Report on the Exhibition of Live- Stock at Shrewsbury, 1884. 679 
a varied type of hair and form, which looks as if the breeders of the Small 
Blacks of the present day had no particular model before their eyes in their 
efforts to produce a prize pig. Certainly those brought before us at Shrews- 
bury lacked that precision of character which Messrs. Sexton and Steam gave 
us twenty years ago. 
The Berkshires showed nothing of this ; with certain exceptions there was 
a commendable adherence to the recognised characteristics of the breed in the 
entries we looked over. Indeed, the hard-fleshed, " lean-meat " appearance of 
which the Berkshires had outward evidence gave one the idea of satisfying 
the present-day requirements much more than the soft-handling specimens 
in certain other classes of both colours. In making our awards, we endeavoured 
to keep what we considered the true type well before us, and, so far, we had 
ample choice among the good ones. We thought Boars, old and young, and 
Sows of the old class, a very grand display. We passed over one of the most 
perfectly formed animals among the Berkshires without bestowing even a com- 
mendation. This was Sir W. Throckmorton's No. 1613. We did so on account 
of her marked divergence from Berkshire character. She had neither the form, 
the hair, nor the facings of the breed. If there is any strange blood in her 
pedigree, we were right in our decision ; and if from a pure stock, this eminent 
breeder has worked his material into a manufactured article of another type, 
and we made our protest against the innovation. 
There were far too many individually good specimens to make it necessary 
to call especial attention to any particular entry, beyond the scale of merit we 
recorded in our awards ; and if the Class of three Young Soivs appeared to 
come short of the standard of excellence which the older exhibits possessed, 
the reason is obvious. It is quite enough for the breeder to produce a single 
animal which shall peer above his fellows in a class of twenty or thirty ; to 
produce three good animals in one litter is more than can often be accom- 
plished. We may, however, say that in this class the feeding talents of many 
of the exhibitors were evidently beyond that faculty best described as the 
" breeder's eye." In a pen of young sows for breeding purposes there should 
be something besides the up-hill and down-dale outline of a forced maturity 
without form or promise. 
Of the Classes for Other Distinct Breeds we have little to say. The Tamworth 
pigs had it all their own way ; the informal entries of others which appeared 
on the list were simply out of court because there were places for them else- 
where, and were passed over according]3'. Possibly the unsightly, sandy- 
skinned, long-legged specimens to which we awarded the prizes possess merits 
beyond their personal appearance ; otherwise we are not sure we ought to 
have encouraged the exhibition of anything so wide of the recognised form of 
animal life in the Showyard. 
We have one more note to make. We remarked there were no prizes for 
sows with pigs on them. It appears that fecundity in swine is a quality the 
Council of the Koyal Agricultural Society of England does not recognise as 
worth encouragement. Now to thoso who have had any experience in pigs 
it is well known that nothing bafSes the skill of the breeder more than the 
tendency that cultivated specimens invariably exhibit of a non-breeding dis- 
position. You get form, early maturity, fattening qualities — everything that 
ambition attempts, but this is always more or less attended with the dis- 
appointment of smaller and smaller litters as the cultivating process goes on. 
This will perhaps be charily admitted by the breeder of lashionable sorts ; 
but we ask those who are practical pig-breeders if it is not almost invariably 
the case ? Would it not be well to give prizes for sows shown with not less 
than six, eight, or nine pigs? Let the pigs have nothing to do with the 
chance of the mother's winning ; to judge the dam in connection with the 
produce always creates a difticuUy ; only let it be shown that tlie model sow 
VOL. XX.— S. S. 2 Y 
