616 Report on the Exhibition of Live-Stock at Shrewshury, 1884. 
free comments upon its doings. Possibly from this fact, and 
certainly from the readiness of its Committees and officers to 
take notice of every suggestion likely to be of service, the ex- 
cellence of the arrangements in a great measure proceeds. There 
is no hurrying to and fro, no shouting, no confusion, but the 
organization of management works like a perfect machine, or a 
military corps in the highest discipline. The marshalling of 
the classes, for show or parade, is conducted with exemplary 
order, quietness, and despatch. 
HORSES. 
The Council of the Royal Agricultural Society of England,- 
ever ready to attend to reasonable suggestions, and to carry 
those suggestions, if practicable, into effect, must find consider- 
able difficulty in dealing with the classes of heavy horses. 
Until recently, Suffijlk horses and Clydesdales were recognised 
as of distinct breed, and all the rest for cart or dray were lumped 
together as " Agricultural." This latter section, which in the 
Show catalogues had precedence, was felt to be too compre- 
hensive ; the influence of the associated breeders of " Shire " 
horses became powerful, and the name of " Shire," recognised 
as genuine coinage, was received into the currency of the lan- 
guage. The Society first adopted it last year at York, adding 
to the Shire, Clydesdale, and Suffialk Classes, classes for such 
animals as were not qualified to compete under any one of these 
names. Suggestions that the Society will be asked to reconsider 
this classification were freely circulated at Shrewsbury. Some 
objection to the additional Agricultural Classes as unnecessary 
was met by a counter-objection to the Shire Classes as still 
too wide, admitting too many types and sizes. This latter is 
answered by reference to the conditions of entry, that the animal 
must be entered, or certified as qualified for entry, in the Shire 
Horse Stud-book. If for purposes of exhibition a fairer de- 
finition of a Shire horse can be suggested, those who know it 
would do well to bring it forward. The Society can hardly 
be asked to split a recognised breed ; and with regard to type, 
the awards of the Judges year after year should sufficiently 
indicate and establish this. The other objection against the 
Agricultural Classes is embodied in a recommendation in the 
Report of the Judges. How far this recommendation accords 
with the spirit of the Society's customary practice is at present 
an open question. The somewhat strict conditions which seem 
necessary in order to weed out of the classes of distinct breeds all 
false specimens, may sometimes exclude merit which the Society 
would wish to recognise. So long as eligibility for a Stud-book 
