AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
275 
at the agricultural interest through the breed¬ 
er exclusively. The English Agricultural 
Society therefore does not offer prizes for 
cross-bred animals. 
Nothing is more clearly made out in agri¬ 
culture than that hold crosses will not last; the 
first cross is a good animal and profitable to its 
breeder and its feeder; but if you breed from 
him he will revert to a degenerate copy of one 
or other of his parents. The cross-bred ani¬ 
mal may therefore be properly the subject of 
a prize offered by the Smithfield Club ; while 
the Agricultural Society do well to encour¬ 
age the pure bred animals, without which 
the cross can not be had. 
There is one more point on which the two 
societies come into contact, or more proper¬ 
ly antagonism. The former offers prizes 
for young cows and heifers—“Short Horn 
heifers not exceeding four years old, &c.,” 
“ Short Horn cows above four years, that 
must have had at least one live calf, &c. 
and there are 17 animals shown in these 
two classes. The ages of the heifers are 
from 3 years and 6 months to 3 years and 
10 months ; those of the cows from 4 years 
to 8 years. Now, we are sure that there is 
no one interested in the progress of agricul¬ 
ture but must regret to see pure bred cows 
and heifers of so valuable a breed find their 
way to the butcher with so little fruit, or 
none at all, as is the case in many of the in¬ 
stances shown here. Take, for instance, 
No. 89, the cow “Alice”—the best cow in 
the yard—purchased as a calf by Mr. Towne- 
ley, the gentleman who protested against 
Lord Ducie’s rule for a previons examina¬ 
tion of the animals shown in the English 
Agricultural Society’s yard by judges of fat, 
in order that excessively fat stock might be 
rejected. This cow, Alice, has had one calf, 
and it died as soon as it dropped, we believe ; 
we understand she was exhibited at the 
Lewes Show, and Mr. Towneley has never 
bred from her since, or, indeed, at all, and 
she is now fat meat—so fat, indeed, that 
with her excessive covering, all, and evenly, 
over the upper part of her body, and her 
somewhat scantily covered legs and thighs, 
she reminds one of those locomotive engines 
carrying on their cylindrical boiler an addi¬ 
tional coating in the shape of a reservoir for 
water which keeps the boiler warm. If this 
animal would breed, she is worth j£ 200, or 
.£300 ; she has been as fat as she is for the 
last four years, no doubt as the result of 
natural character in a great measure, but 
also no doubt to some extent as the conse¬ 
quence of the over-fattening system in the 
commencement; and we imagine that “Alice” 
might be made the text of a very impressive 
sermon to her breeder and feeder, if they 
would only listen to it. The award of prizes 
is given below; but we may, in addition to 
the mere announcement of the judgement 
by which it has been guided, just make a re¬ 
mark or two as we walk round. 
No. 2, the first prize Devon ox under three 
years old, is bred by Prince Albert; it is a 
remarkably compact well got up little thing, 
polished to the very tips of its horns, which, 
by the way, are hardly of the Devon charac¬ 
ter. The most elegant and beautiful speci¬ 
men of an animal in the yard, perhaps, is 
No. 25, the first prize in color, beautifully 
fine in bone, horn, and muzzle ; it is a re¬ 
markably fine specimen of the Devon breed. 
As to the Hereford classes, they are, we 
believe, hardly up in quality to those of for¬ 
mer years. The first prize ox, shown by 
Mr. Niblett, of Bristol, is a well-bred remark¬ 
ably evenly fattened ripe ox, very thick in 
the flesh all over, especially on the parts 
most valuable to the butcher. No. 36, which 
received the 2d prize, was bred by Prince 
Albert, and is a large compact beast—some¬ 
what coarser than its neighbor, but remark¬ 
ably thickly covered with useful flesh. 
In Short Horn classes the oxen under 
three years old are inferior to their usual 
character ; the 1st prize animal in the older 
class, 4 years and 4 months old, was proba¬ 
bly never excelled in quality ; very fat but 
evenly so ; extraordinarily thick in the twist 
and rump, and very fully covered on all the 
most valuable parts. The Short Horn heif¬ 
ers and cows have been already referred to. 
In the class for oxen of any other pure breed 
the prize was awarded to a Long Horn ox, 
inferior as it seemed to us in quality, form, 
ripeness, and age, to the very well made 
younger Sussex ox by its side, and we 
should like to know the ground of the decis¬ 
ion between them. 
In the sheep classes we have merely to say 
that there was a very fine show of South 
Down sheep, a comparatively inferior show 
of long wools, and a very good display of the 
cross between them. 
The classes of pigs were represented not 
by any great number, but certainly by re¬ 
markable quality. The classes were more 
evenly matched in size than we have known 
them. The large classes were nearly of one 
size, and the small one also nearly matched 
in size and also in quality, for the judges 
must have had a very difficult office here. 
Agricultural Gazette. 
TOBACCO AND THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF WOMEN. 
BY MINNIE MYRTLE. 
Your black catalogue of statistics, con¬ 
cerning the use of this black weed , black in 
more senses than one, has reminded me of 
some that I have heard within a few months, 
which I think are equally edifying. I not 
long ago heard a young man bewailing the 
extravagance of woman ; and thinking a lit¬ 
tle inquiry into his personal expenses would 
show quite as useless an expenditure as any 
of which he was complaining, I asked him 
how much he spent for cigars in the course 
of a year. After much blushing and stam¬ 
mering he was brought to the confession 
that usually a hundred, and never less than 
sixty dollars were annually spent in this 
way ! His wife was not allowed so large a 
sum as this for her personal clothing, and 
spent very little more than this for herself and 
three children! Yet they were always 
comfortable. 
If any woman should ask for the price of 
eight or ten cigars each day to spend in 
candy or other sweet-meats, what a cry 
there would be about her folly and weakness. 
But it is useless to make comparisons, and 
quite as useless to attempt a reform in this 
vulgar habit, in which men so universally in¬ 
dulge. But we could get along very well 
with the smoking and be willing to walk in a 
cloud all the time, if there could be an end 
of chewing. It costs us a third more to 
dress every year in consequence of the in¬ 
jury done to clothes by tobacco juice. 
Every where we go we must trail through 
tobacco juice. Every church and concert- 
room must be entered through a pool of 
slime. We must guard ourselves on every 
side not to be covered with it, when we ride 
in cars or stages, and I have seen men who 
called themselves gentlemen sit and deliber¬ 
ately spatter a lady’s dress to its utter ruin 
in a public conveyance, where she could ob¬ 
tain no other seat and where there was no 
possible self-defence. She looked all sorts 
of daggers, but they had no effect. 
I have marveled all my life why men 
should be so coarse, and indulge in such dis¬ 
agreeable habits. It seems to be thought 
that in order to be manly it is necessary to 
be vulgar. Men who behave with great pro¬ 
priety and comeliness in their homes in the 
presence of ladies, go forth to the haunts of 
business and amusement as different as if 
possessed of ten entire mortal and physical 
natures. 
I know a gentleman who possesses one of 
the best private libraries in the community, 
who says he has spent no more for books 
than gentlemen of his acquaintance usually 
spend for cigars ! How many families do I 
know whose homes might be furnished lux¬ 
uriously in the course of ten years, with 
what the gentlemen of the family spend in 
wines and cigars and quids. Only the other 
day I heard a minister complaining of his 
small salary, while lecturing a lady present 
on the extravagance in wearing a gold chain. 
She immediately demanded a reckoning con¬ 
cerning his expenses, and found that his 
tobacco would buy two gold chains, and va¬ 
rious other ornaments every year! He was 
preaching every Sabbath against “ sensual 
and carnal indulgences” and worldly-minded¬ 
ness—exhorting his people to be pure and 
not conformed to the world. But no persua¬ 
sion could induce him to give up the use of 
tobacco, though he acknowledged it was 
ruining his health, and his habits were a 
perfect nuisance to his family. 
When the Maine Law has accomplished 
its work with regard to rum, I hope there 
will be as zealous a crusade against tobacco; 
at least, I hope we shall soon become suffi¬ 
ciently civilized to make a law against dese¬ 
crating any place where decent people con¬ 
gregate, with the distillations of this offensive 
weed, or else that men shall be obliged to 
wear a receptacle under their chins for the 
deposit of their nauseating extracts. 
I hope the good time is coming when it 
will be thought possible to be thoroughly 
manly and yet refined. 
[We agree with the writer in reference to 
the anti-tobacco law. Till that is enacted 
we see no defense for the ladies who are 
compelled to pass among out-door “ boors,” 
but to take revenge by refusi ng to sweep the 
streets.— Eds.] 
The Way to Build up a State. —Gov. 
Grimes, of Iowa, in his inaugural address, 
thus describes the wants of the thriving 
State over which he presides : 
“ She wants educated farmers and me¬ 
chanics, engineers, architects, metallurgists, 
and geologists. She needs men engaged in 
the practical duties of life, who have con¬ 
quered their professions, and who are able to 
impart their knowledge to others. She wants 
farmers who shall be familiar with the prin¬ 
ciples of chemistry as applied to agriculture; 
architects and mechanics who will adorn her 
with edifices worthy of so fair a land ; and 
engineers and geologists who will develop 
her resources, and thus augment the wealth 
and happiness of her citizens. This want 
can only be supplied by the establishment of 
a school of applied sciences. I have no hes¬ 
itation, therefore, in recommending that a 
university fund be appropriated to establish 
a practical scientific or polytechnic school.” 
