he really useful breeding animal,
and when the show was over they were sold to the butcher. I would not
propose any rule to be laid down to exclude animals from our
exhibitions on account of their condition, because the proper amount of
flesh can never be satisfactorily settled; nor can it be definitely
fixed when an animal should be excluded as being too fat for breeding.
The experiment was tried at some of our national shows, but utterly
failed, as the jury could not agree. The rules of the Highland Society
are good so far as they go--viz., that unless the owner of cows that
have not had a calf in the year of the exhibition, and of the
two-year-old heifers that have been awarded prizes, can certify that
the animals have had a calf--the cows in four months and the heifers in
nine after the exhibition--the money prize will be withheld. But this
does not cover the difficulty, as the prize-money is of secondary
importance to the majority of exhibitors--being first on the prize-list
is their main ambition; but, I believe, it is all that rules can reach.
The only safeguard lies with the council and the directors--and the
strong moral force of the exhibitors ought to be brought to bear upon
them--of our national and local cattle-shows. They ought to appoint no
one, however highly connected, unless he is _acknowledged a judge by
the exhibitors of the class of stock to which he is appointed_. If
the right man be put in the right place, there will seldom be cause to
complain of overfed useless breeding animals gaining the prizes; but if
ignorant forward men are appointed, you are certain to see the fattest
animals at the top of the prize-list. At one of our great shows the
same judges were appointed for cattle and sheep;--they were
unexceptional judges of cattle, but knew very little about
breeding-sheep. There were two pens of breeding-ewes in competition:
one of the pens was from a first-class stock of sheep, but from hill
pasture; the other was from a jobber, who had selected them from the
common sheep in the country, but had grazed them with the cows on the
farm, and they were in high condition--they wanted style and breeding.
The judges were hesitating as to which of the pens the prize should be
awarded to, when one of them exclaimed, "Stop, stop; let me in o'er
till I handle them!"--an Aberdeen man likes something that will handle,
whether ox or sheep. He went, and after he had performed the handling
proof, which required