AGRICULTURAL SHOWS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1406, 13 November 1886, Page 3

AGRICULTURAL SHOWS.

As this is the season at which it has long been the custom in this colony to hold the annual shows of the various Agricultural and Pastoral Associations, it may be worth while to raise the question as to whether such exhibitions are really held at the most suitable time and conducted on lines the best adapted to secure the results which they are intended to promote. Taking the last point first we have come across a suggestive article in the Live Stock Journal,%Qxaz of the remarks in which, though of course relating to Home circumstances and conditions, are yet to some extent applicable to this colony, The writer of the article referred to says that the Home societies are not Supported by farmers, because the special wants of farmers are overlooked by them. He then goes on to say : f* No farm can be conducted without ryork-horses. The difference between the day ? s labor got through by capable teams and those where the quadrupeds keep the bipeds back, is the difference of profit and loss to the occupier. What kind of encouragement is there given by shows to farmers’ horses ? The farmer is helped to breed large drayhorses for town work beyond a doubt, as he is hackneys for the professional classes to ride, hunters fur the swells to take their pleasure on, and carriagehorses to increase the pomp of Sir Gorgious Midas. How much assistance does he receive in the endeavour to breed * first-rate horses ’ for his own use ? There are classes for heavy and light weight hunters ; for hackney pfc}det and hackney over i4st. ; how often does one find heavy draughthbrses sub-divided ? Yet ihe ploughhorse is as distinct from the dray-horse as the hackney is from the hunter. Where are classes opened for such as suifthe work of the farm, the plough, fjie reaper, the drill, and the waggon,

\ as well as for the lorry and the brewer’s dray ? It is notorious that, for ’busses and tram cars, buyers have to go abroad, * because that class of active hardy r draught horse is scarce in England. What have agricultural societies ever f’ done to make them more plentiful ? . It is sometimes said —‘ Oh, help the r breeder to produce good “ bjg uns ■ ” : there will always be enough fall other- ■ wise tor other purposes.’ 1 his is one 1 of the halt-truths, of which Tennyson sang, ‘ A lie, which is half the truth, is ever the worst of lies.’ We believe the , refuse left in breeding * big uns,’ to be ihe worst possible stock a man can have *to work a farm with. We were talking, the other day, with a man who has occupied for over forty years on one .farm the post of head horseman. His father held it before him for almost as long a period. The question was put, ‘Do you think the horses are better now than they were when you first took them ? ’ ‘I know they ain’t,’ was the prompt rejoinder ; ‘ they ain’t so quick ■ they ain’t so handy, and I don’t believe there are three sound horses on the farm.’ This was in a case where five or six foals, yearly, are reared—the sires, which take the prizes at the country shows, being mostly employed. No doubt, several showy colts have been reared and sold -possibly at a profit ; but the stable—those which are left behind to do the work—are distinctly worse then they used to be when special stallion shows were not in existence.” Passing on to the classification of cattle, the same writer says : —“ Now, classification, complete and welldevised, is the very life of all large co-operative action. In the beginning of agricultural society career a bull was a bull and a cow a cow ; and the managers thought a prize ‘ for the besc bull ’ and ‘ for the best cow,’ a sufficient and satisfactory provision. Within a year or two the Cambridgeshire Society’s Show had no other division than this. By-and-by the societies got to distinguish good breeds of cattle. This sub-division increased ! rapidly in neat-stock. But, in horses, j classification sticks fast with the types which the horsey cits delight in, or ( such as suit those fiugc: consumere nati. I The farmer’s wants get little recogni- ‘ tion anywhere ; and as much may be said about the classes for his dairy | cattle. The number of societies which, | up to this minute, administer, with i insight into the farmer’s wants, the i money in the classes for “ Dairy a cattle,” may be counted upon the digits i of a man’s hand who has lost his fore- * finger pnd was born without a thumb.” 8 As we have said, though not perhaps j wholly applicable to the case of New i Zealand Shows, we think that the c foregoing remarks contain useful hints a as to the necessity of greater encour- 1 agement being given to the breeding 8 of horses specially adapted for different descriptions of farm work, and to the a breeding of useful dairy cattle; but, q besides the question of a better classification of exhibits, there is that of the time at which the shows should be held. Probably the reason why nearly 1 all our shows are held in October or ~ November is that the time is just before shearing, and admits of the sheep being shown with the full season’s £ fleece, but unquestionably just after the close of winter is anything but a favorable lime for the exhibition of horses and cattle, the latter especially. It is a very expensive process to keep ■ them through the winter months in _ anything like show condition, and we believe that a very much larger number of entries would be obtained if the exhibitions were held at the beginning of autumn, say in the month of L March, Nor would it be at all a disad- jj vantageous time for sheep, as they would then carry from four to five months’ fleece. We have heard practical farmers strongly express the opinion that such a change of date for the shows would be a great advantage, and we think the subject well worthy the consideration of the several c societies. t