592 Report o.i t 'le Exhibition of Live- Stock at Derby. 
and it is a very satisfactory thing to see an Irish landlord, undismayed by the 
agitation against his class, doing for the sheep of his country what Irish land- 
lords and fanners have so successfully done for cattle, importing the very 
best English blood, and improving materially the stock of his neighbourhood. 
J adging by the growth of these sheep, we may suppose that the Irish soil and 
climate are very favourable to them ; and Shropsliire breeders claim that in 
the Lothians of Scotland, and in our colonies all over the world, their breed 
C in hold its own. 
The nineteen Eams of any other age were a magnificent lot. There is no 
doubt that the three-shear sheep are more highly developed, and fill the 
spectator's eye more grandly than the two-shear, and the lion's share of 
prizes fell to the older sheep. And this raises the question discussed at the 
General Meeting in the Showyard, as to the restriction of the ages of animals 
exhibited. Is the Royal Show to be an exhibition of the fullest developed 
and most matured specimen of each race, irrespective of the use of the animal 
for breeding purposes ; or is it to be an exhibition of animals best qualified 
to reproduce their species ? Are we to encourage over-fed aged animals, 
taken about from show to show, and from year to year, as a trading specula- 
tion ; or breeding stock which any farmer would select for use in his flock 
or herd ? I • am very much afraid that the former is our present position, 
and will be so long as the public eye is guided by fat rather than by form ; 
and many breeders are deterred from sending their animals by this senseless 
system of overfeeding which is prevalent in all classes. To return, how- 
ever, to the Shropshire sheep. Nothing in the Showyard was more beautiful 
and striking than Class 112, containing 26 pens of five shearling ewes. 
It was no easy work for Judges or Steward while these sheep were inspected 
on that close Wednesday afternoon, and the interest in the decisions was 
maintained to the last, fi'or my own part, I should not have known where 
to stay my hand in commendations, and I thought that some unnoticed pens 
might well have had a card ; but I am not a judge, and could only thank 
Messrs. Evans and Coxon for the very patient and successful labour they 
bestowed upon their work. Sixty breeding ewes in six jjens made a grand 
finish of the breed. Each had brought up a lamb, and the whole class 
received notice for their good quality and size. 
Southdowns, the aristocracy of sheep, were well represented ; and in the 
midst of Princes, Dukes, and Earls, a tenant farmer carried off the first prize. 
No one can be surprised at men of large acreage, with wide parks and 
grazing grounds, delighting in the Southdown. There is such an air of 
breeding and birth about him, he looks like the Jerseys amongst cattle, a fit 
denizen of an Englisli park. But while the breeders of these sheep admit 
his value in this respect, they also claim that on the poor down-land from 
which he originally came there is no sheep more useful or more capable of 
gaining his own living. Thirty-three shearling and sixteen older rams, with 
nine pens of shearling ewes made up a good display of the breed. 
Oxford Down and Hampshire Down sheep were not in great numbers, but 
those shown were good representatives of these useful farmers' sheep, pro- 
ducing heavy fleeces and plenty of good mutton. 
From inquiries amongst the shepherds, I would hope that the ravages of 
the fluke disease are now much abated. It is grievous to hear how sheep- 
breeders have suffered from this fell complaint, ami also from fever and 
scour amongst lambs resultiuj; from the wet seasons. I add the Report which 
I received from the Ju Iges of Shearing. I did not envy tliem their work on 
the warm afternoon which they dedicated to it. If anything, they erred in 
leniency. The doctoring with washes, and the trimming and clipping into 
shape, are more extravagant than ever. It is absurd to see the shape-boards and 
the shears at work on the day before the Show. No fair dame whose charms 
