ANNUAL SHOW OF THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
273 
ANNUAL SHOW OF THE ENGLISH AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY. 
The great cattle show of the Royal Agricul¬ 
tural Society of England is now in progress at 
this place, having opened on Monday. The 
number of cattle, sheep, and swine is larger 
than at any exhibition ever before held, and 
that of horses only exceeded by one previous 
one. 
The show of cattle, as a whole, far exceeds 
my anticipations. In the shorthorn and Devon 
class, which are the leading breeds here, as in 
our own country, the show as a whole, can 
hardly be surpassed. There are, it is true, as 
of all large shows, many animals which had 
much better been kept in their native stalls, 
than brought here; still, the show of these 
classes, as a whole, is remarkably fine. In the 
awarding of prizes by the judges, it. is apparent 
that fat , not quality , has been too much in the 
ascendant. The second prize bull in the short¬ 
horn class of aged bulls, I venture to say, would 
not be selected by a single breeder in England, 
from which to breed. He is absolutely swel¬ 
tered with flesh—more in fact than any fat an¬ 
imal I have ever seen at Smithfield Market. In 
my judgment, there were several bulls, some of 
which were commended by the judges, far su¬ 
perior to him in every respect, as regards his 
capabilities as a stock getter. As a general 
rule, this disposition to award prizes to fat ani¬ 
mals prevails, and gives, as it should, very 
great dissatisfaction. In the class of bulls both 
aged and young, I think the proportion of infe¬ 
rior animals is quite equal to that at our own 
shows. 
The exhibition of cows was excellent, espe¬ 
cially the prize animals. The cow of Mr. Booth, 
of Warlaby, four years and four months old, to 
which the first prize was awarded, was an ani¬ 
mal of extraordinary merit, and realised, to my 
mind, what a pure shorthorn should be. She 
attracted much attention; and so far as I heard, 
the expression was universal, that in this award, 
merit had been judiciously rewarded. The 
class, however, in which the shorthorns appear¬ 
ed truly prominent, was in heifer calves not ex¬ 
ceeding three years old, and yearling heifers. 
I examined these classes again and again, and 
I must confess that the excellence of the short¬ 
horns never before was so fully impressed upon 
my mind. There was a perfection of symme¬ 
try, a fineness of handling, and an adaptation 
in every respect to what the perfect animal 
should be, that secured the approbation, as well 
as elicited the admiration, of all the judges 
of stock who were present, so far as I could 
ascertain their opinions. In these classes, how¬ 
ever, the prizes were awarded mainly to an¬ 
imals so fat as to be entirely unsuited for 
breeding, and probably, in most instances, will 
find their way to the Smithfield fat-cattle show 
instead of the breeding stalls. The number in 
these classes was 60, and they exhibited such 
marks of merit as might well, as it did, make 
the shorthorn breeders truly proud of their na¬ 
tional stock. 
In the class of Devons, there were many very 
fine bulls exhibited, and generally, they were 
not so overloaded with flesh as the short¬ 
horns. The first prize bull, bred by Mr. John 
Quartly, of Champson Molland, was a very su¬ 
perior animal, possessing the characteristics 
of this truly celebrated breed of cattle. The 
first prize bull in the younger class belonged to 
Mr. Farthing, of Stowey Court, I consider, upon 
the whole, as the best Devon on the ground. He 
had all the fineness of bone, as well as sub¬ 
stance that was desirable, and was truly a most 
valuable animal. 
There were 30 cows and heifers exhibited, 
and the competition for prizes must have been 
very severe. Mr. Turner, of Barton, received 
the first prize in milch cows, and the first and 
second in heifers; and though I should have 
preferred Lord Leicester’s cow, to which the 
third prize was awarded, owing to her superior¬ 
ity of handling, still, I presume the awards were 
in the main, satisfactory. There was among 
the cows and heifers in this class, much greater 
uniformity of excellence than in the shorthorns ; 
and my impression is, that as a whole, the De¬ 
von class was the best on the show ground. 
The Herefords were not in large numbers, 
only six cows and seven heifers. Bulls were 
more numerous; but the strength of the Here¬ 
fords was in the cows and heifers. These were 
very good indeed; but if there had been se¬ 
lected the six best shorthorn or Devon cows, 
and the seven best heifers, my opinion is, that 
they would have maintained their superiority, 
in the judgment of most present who were com¬ 
petent to decide. 
Of the longhorns, only a few were exhibited; 
but they were good and showed the best quali¬ 
ties of that breed, which, for certain purposes, 
even at this day, sustain them in some parts of 
the kingdom. 
There was a fair show of Channel-Island cat¬ 
tle, that possessed the good qualities for which 
these cattle are esteemed, and many of them 
] were of no ordinary merit. 
