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

Smithfield Club Show in the Agricultural

Hall.

A nation that, in addition to all its textile, mine-
ral, r:nd other indnstrie3, employs other £200,000,000
sterling of tenants' capital in the production of corn
and cneat, and many millions more in the manufac-
ture of machined and manures which entice mother
earth to bestow good gifts upon her hungry child-
ren, may well be proud and conservative of its agri-
culture. Euglish husbandry has its colleges, its huge
societies, its fine implement factories, its model
drainage wotks, its scientific farmsteads, and its last
great achievement is tillage by steam power—many
hundreds of ploughs and cultivators now followin-,
the wire rope along the deep furrow or through the
rapidly-riven staple either of clay or lighter soil
while Egypt, the West Indies, France, and other
countries have successfully adopted these inventions.
Bait a bounteous harvest, with its concomitants of a
bad market, has confirmed the fallacy of John Bull's
farming 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 true 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 fleshmeat 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 ls., the attendance will
be exceedingly large. In the morning the show
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 duly received
by the President, Lord Walsingham; the Vice-Pre-
sident, the Duke of Richmond; the President elect,
Lord Tredegar ; Mr. Brandreth Gibbs, the hono-
rary Secretary ; Mr. Sidney, the Secretary to the
oei
Hall Company; and by the stewards and judges
As a whole, the Show is fully equal. to any f sts
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 welt
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
Hood'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
second-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. Aldworth, 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 not of any great
weight or dimensions.
Shot thorns 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.
Thompsou'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
Me. 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 P
Mr. Swaisland's very perfectly finished heifer,
Oekbud," which gained the gold medal as best
female and the Innk eepers' plate as best animal
n 33ingley-salt, here stands again without a
rival, winning the silver cup as best female in
the shoe. She has both Bates and Booth blood,
with
, an intertninolinr, of Macon and Cartwright
—out
cumai:,nit:siiitohfstandin; her .'
wonderfully even ac-
nes,
yet ash, possessing that precise firm-
tuleity of touch which a judge likes
to feel, we
a iss in her the rare charm of cha-
racter, the hall
ome head and fine docile eye,
and superior
Tern rst's peachple, so noted in Sir Charles
Colonel l'ownel&y's " Vic-
tor:a" and " Beeet3,,aand
butterfly," of a few years back.
Mr. Stratton's strawberrytiheifer is very pretty, and
Mr. Fauikner's third
prize heifer also, of great
merit. Three rare c 0,,,
riatask for the judges in their ciaesa somewhat difficult
8. Mr. Lynn's very
handsome but loosely-hamiiin
at B irm in gleam ;
gi4ov? is here second,
though first
b
third; and both eclipsed Me. Is,
r. Abbott's fairly
leitthew's level,
handsome, fine-boned " Beauty:,
There is an extensive and capital
allow
of
he
ful red Sussex cattle. Norfolk anti
tr oitk use-
about an average in quality'. Lot
tiiorn
classesolls
we have a considerable improvement hamerit,
though the number of entries is small. The
fine ."'`Mr. h
•
cattle classes era exceedingly .
West Highland (the Birmingham "MrSne' :1
best an) 1„)
,
with red-brown shaggy coat, and spreading horn,
is one of the most extraordinary animals this breed
has produced—one square, thick, wonderfully deep
framed carcass, all prime beef, as it were, 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. Sowell 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 character; and Mr. Allan Pol:ok's admirable
cross between a shorthorn and Galloway. The classes
of Extra Stock are very large, and so are some of the
animals exhibited ; but quality, rather than mere
bulk, wins the palm, Mr. Birkbeck's Devon and
Mr. Paeke's white heifer taking the '
two prizes.
1
Giblett b s ows a good Alderney, and Mr.
-Whitby a greater curiosity in the shape of a pretty
red and white Brittany milker.
•
.4vlewing 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
out ; that is, she classes
this superiority through-
fortunately, several sses are good, but there are,
instancesun-
fortunately, of plain and very ordi-
nary butchers' beasts.
to remember that we Wantet every exhibitor seems
best-grained roasting parts economy in flesh, the
41 weigh,"—that we like ourstewiaksth
.a minimum of
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 t
gold-mehan
steadily-
advancing merit of th
You cannot e dal beast, , and the
best sheep and swine. 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 prize-winner of to,