The Express.
London, England, 1849-07-23 00:00:00

THE EXPRESS, MONDAY EVENING, JULY 23, 1849.

owl of his competitors at the societies, and the sue-
cesst:ll man seems to have attained a kind of cham-
pions'a.'y, until the palm is aegis contested by new
Imeedefg. This will indicate the reason .why
there is no great increase in the numbers of
sock exhibite.i. Most of the exhibitors consist of
three classes: firs'• the professional breeders, who are
the mainstay of the: exhibition; nee', amateurs in
stock, either noblemen ard gentlemen, or farmer',
who take pleasure in maintaining good stock; and
lastly, persons of the district in which the meeting of
' the year happens to take place. The two last classes
probably fluctuate a good deal, the last especially,
and to that fluctuation we believe the variation in the
entries of stock in different years is mainly due. At
the first meeting of the society at Oxford, in 1839,
the entries of stock were only 249; at Bristol, in
1812, they had increased to 610; and at the Derby
meeting, in 1843, the entries of stock reached 750,
the highest number ever yet exhibited. Many of the
animals then shown were, however, inferior,
and from that time fewer have in general
been entered, but those shown have been good.
Their number forms no te,t of the good. earn of a
show, being in fact chiefly dependent upon the
locality. For instance, at Southampton, in 1844, the
entries of stock were 673 ; at Shrewebury, in 1815,
437; at Newcastle, in 1846, 613; at Northampton,
in 1817, 459 ; at York, in 1818, 724; and at Norwich,
in the present year, 624.
Thus we see that the purely agricultural districts
around Southampton, Shrewsbury, and Nor:hamp on,
produced fewer entries of stock than the distacts
around Derby, Newcastle, and York, where agricul-
tural industry is so much mixed with manufactures.
Tee large number of entries at Norwich, bang, with
the exceptions of the Derby and York meetings, the
highest on rec3rd, speaks volumes fur the effects of
improved and tiller farming in producing an in-
crease of stick as well as of corn. It was
currently said and believed that, though a vast
quantity of stock is fed in Norfolk and Suff ilk, hut
tittle is bred, and consequently that, so far as the
show of stock depended upon the locality, it would
not be a good one. This has been disproved by the
result. The entries by the professional breeders were
rather less than usual, tspecia!ly of short-horn cattle,
but that was more than compensated fur by the Iced
entries; and the stock shown from the eastern coun-
ties was, on the whole, very good. Tte contrast
between the local entries at Norwich and Northamp-
ton is most striking, and conveys a lesson to the
landed proprietors of England th: y should profit by.
Northampton is in that pastoral district of the mid-
lend counties which is commonly called the breeding
country, where a sort of superstitious veneration f
permanent pastures exists amongst the landlords' and
which years ago was the locality from whence Lon-
don was chiefly supplied with fat meat ; yet this
district produced far fewer local exhibitors of breeding
stock than the tillage dierict of the eastern counties.
Now, Norfolk and SuffAk were once dairy and
breeding counties, dependent chiefly. on permanent
pastures, but these pasture lands havog been since
broken up and converted to til:aze, we find the dis-
trict not only more pr. lific in corn and fat meat than
the more naturally fertile midland district, but it is able
to exhibit more breeding stock. It is plain, therefore,
that the system of husbandry which is most conducive
to the profit of the farmer, the en.ploymea cf la-
bourers, and the increase of human food, is at the
same time most favourable for breeding stock, a
branch of husbandry once thought to be peculiarly
adapted to pastoral districts.

DENMARK AND THE DUCHIES,

THE BLOCKADE.

We learn that the government of the Duchies has
resolved to withdraw its troops southward of the hue
between Flensburg and Tandern, set forth in Ihe
third article of the convention. The moment this
tilteo place, Dmmark is bound to raise the bl whack.
But the government of the Duchies is not the less
determined to persevere in the war and reject the
other articles of the treaty.