expense and under the authority of the French
Minister of Agriculture.

The brothers Collings brought into notice, if
they did not create, the Short-horn a century
ago; it has been handed down by names famous
and sacred in the agricultural world—although
strangely neglected by the compilers of biographical
dictionaries and cyclopaedias—Bates and
Booth, Earl Spencer and Earl Ducie, and others
not less famous but still alive.

Within this year three eminent breeders have
gone to the expense of importing from the
United States bulls descended from stock of the
Bates's blood, purchased by a Mr. Thorne, a
citizen of New York, at the late Earl Ducie's
sale, at a magnificent price, two of the importers
being plain practical farmers. At Leeds, the
Bates's blood won nearly all the prizes in every
Short-horn class. But, on the other hand,
Booth has had a long career of victory, and
has stout friends, foremost amongst whom
must be reckoned Emily Lady Pigott, a lady
who has distinguished herself in Short-horn
history, not only by gaining prizes, but by
publishing annual catalogues, on delicate pink
and green paper, of a descriptive character
quite new in agricultural literature. The preface
is a gem of enthusiasm for Short-horns
in general, and Booth in particular. My
lady says: " I began in the winter of 1856 by
purchasing Happiness " (fortunate lady!), " a
heifer bred by Mr. Jonas Webb, giving two
hundred and fifty guineas for her. She only
brought a bull calf, and sank away out of condition
soon after, and appeared in that plight at
the Royal at Salisbury. Eventually she
recovered her appearance, and went to Ireland to
the Dublin Spring Show in 1858, where she
took the first prize and silver medal, also the
gold medal, as best cow. She came home,
however, to die, having been literally bled to death
by the farrier, for cold caught on the passage
across. This purchase I made, not knowing one
tribe from another, and having no purpose or
aim in view. I lost in the first year above six
hundred pounds from deaths and inexperience,
but I was determined to persevere, and at Mr.
Wetherell's sale, in 1859, I gave three hundred
guineas for Stanley Rose, who won eight first
prizes and two second ditto in her three years,
and ended by winning a gold medal as best cow
in the yard. After my purchase of Stanley
Rose I began to question whether buying in tliis
desultory way was the right course to pursue,
and would it pay me? I went to Warlaby, and
made extravagant offers for animals not to be
bought. I wrote in the same strain to various
people possessing pure-bred cattle of Mr.
Booth's blood. Everywhere I was refused;
and at last I saw that those who were lucky
enough to possess these cows were quite
determined not to part with them. My energy and
perseverance, however, have at length been
rewarded, as I have never allowed any hindrance
to come between me and the purchase of
particular tribes, and I have now succeeded in
establishing a herd, the pedigrees of which are given
in these pages; and I give it as my opinion that
nothing pays the farmer half so well as stock, if
properly kept. Nothing is so remunerative as
pure Short-horn breeding to begin with;
secondly, it is only by keeping one particular
strain of blood, that a herd will succeed; and
thirdly, I am sure that of all pure tribes, Mr.
Booth's is the best to have."

We need not travel through other breeds
exhibited, the principles of the Show are fully
illustrated in the section of the cattle exhibition
of that we have just described. All that
competition can do, the Royal Society's Show
does; it brings out the finest specimens, and
helps to spoil them. When a bull or heifer
is selected for competition, from its earliest
years to full maturity, its daily supply of
milk is only limited by its appetite. A coarse-bred
cow as wet-nurse often assists a fashionable
parent, who, like some fashionable ladies,
has sacrificed her maternal qualities to appearances.
Full-grown bulls, whether Short-horns,
Herefords, or Devons, in the hands of prize-
aiming breeders, may be heard bellowing for
their mid-day pail. To this fat-making milk is
added every kind of fattening food and drink.
According to popular belief, a militia squire,
one of the most successful prize-winners of the
day, allows his competing animals an unlimited
supply of London porter; but then he keeps
his breeding herd on less tempting food and in
less rotund condition. This is the shady side
of agricultural live stock competition—just as
bribery and corruption are the shady sides of
constitutional freedom. On the other hand,
Shows combine the advantages of a great school
with a great fair. They teach the rising generation
the true form of live stock, and attract
and concentrate purchasers of the breed to
one spot by the number and variety of the
specimens. Year after year the eyes of breeders
and feeders are educated at these Shows, and
taught to distinguish and appreciate the symmetry
that is profitable. To this education,
which is equally applicable to every breed,
must be attributed the great improvement
that is annually taking place in the quality
of our beef-growing animals. Farmers have
learned that a large frame is only valuable
when so formed as to be covered with meat at
an early age. An ox fit to kill at thirty instead
of seventy-two months old, practically doubles
the feeding capacity of a farm. Agricultural
Shows have converted the exception into the
rule—the kind of cattle that brought a great
price eighty years ago, because they were
beautiful and rare, now bring a higher price
because they are beautiful and profitable.

Sheep fill the next greatest Show space, and,
occupying less attention from the mere spectators,
are perhaps even more closely examined by the
real farmers than the ox tribe. A man must
have solid capital to become a breeder of
pedigreed cattle, but moderate means will pay for
the hire of a good ram or two, and rams of
the right sort repay first in lambs, next in wool,
and finally in mutton. The steady, constant,