398 Report on the Exhibition of Live Stock at Cardiff. 
ford, Devons disqualified for tlieir own county Society, and 
Oxfordshire Downs stayed from doing anything more during the 
autumn in Oxfordshire or Bedfordshire. The bigger the show, 
either at home or abroad, the better it should be for the breeders, 
and any rule to keep out the best animals would hardly pass in 
a parish meeting. The Shropshire Judges thus report, and, 
in doing so, I am glad to see an authority like Mr. Henderson 
say a good word for the Cheviots, which looked to me in many 
ways very " likely " sheep for the district : — 
''^In the Shearling Eani Class we found a difficulty in selecting animals of 
that uniformity of type to which allusion has been previously made in the 
Eoyal 'Journal.' The first-prize sheep is a compact animal, but on a less scale 
than we could havodesireci to have seen one occupying so prominent a position. 
The second and third prize animals were larger sheep, but neither of them 
possessing all the attributes we hoped to have met witli. Amongst the aged 
rams were several good animals, but none requiring special notice at our hands. 
In the Shearling Ewe Classes, one breeder brought together a large number of 
sheep, which, we think, will make up for the deficiency which existed in the 
first class we have alluded to. Independently of the prize animals, we have 
much pleasure in highly commending four pens and in commending the 
whole of the class. We had very little competition in the other classes which 
we inspected (with the exception of the Cheviots, which were fairly repre- 
sented), as there were not as many entries as prizes offered. 
Of the few Welsh sheep exhibited, I have been enabled to 
gather some particulars as to the Radnors, almost the only kind 
of Welsh sheep, it would seem, now really cared for. They are 
probably a mixture of the original Shropshires and Cardigans; 
as within the memory of man the Radnor hill farmers have 
always gone to Clun Forest for their best rams, but in a few 
years' time no doubt their country will be inclosed, and the 
flocks come to show still more of a Shropshire cross. In the 
south-eastern districts of Radnorshire some improvement has been 
effected of late years through a sheep brought in from Hereford- 
shire, — a cross or mixture of the old Ryeland with the Leicester 
and Cotswold, The Radnor is a short-legged hardy animal, with 
a grey or speckled face, the rams generally having horns, but not 
the ewes. They are light in their fore-quarters, wheVe the wool 
is very fine, but hairy about the leg. The ewes are almost 
always sold off to breed fat lambs, for which they are well 
adapted, being excellent nurses. But if lamb should go out of 
fashion the Radnor makes capital mutton, of the true old flavour ; 
as, beyond the shearling class, the Radnors sent to Cardiff were 
seldom under four, five, or six years old. 
In concluding this notice of the sheep-classes the Society must 
be congratulated on the wholesome result which has attended 
the labours of the Shearing Inspectors. Flock-mast(!rs who at 
first declared that such a system could never be maintained, that 
they should not continue to exhibit if it were, and so forth, have 
