The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-08 00:00:00

Smitb .field Club Show in the Agricultural

A. nation that, in addition to all its textile, mine-
ral, rand other industries, employs other £200,000,000
ate cling of tenants' capital in the production of corn
an( meat, and many millions more in the manufac-
tur of machines and manures which entice mother
ea] ?•th to bestow good gifts upon her hungry child-
reti, may well be proud and conservative of its agri-
culture. English husbandry has its colleges, its huge
sod eties, its fine implement factories, its model
dre inage works, its scientific farmsteads, and its last
grg 3at achievement is tillage by steam power—many
bu ndreds of ploughs and cultivators now following
thi 3 wire rope along the deep farrow or through the
rai )idly-riven staple either of clay or lighter soil ;
wt. lie Egypt, the West Indies, France, and other
cot Intries have successfully adopted these inventions.
•
But a bounteous harvest, with its concomitants of a
bad market, has confirmed the fallacy of John Bull's
far ming mainly for bread-corn ; and when he has
got his malt tax reduced and all his other grievances
righted, it will still be in the fat-stock show that
the t ruo exponent of his progress must be found. It
is the British farmer's especial business to supply
joints and steaks and chops and rashers to an im-
mense shopkeeping and manufacturing nation; and
consumers as well as producers are directly inte-
rested in such wonderful displays as that now col-
lected in Islington Agricultural-hall. Let our
citizens cultivate an acquaintance with the men who
feed them, and good must result, should it be only
a mutual combination against those ignominious
purveyors to metropolitan appetite who poison us
with fles:nmeat unslaughtered or diseased.
If the large number of visitors in the Hall yester-
day afternoon is any index of the gathering that
may be expected to-day, and for three following
days, at; an admission fee of is., the attendance will
In the morning the show
be cxc eedingly large.
was honoured with a visit by his Royal Highness
the Prince of Wales, the Crown Prince of Prussia,
and the Duke of Brabant, who were dulyice.p
receivedre.
by the President, Lord Walsingham; the v
sident, the Duke of Richmond; the President elect,
Lord Tredegar ; Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, the hono.
rary Secretary ; Mr. Sidney, the Secretary to the
Hall Company ; and by the stewards and judges.
As a whole, the Show is fully equal to any of its
predecessors; in number of entries, superior to any
yet seen at Baker-street or Islington, the cattle
classes alone comprising 240 animals, or more than
60 in excess of last year.

The Devons have come up with
about their usual
excellence. Mr. Robert Wortley's prize steer is a
good beast, with some weight as well as quality
about him; Mr. Heath's prize ox, a rare specimen
of meat, well developed in all its best parts, cover-
ing an expanded frame upon fine bone. General
Rood's second prize ox, from the Royal farms,
though splendidly fed, is too narrow in the hind-
quarters of roasting beef, and some critics will pre-
fer the Earl of Leicester's third prize ox. Mr. John
[overman's
first-prize cow, " Fanny," is more like
a model of what a Devon should be ; Mr. Heath's
aecond-prize cow, too lumpy with fat; and General
Hood's third-prize cow, " Hyacinth," heavy, with
Splendidly firm ripe meat.
The Herefords made a grand show, and seem de-
termined to tread very closely upon the heels of the
shorthorns. Last year was the glorification of the
cross-breeds ; this time both the chief honours have
been won by pure breeds—the silver cup for the
best ox or steer in the Hall being won by a Here-
ford, and the silver cup for the best cow or heifer
by a shorthorn. Mr. Heath's ox, which was not
shown at Birmingham, is extraordinarily:full of good
points, and one of the best animals exhibited of late
years. Mr. Aidworth, Mr. Symonds. and Mr. Phil-
lips also exhibit animals of considerable merit. The
younger, or steer class, is not so commendable, the
three prizes going to specimens of only moderate
quality. General Hood's, here, first, was not even
noticed by the judges at Birmingham, and Mr.
Shieley's second prize beast won the first prize in
Bingley-hall; but no good critic can disagree with
the present award. of merit. Owing to illness the
gem of this breed, Mr. Groves's heifer, which took
the Birmingham prize as the best Hereford, has so
fallen off that she has gained here only a second
prize; the first place being taken by Mr. Bettridge's
heifer, " Young Beauty," which was second at Bir-
mingham. General Hood's cow, from the Royal
farm, is of beautiful quality, but nut of any great
'weight or dimensions.
Shorthorns make a great feature in the hall. Mr.
Baker's Birmingham gold medal ox is here again
the best male animal of his breed, though yielding
the championship of the hall to the Hereford. Mr.
Thompson's first prize steer was only highly com-
mended at Birmingham ; and the Duke of Beau-
fort's steer, which won the third prize there, is
here placed so low in the scale as to get no honour
at all. Exceedingly good shorthorns are shown
by Lord Radnor, Mr. Hulbert, Mr. Sisman, and
Mr. Thompson. Mr. Swinnerton's second prize ox
has many deficiencies in spite of its great fame and
weight of flesh; and why is a " commendation"
given away to a somewhat narrow, flat-sided, and
hollow-backed white steer from the Royal farm ?
Mr. Swaisland's very perfectly finished heifer,
" Oakbud," which gained the gold medal as best
female and the Innk eepera' plate as best animal
in Bingley-hall, here stands aga in without a
rival, winning the silver cup as best female in
the show. She has both Bates and Booth blood,
-with an intermingling of Mason and Cartwright
notwithstanding her wonderfully even ac-
eurlation of flesh, possessing that precise firm-
to felelet elasticity of touch which a judge likes
we miss in her the rare charm of cha-
racter, The
and the handsome head and fine docile eye,
Innrior style, so noted in Sir Charles
Tempest's
each," and Colonel Towneley's " Vic-
toria" and g
Butterfly," of a few years back.
Mr. Stratton,sislittra
rtahwiltrry heifer is very
Mr. Faulkner's pretty, and
rare
cows
heifer, also, of great
merit. Three
made a somewhat difficult
task for the judges in Thae.
.haur,sc.lnass.
.Mr.hLynn's very
handsome but loosely
though first at Birmingt:tai
g Mr.cow
Abbott's tt' second,ere
mr. o s fairly
third; and both eclipsed bt,
Matthew's level,
handsome, fine-boned "Beauty;,
There There is an extensive and capital
show of the use-
ful red Sussex cattle. Norfolk ano ,
Suffolk polls
about an average in quality. In the Longhorn
classes
improvement
we have a considerable
in merit,
though the number of entries is small. The Scotch
cattle classes are exceedingly fine. Mr. sue_
West Highland (the Birmingham "best ScoY.u,,
with red-brown shaggy coat, and spreading horns
is one of the most extraordinary animals this breed
wonderfully deep
has produced—one square, thick,
framed carcass, all prime beef, as it wen©, almost to
the hoofs. The Scotch polls are also exceedingly
good, Mr. M'Combie's great Aberdeen being first,
and Mr. Heath's rare Galloway second—both placed
as at Birmingham. Mr. Sewell Read shows a good
Irish ox, and Mr. Bennett a very good Welsh runt.
Among the cross-breeds, the best are Mr. John Over-
man's large Devon and shorthorn, partaking of the
latter eiaracter ; and Mr. Allan Pol,ok's admirable
cross between a shorthdro and Galloway. The sasses
cf Extra Stock are very large, and so are some of the
animals exhibited ; bat quality, rather than mere
bulk, wins the palm, Mr. Birkbeck's Devon and
Mr. Packe's white heifer taking the two prizes.
Mr. Giblett shows a good Alderney, and Mr.
'Whitby a greater curiosity in the shape of a pretty
red and white Brittany milker.
i--,eviewing all the cattle classes, we may charac-
terise them as presenting few animals of the highest
order of merit, and, while distinguished for general
excellence, not, carrying this superiority through-
out ; that is, the classes are good, but there are, un-
fortunately, evizal instances of plain and very ordi-
nary butchers'
to remember that we
Not every exhibitor seems
want economy in flesh, the
best-grained roasting Parts with a minimum of
weigh,"—that like
r steaks juicy and tender,
and not like pieces out of a
portmanteau, "warranted
solid leather."
One feature observable in these yearly exhibitions
of live stock is the fluctuating,rather
than steadily
merit of the gold-medal beasts, and the
beet sheep and swine. .
advancing
You cannot go year after year
to the Smithfield Club marvels, and pronounce each
to be better and more valuable than its predecessor
of 12 months before, nor is the prizewinner
of to-