jDrevailing breed of Cattle is the shorthorn, although 
the term is perhaps a little too general to describe them with 
sufficient accuracy and justice. There is no doubt that many 
of them still retain, in some degree, the distinctive points of 
the " Old Lincolnshire Ox." The constant use of pure-bred 
bulls upon cows with some of this blood about them has at 
length developed the celebrated modern animal which has for 
so many years been shown in great perfection at the large fairs 
of the county, whence they have been eagerly bought and 
widely distributed. The best cattle of to-day are of the rich 
red colour which has been prized and preserved for so many 
generations. They are both deep and wide of frame, have for 
the raost part downpitched horns, and develop into great size 
and weight if allowed time to do so. But perhaps they are 
most of all remarkable for the fleshiness of carcase which the 
butcher is sure to find with them, a matter of more and more 
importance in catering for modern tastes. 
It is sad, however, to be compelled to add that the average 
quality of Lincoln store cattle, as shown at the present fairs 
and markets, has greatly deteriorated from the high standards 
of only a few years ago. A part of the relapse may be, and it 
is to be hoped is, due to modern improvements towards earlier 
maturity. The lower values of store cattle may have revealed 
more painfully the unprofitableness and waste to some one of 
breeding a good animal, or buying a good calf, and neglecting 
to keep it well, or allowing it to lose its early condition and be 
carried over two or three comparatively unproductive summers 
and winters before seriously attempting to fit it for the butcher. 
Where, as in Lincoln, the expensive system of rearing the calves 
on new milk has extensively prevailed, the waste must be pro- 
portionately greater. How much of the deterioration of store 
animals is due to this cause, and how much to the mistaken 
economy of using inferior sires as perhaps practised by the many 
smaller breeders, cannot be shown here, but about the fact of 
the deterioration itself there can be no question. 
The chief breeding districts are in the north-eastern and 
south-western portions of the county, and in spring and autumn 
the occupiers of the rich grazing grounds in the fens and other 
parts, as well as many strangers, come to buy of the breeders at 
the numerous large fairs in their neighbourhood. The importa- 
tion of Yorkshire and Irish beasts for feeding is no doubt growing. 
