THE SMITHFIELD SHOW.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1568, 27 February 1879, Page 4

THE SMITHFIELD SHOW.

The late Smithfield cattle show in England (its eighty-first event <-f the kind) our foreign contemporaries all unite in saying was in no wise behind any of its predecessors. A leading agricultural paper says : “The great feature of 1878, at Islington, is the marked superiority of the ladies. Not merely does the champion prize go to a heifer, but all the conspicuous excellence in the hall is to be found in the female classes.”

In Devor s the first prize animal was an ox forty months old, weighing lacwt., which sustained the character of the breed fairly The Devon females mustered seven in two classes, and received six prizes and a commendation, This proves that the judges thought well of them. Hereford steers would seem not to have been up to their usual mark. The first prize animal an old ox, weighing 20cwt. 3 qrs,, is reported “a very complete block of beef,” The females were not remarkable, they being in too great demand for breeders. In Shorthorns a roan steer was especially noticed, a descendant of those Scotch shorthorns which have r volutionisel the Aberdeen herds, and made its beef trade. This steer was as curious a composite as could well be found. “ His sire (Welkin) was by a Cherry Grand Duke bull, from one of Mr Torr’s family of the Bates “Waterloo” tribe. His dam was of an old Sittyton sort. Himself as shapely and well-coveted a carcass as eye or hand could wish to rest on. His place at the top of a good class—at the top tat cattle show in the world—was well deserved. He was not the best of his breed to-day, but he promi-es to be the great winner of 1879.”

The hraviest steer is rep Tted to have got nothing, which shows that mere bulk does not count in England more than here. Shorthorn oxen (class 13) are recoided as one of the sigh's of the show. In this class a red-and-white ox received not only the first prize in his class, but the champion prize as best of all the males, and was preferred by some for the cup. He weighed 22 cwt, 2 qr. 15 lb., at forty-seven months old.

In heifers Icicle is said to have been worse, except for prize taking, than she was a year ago. Priory Princess, which came next, was specially commended. Her age was twentyeight months, and her weight 17 cwt 4 lbs. —1 cwt greater than any steer of the same breed at the same age. The Sussex are reported to have been a wonderful show of he-vy beasts. The steers of thirty months averaged 1(1 cwt. 1 qr. 201bs. The first prize steer weighed above 20 cwt

Four Norfolks were entered for four prizes They were scat because there were prizes in the class, not because they were worth sending. The Scotch breeds (pure) were not up to the average, except in the heifer class. The polled Scotch were better. In the cross-breeds were found some of the choicest beef producers in the show.

The beat animal, forty-four months old, weighed 21 cwt. 1 qr. 1(1 lb. Id the class for extra stock for males a remarkable entry was a black-and-white Danish ; at four years one month he weighed 13 cwt. 3 qr. Oar contemporary thinks the Danish breeders have, therefore, something still to learn before they get up to the highest level “The presence of the American oxen shown by Messis Bell, of Charterhouse s inare, and of the Danish animals, has told what keen competition all producers of any meat, short of the very best, must prepare themselves to face The American cattle were below the best Scotch or English beasts, but not below any except the very best,” says a London authority. In sheep the Leicester and South Downs were well represented and unusually good. Lincolns were not so fully shown as usual. Shropahires and Oxfordshire were capital lots. The cross-bred classes w r ero full of lai'ge and well-fed sheep, chiefly crosses between the Hampshire Down and either Cotswold or Lincoln. In swine, the white breed, the Queen’s pen was beaten by that of Lord Badnor, in the class under nine months. The class above that also contained animals of extraordinary size and ripeness. The black classes were not so ripe as the younger classes. Berkshire!) were pronounced the best in the yard. The class for single pigs was especially commended. Farmer.”