NEW YORK, JAN. 20, 1883 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
*2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1882, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the;office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
This falling-off is attributable to two causes 
—the prohibitive regulations with regard to 
returning across the “ border” to avoid the 
possibility of spreading disease, and because 
the extravagant prices realized for Polled 
Angus, or Aberdeen, cattle within the last 
twelvemonth has diverted attention from 
feeding to breeding, and the feeders are the 
chief exhibitors at a fat stock show. 
The competition for the Championship was 
very close between Mr. Stratton’s Shorthorn 
heifer Lilian, Mr. Lloyd’s Hereford ox and a 
croBs-bred ox shown by Mr. Baker. After 
three-quarters of an hour’s hard fighting the 
first, amidst loud plaudits, was declared 
Champion of Smitbfleld for 1882. She is rep¬ 
resented at Fig. 28, and at this show as best 
in her class of Shorthorn heifers, she won 
.£30; then the silver cup, value £50, as the 
best heifer or cow in the show; then the 
champion plate, value £105, for the best beast 
in the show, and also the Club’s gold medal to 
the breeder—which also fell to Mr. Stratton. 
She is 1423 days old, and weighs 1,884 pounds, 
averaging a daily gain of 1.32 pound since 
eral remark amongst the old show-goers who 
had once again come up to town to see the 
eighty-fifth annual exhibition of the Smith- 
field Club’s favorites. There was not the 
slightest appearance of the falling off either 
in quantity or quality of the exhibits, which 
some old croakers asserted was sure to follow 
from the very extensive sales of pure-bred 
stock to our American cousins and to the stock 
breeders all over the world; but rather the re¬ 
verse, which proved that our energetic farmers 
had redoubled their efforts to produce stock 
which should be the admiration of all. There 
is not the slightest doubt that the high prices 
realized by the sale of their stock for exporta¬ 
tion has given a stimulus to our breeders of 
high-class stock, which has in the past proved 
and will in the future prove of immense benefit 
both to the producers and consumers of meat 
at home and abroad. The fight for supremacy 
amongst the various breeds of cattle is not so 
keen in England as in your country, yet there 
is always a certain amount of excitement 
amongst the breeders of the various kinds of 
cattle and sheep as to which variety should 
served number. 
As usually is the case, there 
were many and diverse opinions as to the cor¬ 
rectness of the award, some t hinking the Here¬ 
ford the best animal, whilst some were 
in favor of the best Devon. Others again 
thought nothing in the show so good as a 
cross-bred heifer, which appeared to have re¬ 
tained some of the good qualities of both its 
parents, Short-horn and Scotch Polled. 
Mr. R. Stratton's Short-horn heifer was cer 
tainly not equal to many of the Smithfield 
champion prize winners, which it has been 
my lot to see ; still it was a wonderful mass 
of meat of fine quality at its age of three 
years and eight months, when a Short horn 
heifer ought from its early precocity, to have 
passed its best. The vexed question of the 
superiority of the different breeds is still as 
open a one as before, and the same desire to 
settle this disputed point remains to encourage 
all exhibitors to redouble their efforts for 
next year’s battle. 
The champion prize for sheep was awarded 
to the South Downs, a splendid pen of Lin¬ 
colns being reserved. I am inclined to think 
that the awards at 
our English fat stock 
shows are not so 
instructive as are 
those at your fairs 
in the States; here 
breeders only are 
appointed as judges, 
instead of a mixture 
of breeders and but¬ 
chers; now the prizes 
are often awarded to 
the best bred ani¬ 
mals, not to those 
which have been pro¬ 
duced at least cost 
and which furnish 
the most meat of the 
best quality. Mr. 
Read's Ham pshires; 
Mr. Roe’s Lincolns; 
Mr. G. Street’s Ox¬ 
ford Downs, and 
Mr. Loder’s Shrop¬ 
shire were each ad¬ 
mired. The cross 
breeds, which were 
very fine, also came 
in for quite their 
share of admiration. 
The show of pigs 
was a grand one. 
Amongst the exhibi¬ 
tors I noticed Mr. 
Landers Spencer who, 
I had thought, had 
taken his leave of 
the show-yard as an 
exhibitor, and was 
reaping the due re¬ 
ward of his labors 
by selling his young 
stock for breeders 
at home and abroad. 
This I learned he 
had done to the 
extent of some three hundred during the sea¬ 
son; but, not satisfied with this, he must ex¬ 
hibit some of his stock and win about twice 
as many prizes with his Large and Small 
Yorkshires and Suffolks as any of the other 
exhibitors, who Included Her Majesty the 
Queen, the Earl of Onslow, Lords Moreton 
and Radnor, and most of our largest breeders 
of pigB. The Large Yorkshires were espec¬ 
ially fine, combining great size with aptitude 
to fatten; two of Mr. Spenoer’s first prize pens 
were marvelous specimens of early maturity; 
so, too, were Mr. Richard Fowler’s young 
Berkshires, which easily secured the cup for 
the best of the breed. J. p. s. 
OUR ANIMAL PORTRAITS. 
CHIEF PRIZE-WINNERS AT THE SMITH 
FIELD FAT STOCK SHOW. 
ONDAY, December 4, wit¬ 
nessed the opening of the 
I eighty-fifth annual Fat Stock 
• Show of the Smithfield Club, 
a and the evening of Friday, De¬ 
cember 8, beheld the close of 
I one of the best exhibitions ever 
conducted under the auspices 
of this famous body. For the 
last twenty years these shows 
yjx have been held at Agricultural 
V-tfl Hall, Islington; buttbetrans- 
(Av 1 fer of them from Baker Street, 
which is nearer to the aristo- 
rL cratic parts of London, to their 
M;,’ present location, has neither 
lessened their popularity nor 
caused any decrease 
in the number of vis¬ 
itors. The last dis¬ 
play is generally con¬ 
sidered to have been 
one of the most suc¬ 
cessful, both in the at¬ 
tendance and the 
character of the ex¬ 
hibits. True, it ia al¬ 
most universally con¬ 
ceded that none of the 
beasts exhibited were 
equal to the cham¬ 
pions of some former 
years, but the show, 
as a whole, is thought 
to have had a higher 
“all-round” merit 
than any of its recent 
predecessors. The 
Devon cattle and the 
South Down sheep, 
each of which, as a 
breed, is the neatest 
and cumeliest of the 
geuus of animals to 
which it belongs, 
were of remarkably 
uniform excellence. 
The 1 Vince of Wales 
was a large exhibitor 
of Devons and also 
exhibit.*! a consider¬ 
able number of Souttt 
Downs. The Here- 
forcls exhibited were 
not much over half 
the number shown 
last year, but they 
are all reported to 
have been of remark¬ 
ably fine quality. Of 
Short-horns, on the 
other hand, there 
were 61 entries against 58 last year, and the 
heifer class was particularly good. The Sus¬ 
sex cattle, an enlarged edition of the Devon, 
excited an unusual degree of iuterest among 
stockmen. Indeed of late years there is no 
English breed of cattle, that appears to have 
made such advance in public favor as this. 
This year there were 87 entries against 20 
last year. There were only nine entries -of 
the Norfolk and Suffolk Polls, and the Live 
Stock Journal says that in view of the 
worth of the breed, justice was not done to it 
by those on whose energy its progress depends. 
The Scotch Polls were not as strong as usual 
of late years either in number or quality. 
RT HORN HEIFER ‘‘LILIAN" n \ UK THE SMITHFIELD CATTLE SHOW-; After LONDON 
News.}— FIG. 23. 
birth. At Fig. 24, page 41, is shown her clos¬ 
est competitor, Mr. Lloyd’s Hereford steer, 
1,083 days old, weighing 2,204 pounds, making 
an average daily gain of 2.04 pounds. His 
wiunings were £25 for first prize in his class of 
Hereford steers above two and uuder three 
years; a silver cup, value £30, as the best Here¬ 
ford beast in the show, and a silver cup, value 
£50, as the best steer or ox in any of the classes. 
furnish the champion prise winners. Last y ear 
a Scotch Polled was declared the winner; for 
this year’s competition the breeders both of 
Herefords and Devons fancied they had some 
trump cards in their hands, and after the 
Norwich Show, where a Devon won the 
champion prize, and Birmingham, where a 
Hereford was declared to be the best, it cer¬ 
tainly looked odds on one or other of these 
breeds furnishing the winner, especially when 
It was currently reported that better sped’ 
mens of both these breeds were to appear in 
London. This report turned out to be true, 
and yet a Short-horn once again carried off 
the ooveted prize, a Hereford being the re- 
SMITHFIELD SHOW 
Ashbodknk, England. 
The largest and best collection of fat stock 
ever seen in one building.” Such was the gen- 
m 
fill 
iip ' 
