505 
The Chester Meeting. 
“ Cheviot,” were amongst the prize-winners. The prize record 
of 1858 is silent, however, as to such sheep as the Lincolns, the 
Oxford Downs (these are mentioned, by the way, amongst the 
commendations in 1858), the Suffolks, the Wensleydales, the 
Border Leicesters, the Dorset Horns, and other breeds which 
received class recognition at Chester in the present year. It is 
interesting to recall the circumstance that Mr. Robert Smith, in 
his Report on the Live Stock at Chester in 1858, took occasion 
to remark (Journal, vol. xix., 1858, p. 388) : — 
This competition of "other short-woolled sheep, not being' Southdowns,” 
requires the consideration of the Council as to whether they can he separated 
into distinct classes of established breeds. 
Pigs. — Like the horses, their thick-skinned allies, the pigs, 
appear to have been exhibited in one section free from differen- 
tiation, saving such as was expressed by the terms “ large 
breed” and “small breed” respectively. The prize-winning 
animals were, in 1858, entered under such designations as 
“ large white-and-spotted boar,” “ large white boar,” “ small- 
breed boar,” “ small-breed Cumberland white boar,” “ large- 
breed white, with one blue spot, sow,” “ large white-and- 
spotted sow,” “ small-breed white sow,” “ black (with a little 
white) improved Berkshire sow-pigs, of large breed,” “ small- 
breed Yorkshire sow-pigs,” and “ blue-and-white large-breed 
sow.” 
Implements. — The date of the former Chester Meeting marked 
the close of a period of almost unprecedented activity in the 
development of machinery adapted to agricultural purposes. 
The circumstances attending that period are tersely set forth in 
the following paragraph, taken from the Report on Implements 
at Chester in 1858 (Journal, vol. xix., 1858, p. 313), written 
by Sir Archibald K. Macdonald, Bart , who was Senior Steward 
of Implements for the occasion, and who happily still occupies 
a seat on the Council in his capacity as a Trustee of the 
Society : — 
The Prizes offered by the Society at Chester — with the exception of the 
500/. Prize for Steam Cultivation — were confined exclusively to those im- 
plements and machines applicable to “the conversion of farm produce,” 
forming the third division of agricultural machinery admitted to competi- 
tion at the Society’s Meetings within the last three years, the Prize List at 
Chelmsford in 1856 having been devoted to implements for “ the prepara- 
tion of the soil,” and that at Salisbury in 1857 to those for “ the treatment 
of the crop from sowing to gathering.” 
The prize of 5005 just referred to was won by Mr. John 
Fowler, jun., for his Steam Plough. In addition, prizes varying 
