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Vol XLI. No. 1701. 
NEW YORE!, SEPT. 2, 1882. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress. In the year 1882. by the Rural New-Yorker, In the omce of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.^ 
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FIVE CENTS, 
.,00 FEB YEAS, 
SPECIMENS OF STOCK AT THE 
“ROYAL” SHOW. 
The great annual Show of the Royal Agri¬ 
cultural Society of England opened this year 
at Heading, on Monday July 10, and closed on 
the evening of the following Friday, July 14. 
The second day was very wet, but on the four 
other days the weather was excellent. In 
spite of the favorable weather, however, the 
attendance was considerably smaller and the 
receipts less than at any "Royal” Show since 
that held at Taunton in 1875. This was in a 
great measure due to the fact that Reading is 
situated in a comparatively sparsely popula¬ 
ted section of the country, at a considerable 
distanre from the great manufacturing cen¬ 
ters, which pour out their tens of thousands 
of busy workers on all holiday occasions, and, 
moreover, the railroad facilities are less 
numerous than those at Derby, Carlisle, Kil- 
in many departments from the average of late 
years, and this was especially the case in the 
line of agricultural implements. The various 
live stock departments were pretty fairly 
filled, however, and some of the animals were 
remarkably tine specimens of their respective 
breeds. We here present the likenesses of a 
few of the choicest of these, re-engraved from 
the Illustrated London News, Although in 
England breeders of Cotswolds do not, as a 
rule, follow the example set them by other 
sheep breeders, rarely sending the best speci. 
mens of their flocks to the show-yard, yet as 
Cotswolds here were so near home they were 
present in great force. In the aged raui class 
Mr. Sw'anwick took the first premium for a 
very handsome animal represented in the fore¬ 
ground at the upper left-hand corner of the 
engraving. 
There was also a fine turn out of Oxford 
Downs. This is one of the newly established 
cross-breeds,haviog gained the honor of a separ¬ 
ate class at the English fairs only as late as 
18(52. It is claimed among the long-wools. It 
South Down, though inferior to it when over 
two years old. Like the other Down breeds 
the Oxfords have dark faces and legs, derived 
from the South Down through the Hamp¬ 
shire Down. Considerable importations of 
this breed have been made into this country, 
and the sheep seem to have turned out satis¬ 
factorily. In England Mr. Tread well is prob¬ 
ably the most extensive breeder of them, and 
generally bears off a large proportion of the 
prizes at the fairs at which he exhibits. At 
the Royal he took first premium with the fine 
aged ram shown back of the Cots wold. 
The Hampshire Down appears to be the 
"coming sheep” in England, having risen 
rapidly in favor of late years. It originated 
in Hampshire about 75 years ago in a cross be¬ 
tween a native white-faced, horned sheep of 
the district and a pure South Down, and in a 
few generations the prepotency of the South 
Down entirely changed the character of the 
progeny. While retaining the ancient hardi¬ 
ness, Roman nose and massive head of ita 
"native” ancestor, the horns disappeared, the 
small at Reading, ose shown were capital 
specimens. Mr. Parson’s prize pen of ewes, 
shown in the upper right-haud comer of the 
cut, attracted much attention and received a 
great deal cf praise. 
The various breeds of neat cattle are re¬ 
ported to have been fairly well represented, 
the Short-horns, as usual, exceeding any other 
in numbers. In the class of bulls calved in 
1879 Mr. U nthwaite’s Lord Zetland, whose 
head is shown on the left of the engraving, 
easily won the first prize. Uf him the Mark 
Lane Express says: “This bull is some way 
off being a first-rate Short horn, and is of a 
washed-out color into the bargain; his show- 
yard work, too, does not improve him, and 
some of the bloom has already been taken off 
his Cardiff form.” He is credited, however, 
with several prizes at various county and 
local fairs. Below Lord Zetland is represented 
the head of Mr. Rogers’s Hereford bull, Archi¬ 
bald, winner of the first prize in the class for 
bulls calved in 1880. The Herefords num¬ 
bered ouly about one-third of the Short-horns, 
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burn, Bristol, Liverpool and Birmingham, the 
points at which the show has been held siuce 
1875. Moreover, there is little doubt that the 
long series of disasters which British agricul¬ 
ture has encountered of late years has had a 
depressing effect on the farmers of the country 
and lessened their interest in agricultural ex¬ 
hibitions. 
So far as exhibits were concerned, too, there 
appears to have been a noticeable falling off 
STOCK AT ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SHOW, ENGLAND. —Fig. 283. 
originated in a cross of a Cotswold ram upon 
a Hampshire Down ewe, made about the year 
1830. Its native home is a district at the foot 
of the Cotswold Hills, and in England it 
is found profitable on mixed farms being 
hardy and producing a heavy fleece of rather 
curly wool, which is in great demand for 
worsted manufacture, and also a large car¬ 
cass, which in sheep less than two years old is 
considered equal for mutton to that of the 
face became black, the frame more compact, 
the back broader, the barrel rounder, the 
legs shorter and the quality of the flesh much 
finer. The fleece weighs from six to seven 
pounds of combing wool, longer than that of 
the South Down, but not so fine. When 
crossed with the Cotswold the wool of tbe 
progeny is more valuable for worsted manu¬ 
facture than that of the pure Cotswold. Al¬ 
though the exhibit of this breed was rather 
yet the Agricultural Gazette says: "Few finer 
collections of young Herefords have ever en¬ 
tered a yard.” Owners of this breed in Eng¬ 
land appear to be far more energetic than 
formerly in bringiug the great merits of the 
Herefords to public attention—routed to ac¬ 
tivity probably iu a great measure by the 
“ boom” in the breed for improving " native’’ 
cattle on our Western Plains. 
Apart from their conceded value as butter 
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