KENTUCKY FARMING AND CATTLE SHOWS. 
181 
which were shown on the fourth and last day, I 
send the height of some of them. Mr. Howard’s 
Jack which took the premium, was two years 
old last May, and measured 15 hands inches 
high. His owner refused $2,000 for the half of 
him. One of the two-year-old mules was 17 
hands high. The premium yearling, 15 hands 
3 inches, under the standard. There were 18 
mule colts shown; the premium colt measured 
14 hands high, and I understood a gentleman 
present offered $95 each, for the lot. I have not 
room to say anything more about the Bourbon 
show, as I wish to give you a short account of 
the Lexington show, which took place the next 
week. 
A few years since, there were some ten or 
twelve agricultural societies in Kentucky, all of 
which, however, were suffered to go down ex¬ 
cept the Bourbon Society. Last spring, the cit¬ 
izens of Fayette county formed an agricultural 
association called the Lexington Agricultural 
and Mechanics Association, and purchased a 
beautiful grove, adjoining the town of Lexington, 
called Maxwell’s Springs. It contains 25 acres, 
and the society gave $5,000 for it, $200 per acre. 
This they have fitted up in a very handsome 
manner. They have already expended about 
$5,000 in the erection of buildings, and have 
not yet completed their arrangements. The 
cottage for the ladies is the neatest affair of the 
kind I ever saw, and cost,I suppose, some $2,000. 
The Kentuckians do everythingon a big figure ; 
and by thus providing for the comfort and con¬ 
venience of the ladies, vast numbers attend 
from all parts of the state, and look forward to 
the show as a sort of gala day. There was a 
much greater variety of domestic manufactures 
than at Bourbon. There was a most gorgeous 
display of silk quilts, and some of fine silk vel¬ 
vet, which I thought, however, a very useless 
expenditure of money. If premiums are given 
for silk quilts, they should be for such as are 
made out of Kentucky silk, where the cocoons 
have been raised, the silk spun and woven by 
the exhibitors. As it was, the quilts looked as 
though they might cost about $100, and were 
rather too fine to sleep sound under. 
The remarks which I made in reference to the 
stock shown at Bourbon will apply to those 
shown at Lexington. Nearly all the premium 
animals which were exhibited at the former show 
were at Lexington; and I doubt whether the 
stock of cattle, for size or excellence, can be 
surpassed in the United States. 
Mr. James G. Kinnaird, whom you saw at the 
New-York State Show, was very successful in 
getting premiums at Lexington; and he richly 
deserved them. He is of good stock himself, 
and the stock which he showed had the appear¬ 
ance of having been evenly and finely bred. 
His cow Almira, which received the first premi¬ 
um, is unsurpassed as a handler. And Mary 
Ann, another aged cow, I heard an excellent 
judge of cattle say, he considered one of the 
finest cows in Kentucky. His premium two- 
year-old heifer, Arabella, is one that a breeder 
is apt to set aside for his own use. His three- 
year-old bullock, which received the premium, 
weighed on the Lexington hay scales, the eve¬ 
ning after the show, 2,250 pounds. I have not 
time to enumerate all the fine stock shown, and 
will pass them over for the present. 
I was glad to see that choice stock were in 
considerable demand, and that several were 
sold during the two shows, at very fair prices. 
Mr. George M. Bedford sold his bull calf, which 
received the premium, both at Bourbon and Lex¬ 
ington, for $150. 
The country around Lexington is generally 
considered, I believe, the garden spot of Ken¬ 
tucky ; and I doubt whether its beauty and fer¬ 
tility can be surpassed. The farms are gener¬ 
ally in the highest state of cultivation; the 
buildings handsome and convenient, and some 
costly and magnificent. The grounds around 
them are kept in the neatest possible order, and 
the woodland pastures, tenanted with the choic¬ 
est stock of every description, affording ample 
evidence of the wealth, as well as intelligence 
and taste of the owners. Kentucky was settled 
mostly by Virginians; and judging from the 
uniform kindness, and hospitality with which a 
stranger is treated wherever he goes, I should 
say they were descended from the F. F. Vs. 
(first families of Virginia). Hospitality has al¬ 
ways been a prominent and leading character¬ 
istic of the Kentuckians, and to this may be 
added nearly every other quality which adorns 
and beautifies human life. I was everywhere 
treated with a kindness and attention, which I 
had anticipated from the character of the peo¬ 
ple. The vast concourse of people who were 
assembled on the show grounds, were of them¬ 
selves an interesting show ; and if I wanted an 
ameliorating cross for man or animal, there is 
no state in the Union, in which I would sooner 
seek it. I know several states that would do 
well to import some 500 or 1,000 Kentuckians 
and improve their present race. It would be 
difficult to find a finer looking, or more intelli¬ 
gent body of men assembled together, than the 
one on the Lexington show ground. 
