536 Report on the Exhibition of Live Stock at Oxford. 
district, rural or otherwise, could superior horse-flesh be exhi- 
bited before a more discriminating public. 
The reports of the Judges will be given m extenso in their 
respective places. Some of them will be found copious and 
full, for which reason they are the more valuable and interesting, 
whilst it is to be regretted that others are brief and scanty. It 
is at all times desirable that gentlemen of experience and com- 
petent authority should, in the interests of breeders and the public, 
offer full and free remarks on the classes brought before them 
for adjudication. 
Commencing with the agricultural class, as arranged in the 
catalogue, the Judges, Messrs. Biddell, Woolhouse, and Turn- 
bull, in their joint names, report as follows, and that their 
opinions are in accord, save that the last-named gentleman is a 
less enthusiastic admirer of the Suffolk horse. This divergence 
in taste is surely pardonable between northern and southern 
men. 
Eeport of the Judges on the Aghicultueal Horses shown at 
Oxford, 1870, 
At the request of the Secretary, I send this Report on the horses brought before 
myself and colleagues at the late meeting at Oxford. Commencing with the 
agricultural stallions, not Clydesdale or Sufifolks, the Society may be congratu- 
lated on having produced one of the best exhibitions I have looked over for 
many years — a remark as applicable to numbers as to merit in the individual 
animals exhibited. As regards what are generally known as the " shire-bred 
horses," a little more quality, without sacrificing power or substance, would be 
an improvement, but I can but remark the progress made by the breeders of these 
horses since the first meeting of the Society thirty-one years since. For my own 
part, accustomed to the uniformity and decided character of the Suflblk horse, 
a class of this kind must always ajipear a mixed lot, and one rather difficult to 
judge when brought into the ring as agricultural horses — a term presumed 
to include the breed of large heavy dray-horses, animals suited to the common 
work of a light land farm, as well as specimens of all grades between the two. 
The question has been asked, on what principle we could award the first prize 
to Mr. Welcher's No. 4, or the Reserved Number to Lord Norreys's " Black 
Prince," when such an animal as Mr. Staffer's mare, No. 94, came in for a first 
prize— all being in classes for agricultural purposes. In this decision we were 
unanimous, but as No. 4 and No. 94 are widely diversified in style and form, 
we explain an award "joy stating that we considered the respective animals were 
adai)ted to the dift'erent purposes that various circumstances suggest for the 
requirements of agi-iculture. In such a class we were guided in our selections 
by merit, either for the slow heavy work on the stiffest soil, or the more active 
labour upon lighter land. 
Taking the whole class of aged horses, we foimd a large proportion of soft, 
boggy-looking hocks, not amounting to actual unsoundness, but still an indica- 
tion of weakness not to be disregarded. This, with flat feet, appeared to be 
the prevailing faults. On some we noticed a short coarse hair upon the leg, 
with gummy matter round the fetlock, invariably denoting a tendency to 
cracked heels, and grease in its worst form. This was always accompanied by 
knots and unsightly excrescnces upon the legs. If the breeders of "shire 
breds" hold the rough leg an indispensable point (I, as a Suffolk breeder, hold it 
