The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-07 00:00:00

SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE SHOW.

The Smithfield Club is 60 years old, and though
its noble patron, Francis, Duke of Bedford, declared
in 1821 that its mission was accomplished, and that
the most profitable kinds of sheep and cattle had
been brought out, still it did not die, and now
numbers about 300 members, who are enabled to
award some £1,300 worth of prizes.
The show was removed from the original confined
quarters in Goswell-street to Baker-street Bazaar in
1839; and, while the number of fat animals goes on
increasing, the display of implements permitted by
the club is threatening to be no longer a secondary
part of the exhibition. The annual complaints of
implement makers elbowing one another for room,
and of crushed and crumpled visitors, too much
jostled to inspect or buy—mitigated from year to
year by modifications of the building and its fittings,
until no further stretching or alteration seems pos-
sible beyond the cleaning and painting—have at
length found a voice in the " resolution' to be pro-
posed to the members this day—namely, " That a
sub-committee be appointed to inquire into the
practicability of procuring a better and more com-
modious place for the Smithfield Club to hold their
annual exhibitions, and report the result of their
inquiries to the next general meeting ; also, to
consult with Mr. Boulnois relative to raising the

price:of the admission on the first day of the show.'
Let the club take heart from their Midland Coun
ties brethren, who built Bingley-hall, covering an
acre and a quarter, for £7,000, and have well-uigh
extinguished their debt ; and we read the age
wrongly if country gentlemen and graziers do not
find advantage in a Metropolitan Show Hall. Then
a " select day" is certainly indispensable, if the
classes whose interest and support are desirable
are expected to compliment the show by their
presence ; for Belgravia will not endanger its pro-
priety in escorting the outskirts of fair visitors
through pushing mobs of low-priced company,
jammed between fat bullocks and machinery.
The late extension of the classes has worked well ;
and now that cross-breeds are growing in import-
ance it has become advisable to determine what
really constitutes a pure breed ; accordingly, a reso-
lution is to be proposed for such a definition.
The history of the club tells us that the
shorthorns have carried off most gold medals,
while the Herefords have won the largest
share of general prizes, the oxen of the two breeds
being about equal as medalists, but the shorthorn
cows always triumphing over their red and white
sisters. Last year the two honours went to a short-
horn ox and a shorthorn cow ; and at the present
show the breed is similarly triumphant.
The number of entries in the different classes are
as follows :
Shorthorns, 42, the same as last year ; Herefords,
26 ; Devons, 28, both considerably less than last
year. Of cattle of cross or mixed breed. we have a
large increase, there being no less than 23, or three
times the number shown before. The other breeds
amount to 52, not quite so many as on the last oc-
casion. Sheep muster about the same number of
entries as last year—namely, 129 ; and there are 58
pens of pigs, about equal to the previous show.
_ 'His Royal Highness the Prince Consort has car-
ried off the head prizes both for young and aged
Devon steers. The steer is a very compact animal,
with a good back, flank, and thigh, and a handsome
head. The Earl of Leicester's second prize steer will
be considered superior by many; Mr. Farthing's
has a larger frame, but is not equal to these in
quality. Mr. Farquharson's ox is of great size for
a Devon but is no less than seven years old. His
Royal Highness's prize ox is a very handsome beast
with a fat back, but certainly does not possess a
first-rate loin and rump of beef. Mr. Overman's
second prize ox in the same class is very evenly fed
and especially handsome. Mr. Heath, of olden
fame, takes only a commendation for an ox of great
frame, very deep and heavy ; but not having the
extraordinary touch and quality of flesh of some
others. Among the Devon cows Mr. Gibbs's is
. certainly wonderfully well-fed—her quality of
first-class. Mr. Heath gains the prize for Here-
ford steers with an animal of unusual merit,
Mr. Niblett's and Captain Peploe's being but
little inferior. His Royal Highness is fairly beaten
in this class, and wins only a commendation in the
class of Hereford oxen, which form a fine feature
in the show. Mr. Swinnerton's prize ox is the
second prize ox of the Birmingham show, and a
very good animal it is. Mr. Heath's would have
stood a chance of victory had it been somewhat bet-
ter furnished behind the shoulder. Mr. Aldworth's,
Mr. Oakley's, Mr. Shaw's, and the Earl of Darnley's
are exceedingly good beasts. The Hereford cows
are meritorious as a class, some of them particu-
larly fat. Mr. Hill's and Mr. Higgins's are both
good. Mr. Fisher Hobb's cow is also very hand-
some and nicely fed.
The shorthorns are so far superior to those or the
Birmingham show that the prize animals of last
week have now been altogether eclipsed, except, in-
deed, that Mr. Stratton's magnificent steer, which
took the first prize in its class there, is nowhonoured
with the gold medal. The Earl of Radnor's and
Col. Pennant's, in the same class, are also of con-
siderable merit. Mr. Marriott's prize ox is remark-
ably fine ; and, indeed, Earl Spencer's, the Earl of
Radnor's, the Marquis of Exeter's, and several other
extremely good beasts make the shorthorn ox class
very grand indeed. Mr. Brown's heifer winning
the gold medal for " the best cow or heifer " justly
merits her honour, but is, unfortunately, affected
by a contagious distemper rendering necessary her
removal from the yard.
We can hardly approve the award of the second
prize to a heifer excellent in some points, but de-
fective at the shoulder, and with an unlevel back,
that highly commended being better shaped, but
not considered by the judges, perhaps, as having as
good a quality of meat. The shorthorn cows are
wonderfully fine, as they always are. Mr. Swinner-
ton's cow is beaten by the splendid animal of Mr.
Fletcher, and Mr. Barnett's is a great beauty.
The ussex cattle make a good show. The
Scotch classes are, as usual, indebted to the Duke
of Beaufort for some good specimens, Mr. Martin
and Viscount Hill being also successful exhibitors.
In the mixed breed classess are many good beasts,
principally crosses of shorthorns with other breeds
—but we are utterly unable to examine their re-
spective merits and characteristics in the limited
number of hours allotted to 1119 " private view."
The show of sheep is uncommonly good—the
short-wools and cross-breds being more than equal
to what has been witnessed on former occasions,
and the long-wools and Leicesters better than we
have yet seen them. Mr. Jordan takes the gold
medal for his Leicestcrs. Mr. Foljambe, the Mar-
quis of Exeter, Lord Berners, Mr. West, and Mr.
Hewer, showing particularly good sheep. Mr.
Oxerman's beautiful cross-breds are successful in
two classes ; the Duke of Richmond, Mr. Rigslen;
and Lord Walsingham take prizes with their most
beautiful formed and handsome Downs. A.
The pigs deserve a paragraph to themsplves, as
never did they advance upon London ii greater
force than in this year's show. It was stated that
this year has been most prolific in p all over the
United Kingdom, and if we are to ?edge from the
elite of this amiable family sent up'or exhibition,
we should say that it has beencitS remarkable for
quality as for quantity. Let the visitor; by all
means, hurry off to pen 335, exhibited by Mr. Beale,
a Leicestershire breeder, andsaontemplate in wonder
the immense cylinders f pork which• breedinz, and
fending have produced. The three immense animals
recline in the most perfect ease and comfort during
the whole of yesterday evening's inspection, and
treated with the greatest nonchalance and contempt
the curious crowds who attempted to poke and'
punch them into an erect posture. IVe were so
fortunate as to arrive at the moment when the
Daniel Lambert of the family was having his por-
trait taken, and can truly state that his sublime
composure much facilited the artist's efforts to catch
the... exact expression of his placid countenance. Of
this most useful class we may generally say, that
the decisions seem to have been guided by a rule
somewhat different from that which obtained with
respect to the horned cattle. With the oxen, breed,
symmetry, and grace appeared to be the desiderata,
but amongst the p bulk carried all before it .
There were in fact no small pigs exhibited, and
those which obtained the
if not the largest boned, gold medal were certainly
at least the fattest of the
whole lot. We have
neases
the
deeisioln ys further
of
in many
thejudges completely
reversed the previous onesat Birmingham, and that
the gold medals of the MidlariCCounties were
" now/Acre" at the Smithfield Show. The arrange-
ments of the show yard exhibited this year their
usual excellence, and the ventilation wasf
as to keep even the most obese animals in aso perfect
statel of
comfort. The result was that all preserved positions
the most favourable for inspection, and there was
none of that panting and other symptoms of dis-
tress which sometimes form a serious drawback on
the enjoyment derivable from contemplating what
is generally admitted to be the finest collection of
live stock in the werld.
The implement division of the exhibition com-
prises the steam engines and threshing machines of
our principal makers, and the usual dense accumu-
lation of chaff-cutters, mills, pumps, clod-crushers,
&c., and the conspieuous stalls of seeds and roots
tastefully arranged. The principal novelties are
Burgess-and Key's new American grass-mower for
cutting hay more closely than the scythe, Samuel-
son's American reaping-machine, with a self-acting
rake to deliver the cut corn in sheaf bundles,, and
an American corn-dressing machine for separating
grain on an entirely new principle—an " exhaust"
being combined with a blast and riddle.
Models of Fowler's steam-plough and of Ro-
maine's steam-digger are exhibited, and Mr. Smith
shows some specimens of mangolds grown by his