maker, which got the first prize at Leeds, in the Priory meadow; and in a few minutes the horse was put to, and the swathes of Italian grass, which had been cut down specially to try the machine in a two-horse shape, were flying aloft once more. The great improvements in it are the zigzag arrangement of the fork barrels, which prevents the hay from clogging, and enables the forks to get hold of smaller pieces, and the eccentric movement by which the backward or forward movements are adjusted. The former has the effect of loosening the swathe better, and laying it at least three inches higher; while the roller behind the driver prevents lodgment. The presence of the photographer's art was also indicated in the close by the white canvas frame under the sycamore; and heaps of elm and poplar, some of them sprouting before their packing-case turn arrives, ash for horse-rake and haymaker shafts, and oak for steam-plough windlasses, made up the motley array of wood. If the six stone coffins which lie there as the sole above-ground relics of the Priory could speak for their "handfuls of white dust," they would take comfort from the thought that wood, their supplanter, has had at least, in its implement estate, to bow the knee to (iron) stone once more.

The first-prize haymaking machine was James Howard's memento of Leeds; but his brother Charles had an equally creditable one in the first prize for bull calves at his very first essay as a Shorthorn exhibitor: and we were not long in reaching the home from which Lord Sydney Spencer, and his brother Lord Stanley ditto, went forth to do battle last July. The road lay past St. Peter's Green, the pride of Bedford, and the very ideal of rus in urbe, and down the street of Dame Alice Harpur, whose pious memory, as well as her knight's, poor widows and decayed tradesmen will bless for ever and aye. Mr. James Howard's trial farm is on the Clapham Hill, to our right; and pretty well its bosom is racked in season by the steam-cultivators. His brother also farms ninety acres at "The Priory," close by Bedford, but we saw nothing in our line there, save some of his favourite cross-bred fowls (of which the hens are especially beautiful), and which we can only describe, in true breeders' fashion, as by a golden pencil, dam by a Cochin, grandam by a game cock. Two miles more brought us to Mr. Howard's residence at Biddenham, which lies a short distance off the high road between Bedford and Olney. The house is quite in the old grange style. Vine, apricot, and greengage, and the white-stalked fig, with geraniums, cluster over its Elizabethan gables; and the thick ivy not only clings, but bestows the flower of its days on the porch. Still we were matter-of-fact enough to lean to the mulberry tree, because the first Biddenham Shorthorn bargain (for a Knightley Cardinal) was made under its shade; and we saw no prospect like that from the garden-wall, when the heifers in the opposite meadow fairly focussed themselves between two trees, whose boughs met overhead, and composed a rustic frame. Mr. Howard occupies forty acres of Lord Dynevor's at Bromham Park, but the bulk of his farm is the 310 acres at Biddenham, which he has held under the same gentleman since 1847. It is all turnip soil, and rather a sharp gravel, by the side of the Ouse, which runs round it-horse-shoe fashion. The cultivation is entirely upon the fourcourse system; and it is upon his flock of 200 Oxford Down ewes, whose produce are kept liberally, that Mr. Howard has long made his stand, and earned his "cross of honour" at Smithfield.

He began originally with half Leicester and Sussex Downs, from Mr. Chandler of Snelson, but in 1851 he fell in love with Mr. Gillett's first prize OxfordshireDown shearling, at Windsor, and that decided him to get rid of half-breds, and boldly try his hand as a ram

breeder. His first step was to hire the shearling in question, and then he gradually worked up his flock by interchanges of Druce and Gillett blood, till within the last two years, when he has begun to use his own rams entirely. At the Warwick Royal, where he hired Mr. Druce's first prize shearling, his pen of ewes was highly commended in a class, which was commended en masse; and at Canterbury the next year, he had an H C and C for rams. Battersea will find Oxfordshire Downs with a distinct class of their own, instead of competing with Hampshire Downs. The Fates at Baker-street were more kind, and already he has entered a first, two seconds, and a third to his own and the shepherd's credit for wethers of 22 months. James Makeham (who dwells on a knoll in one of the prettiest sheep garths we know) has always had a good name for twins, and he has kept it at three successive Bedfordshire Shows, by winning the prize, with on one occasion 276 lambs from 200 ewes. His pen of 10 ewes at the same meeting in 186061 had the cup card tied over them, to say nothing of divers prizes with wethers and theaves. Some of the latter with a few rams were lately exported to Sweden and Hanover (to which country another lot is now bound); and upwards of thirty shearling rams are annually sold into his own and the neighbouring counties. To unite the quality of the Southdown with a larger frame and heavier fleece has been Mr. Howard's aim, and he has worked right surely and well towards the front rank.

The Biddenham Herd proper, only began in 1858, previous to which time Mr. Howard had merely bought beasts to sell out. Lady Spencer 2nd was the first purchase, and now the females include four Lady Spencers, five Charmers, three Gracefuls, seven Gwynnes, and three Pearls, and the bulls bring the numbers up to twoand-thirty. The young stock were in Goody's close on the opposite side of the road, and doing credit to its rich natural grass. Among them, Sybilla from Sylph had not given her owner reason to regret that by a mistake of orders she is by British Baronet, and not by Mayduke; but the deep milking of Grace Howard, who lost her calf at two years old, had told not a little against her looks. She was bought in her dam Graceful at Mr. Harvey Combe's sale, and has the good middle and nice open head of the Marmadukes, but her younger sister Grace Darling by Harry of Glos'ter has more gayness and elegance. Three crosses of Booth, Hamlet, Hopewell, and Sir Samuel, unite in the long and low May Maid from Maydew. Pero from Pearl pleased us not a little with her nice forehand of the Booth type, and if her top line were equal to her other points, she would be a very attractive heifer; while the nice coat of Sunnetta by Mayduke from Sunflower spoke more for her than her actual looks. Mayduke had another representative in Faustina Gwynne from Flora Gwynne, long and useful seventeen months heifer, with the nice crops and fore-quarter of her tribe, but a trifle dipped in her loins.

Her dam Flora Gwynne, a purchase at the Blencowe sale, was one of the main objects of the yard as we passed through it to the Old Manor or the Dove Cote pasture; but as she was all but down calving the first of the Thorndale line at Biddenham, we did not ask her to rise. Florence Gwynne, another of her daughters by Duke of Cambridge, looked old for her years, although she has had but one calf, and that happy consummation was only arrived at by the removal of the clytoris. Lady Selina Spencer, a combination of the blood of Second Duke of Cambridge and Lady Spencer 2nd by Usurer, and so back to No. 55 at Chilton, found luck not in leisure, but in haste. Her dam was bought at Aynhoe for something above 100 guineas, and Lady Selina was the first "Shorthorn of not less than four

pure crosses" that Mr. Howard ever had. At three years and a month, she was the dam of three, and one of them the Leeds prize calf; so that first purchase, first calf, and first Royal prize all followed in close and regular order. She is a nice, hardy, short-legged cow, with a capital bag; and her half-brother by Mayduke took the head yearling bull prize for Mr. Robinson at the Bedfordshire meeting. The lean neat-cut head and sweet eye bespoke Sylph's descent from Sweetheart 4th of that Charmer sort, but Sunflower from Sweetheart 3rd was hardly fit to "receive," as she had slipped twin bull calves nearly three months before to the Duke of Leinster, and had never got over it. Day's Eye of the Jobson sort looked a rare milker, but she has seen her best days, and Orphan Gwynne and Fair Fanny Gwynne, a great fine white heifer, represented that hardy-looking family. The former by Duke of Glos'ter (11382) is below her kinswoman in looks, and rather mean in her colour, and claims descent from Daphne Gwynne bought at Mr. Tanqueray's sale, and soon through five Gwynnes.

Graceful, a purchase at Mr. Harvey Combe's sale, and a daughter of Pearl's, were put up to feed; and a rare half-sister of the latter, and a clever and blood-like red calf, Syriac, from Sylph, spoke favourably for the Duke of Leinster's stay, although we thought that some of his calves, both here and at Clifton, had a tendency to be on leg. We found its fruits again in two older calves, which were led out, one of them a neat red-andwhite, Lady Semele Spencer, from Lady Selina Spencer (the dam of the bull calves), and Fortuna Gwynne from Frances Gwynne, a very nicely-formed roan, with all the fine crop characteristics of the tribe. Both of them, along with Lady Salome Spencer, were being prepared for Battersea, but not being stuffed against time. Lady Salome, by Harry of Glo'ster, was the last calf of Lady Spencer 2nd (who died of ossification of the aorta), and quite the plum of the herd. This Leeds C is not exactly fashionable in her style, but wealthy and good; her rare loin catches your eye at once, and her fine deep breast gives her the orthodox prize-waddle as she comes towards you.

The Duke of Cumberland appeared next on the green, and reminded us rather of his kinsman Druid, although his horn is less exalted. Harry of Gloster and Day's Eye had produced a lengthy useful bull in Daylight, with nice quarters and twist, and five Sonsies in his pedigree. Mr. Howard had sold his brother to a Swedish agriculturist; and shortly before, Sir W. Capel de Brooke had taken a fancy to Lord Sydney Spencer's white twin brother Lord Stanley. The pair were by Hayman (a son of Booth's Highthorn and Claret's grandam), and were the first, along with Lady Salome Spencer, that Mr. Howard ever sent to the Royal, where Lord Sydney had to meet a field of thirtyone. As a yearling Lord Sydney is hardly a show bull, and wants quite another year to come to his frame. He has a nice masculine head, well-covered shoulder points, and a mellow touch, but his middle is rather too big in his present hobbledehoy, state, and he is not quite so good behind the shoulders as we should like to see him. The Second Duke of Thorndale loomed in sight for the finale, and we were glad to accept him, even "without his thatch." He was fairly maw bound, and burnt up with inward fever, when he arrived last June, with three Duchesses, two Oxford bulls, and an Oxford heifer, per City of Baltimore, and was received by Mr. Strafford and a regular deputation of Bates's men, at Liverpool. The heavy course of physic reduced him nearly 30 stone, and Messrs. Howard and Robinson, who bought him between them, often thought that their 400 gs. was doomed, without having a calf to show for it. However, he got round with great care and patience, and he

now keeps moving, at intervals, between his two country residences, the Shed and the Orchard, Biddenham and Clifton, in his one-horse van. He is a bull of great length, about eight feet (from between his horns to the root of his tail), three-eighths of which is taken up with a peculiarly slashing forehand, with nicely covered shoulder points, and the only fault of the head is a peculiar fleshiness about the eye.

We stopped en route to Clifton at Bromham Park, of which Mr. Howard has the occupancy, to see Pearl 4th, a white eleven-year-old daughter of old Benedict. The substantial Frances Gwynne bore her company, and we thought her as much, if not most, like the Pearl tribe of the two; but an attack of the mouth-and-foot disease had affected her bag, and she will milk no more. After this divergence, which tempted us on for a distant peep at Oakley, and all its old paddock recollections of Taurus, Oakley, Minotaur, Envoy, and last, though not least, of Asteroid, we struck into the road to Clifton again. It lies principally by the bank of the Ouse, and twice over, we found ourselves, riding for nearly a mile on each side of Turvey, beneath a complete canopy of trees. A wondrous change has come over Turvey since Leigh Richmond, the little lame pastor," lived and laboured there, and was not accounted least in that glorious throng in which Venn, Milner, Hannah More, and Wilberforce were all living names. The benefit clubs and schools, which he first planted, seemed to bear eloquent witness to his memory; and, to judge from the whole look of the place, comfort and education reigned paramount. Peace and war were both vividly represented as we passed through it. At one end of it a large clerical meeting had just broken up, and groups of black-coats were strolling up and down the grounds of the Abbey; and on the opposite outskirts of the village a score of mounted Volunteer Rifles, in their scarlet jackets, were going through the sword exercise in a meadow, and making savage menaces at their boots and the buttercups.

Mr. Robinson's residence lies about three miles farther away, on the summit of a hill just above the Vale of Olney. The estate, which was left him by his father, consists of 930 acres, of which he has six hundred in hand, and a third of it under plough. It is on limestone rock and loam, and stone brash. By the aid of expensive manure, two white crops often follow in succession, and always three before it is in fallow again. The dry layer of grass enables the cattle to be out all winter without treading the land, and the great pasture of sixty acres which slopes down to the Ouse regularly carries its one Hereford and half a sheep per acre. The "paleface" finds a second home in the Vale of Aylesbury and the Ouse, and thousands are bought in for that purpose at the Northampton fairs. The vale in which Olney stands is one succession of meadows, separated by Holland dykes; and as the pasture is dried up towards autumn on the neighbouring hills, Herefords, Welsh runts, Devons, half-bred sheep, and Dorset tups are driven down to the holdings, just as elsewhere they are wont to adjourn to the marshes. Olney, which is now one long street, without any very distinct trade, was originally formed by those migratory habits of cattle-drivers, and then Cowper and his arbour (for which pilgrims have shown their devotion by the most insane scribbling and ruthless knife-knotching) conferred immortality and picnic profits. Its tall church spire, and mill with the two-headed stream, lie in the very centre of the Vale, more famed for beef and butter, than for those tremendous runs which have made Belvoir and Aylesbury so renowned. All round it, however, the panorama is bounded by the rich chain of Oakley and Grafton Hunt woodlands. From old Cross Albans Wood the eye roams round by the Emberton hill-side, past Hanslope and Stoke park, to Easton Wood; and

above Weston Underwood, Yardley Chace joins on to Salcey Forest, where Will Wells and George Beers have given the whaw-hoop over many a well-earned fox. Mr. Robinson is by no means exclusive in his Shorthorn tastes. Besides his five dozen Herefords, he buys at least 40 Devons or Welsh runts, as three-year-olds, and passes them on, after seven months' residence, via Wolverton, to London. In sheep his fancy runs with a cross of Down and Leicester, which he crosses with an Oxford Down, or sometimes a West Dorset tup, and sells out the fat lambs at four or five months. The ewes, about 200 in number, are bought fresh nearly every year, and their produce, when crossed with an Oxford Down, generally cut from nine to ten pounds of wool. The Shorthorn herd numbers about seventy head, of which thirty are breeding cows and heifers. The whole lot are priced, and Australia and the Emperor of the French have been leading customers so far. Mr. Robinson is not one of the "force meat" division; and the "cooking" extends very little beyond boiled crushed corn and linseed, poured hot on to chaff, and a little cake in addition. The bull-calves always have the pail, but if the heifer calves are dropped in March or April they suck their dams. So far he has never got up anything for Smithfield, but has been a steady supporter of the Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire Shows. He never appeared at The Royal till it met at Warwick, where he brought the yearling Hayman and a bull-calf. His Canterbury pilgrimage had a happier result, as "Claret from Clifton bins" (an image the appropriateness of which will be recognised by any one who remembers the great feeding shed) was third to the Gunter twins; and Norman Duke won a H. C. in the bull-calf class, and went to Australia forthwith.

It is now about a third of a century since Mr. Robinson, senior, purchased his first shorthorn bull Attratum by Attraction, from Old Philip Skipworth, to use upon dairy stock; and the cross came out so well, that in '38 he sent his son with £300 (and Mr. Strafford as pilot) to Mr. Chrisp's of Doddington's sale, and they got Red Duchess (120 gs.-dam of Mr. Stratton's Red Duke) and four others for the money. In the autumn of the same year, Mr. Robinson, senior, went to Castle Howard, and gave 300gs. for Malibran and 100gs. for Jemima, a heifer out of Foggathorpe, which cow was bought by Mr. Bates at the same sale; and followed up his introduction to "the Yarm philosopher" by hiring Shorttail, a pure Duchess bull, from him for 100 gs. In 1841 he bought the Clifton estate; and his residence at Bletsoe terminated with a sale of seventy lots, at an average of about £44. Shorttail got very few calves, and Nonsuch was bought from Mr. Bates in his stead; but still Mr. Robinson reserved the three heifers by him, and the trio, with Malibran, Jemima, and Taglioni, arrived at Clifton. Of these, Taglioni never bred; Malibran had twelve calves, and Colonel Pennant bought her twelfth calf Mayflower; a bull, Grimaldi, out of her was sold for 100 gs. to Mr. Watson, of Walkeringham, and the Emperor of the French had the last of the tribe. Half of the present herd are descendants of Jemima by Benjamin from Foggathorpe; and the Queens date back to Princess, one of the Shorttail heifers. Not a few are of the tribe of Jeanetta, a Homer cow, bought at one of Mr. Wetherell's sales in calf to Bellville; and she, Malibran, Jemima, and seven heifers, were the present Mr. Robinson's start in 1848, when his father valued the stock over to him.

The beginning seemed fair enough; but the lung disease fell upon them the very next spring, and a rising herd was speedily knocked down to four. As a first step, Mr. Robinson went to Mr. Beaseley's for three of the J sort, Josephine, Jantza, and Jumper. The next spring found him by the side of the Kirklevington sale,

ring; and after bidding unsuccessfully for Second Duke of Oxford, he got the last nod at 65 gs. for Third Duke of Oxford, own brother to Oxford Sixth. Unfortunately he had contracted an Indian-juggler habit of swallowing, not knives, but any cold iron which fell in his way, and his windpipe became so ulcerated that he died of starvation. On a post-mortem, his paunch was found to be full of nails with great heads, and as bright as burnished silver. He only left three heifers behind him, Queen Bess, Lady Margaret, and Prizeflower. A visit to the Fawsley sale ended in the purchase of Cardinal (11246) by Grey Friar, from Fillet, which was then a bull calf, for 91 gs. Junia and Johanna joined the ranks from Aynhoe; but the latter lost all her calves, and Junia has had three heifers. Naphtha had been bought at Aynhoe some years before, and goes back direct to No. 13 at the Chilton sale. She was the dam of several good heifers, and grandam of the heifer calf which was sold for 200 gs. at Leeds. Four Gwynnes were added from Mr. Troutbeck's of Blencowe, but only Miss Maggy and Sylvia were got to breed; and Sweetheart 2nd from Mr. Adkins, and eight heifers from the Hon. Noel Hill's, pretty well complete the female purchase catalogue.

Highthorn (13028) from Warlaby took Cardinal's place in 1856, but his hiring was not a lucrative one. British Prince followed, and prospered better, and, though a white bull himself, left a far larger number of roans than the roan Highthorn. Booth and Bates were combined in May Duke by Grand Duke from Vivacity by Fitzleonard, and the only calf she ever had. At the end of two seasons he was let to Earl Spencer, and one of Mr. Robinson's own breeding, Hayman by Highthorn from an Earl of Dublin cow, took his place. He was another instance of a white getting roans whatever he was put on; but on Mr. Robinson deciding to have another trial with a pure Booth, he was sold to Mr. Burton near Biggleswade, and Duke of Leinster by Harbinger from Sylph by Hopewell was hired from Mr. Barnes of Ireland, and passed on, when his season was over, to Mr. Waldo's of Kent, to make room for Bates once more in the Second Duke of Thorndale.

Mayduke was the present tenant in possession of the bull-paddock, which has certainly no "marrow" in England, that we have seen or heard of. It is about two acres in extent, walled all round, and the grandson of Vivandière was comfortably enjoying himself under a wide-spreading walnut tree, as Duke of Thorndale, Highthorn, and British Prince had done before him. During his first two years' stay, he escaped from his solitude, and created as great a panic in the little village by his antics, as when the historical tigress attacked the mail. As he eyed us from the opposite side of the ditch, we felt it best to make no farther approaches, and contented ourselves with admiring his fine forehead and deep breast. Messrs. Carr, Bolden, and the Hon. Noel Hill all used him, and the latter parted with him for 100gs., after he had been highly commended as an aged bull at Chester. Leaving his domain, we crossed the Water Hills, and the site of the old Clifton manor-house. Squire Small, "one of the sprucest men that ever graced the Pytchley hunting field," and one of the first to raise the price of hunters, has long since been laid to his rest in the adjoining church, and nothing but the indentation of the cellars, which generally contrive to leave their mark last, remains to tell of so many nights of hunting revelry. The small fox-cover on the bank has distressed Mr. Robinson (who is a constant Oakley man), by not holding a litter this season; but we soon forgot that trouble when we found ourselves wending our way across a field of early mangels, towards the Little Pasture,

Hereford and Mayduke steers, one of them from Claret's grandam, have it in keeping; but the Great Pasture brings us into the heart of things, and the presence of the matrons of the herds. The greatest pains have been bestowed on it, as it has been drained four feet, and been dressed with 3 cwt. of half-inch bones per acre, which has told its goodly tale on the cream. The bag of Red Bonnet tallied with the cream report; but fine as her show was in this respect, she had not so much fashion as her daughter Red Hart, whose heifer-calf, Revelry, was the first arrival to the Second Duke of Thorndale. Old white Lady Mary still lives as one of the quartett of relics from the lung disease; and the show days of the grand old Prizeflower are over. She is the dam of five; and that well-known Royal judge, Mr. Ladds, admires her so much, that he had bespoken her "Duke" calf if it was a bull; but an unfortunate slip ended that bargain. Just the Sort by Harry of Glos'ter is rather of the broad and thick British Prince style; and the name might have been applied to old Sweetheart by Earl of Dublin, a grand cow just beginning to cushion with age. Somnambulist was sold for 100 guineas to Australia, and, save Specimen by Mameluke, she has bred them all bulls. May Duke and Monk were united in Rose of February, which might be better behind the shoulders, and Hopewell and Hamlet in the deepbodied, short-legged Pearl, which had hardly hit with Duke of Leinster. Sylvia Gwynne was a nice framed, good cropped cow; rather big hips did not militate much against Queen of the May; and the old red and gay Junia, had a Juno at her side. The low and long roan Crystal is quite the queen of the spot, and it was lucky that Mr. Robinson had the moral courage to say "No" when Mr. Strafford offered 100 guineas for her to make up a lot for the Emperor of the French. Since then her heifer calf Cameo has gone to Australia, and her bull calf Champagne to Earl Spencer's at the same price, and Colonel Pennant's offer of 250 guineas for her daughter Claret was refused in the yard at Canterbury. Crystal is by Cardinal, from Eglantine by Earl of Dublin, and the last of the old cow's progeny. At present both she and her daughter are in calf to the Duke of Thorndale, and it is from them that Mr. Robinson trusts to raise his most important tribe.

Cardinal was represented again in the Road Close, by the deep big Vixen, from Lady Mary; there, too, were Miss Maggie Gwynne, a roan from whites on both sides, and a 105-guinea purchase from Mr. Troutbeck's. Just in Time, dam of Just the Sort, had a good middle, and save and excepting her commonish head, much of British Prince's style and colour. Two of that bull's daughters, Naphtha and British Beauty, kept each other in countenance and company. Both of them were a little up in the back, but British Beauty had a great deal of substantial elegance. Fairlight, dam of the Leeds calf, Fashion, by Third Grand Duke, which was sold to Lord Lismore, was there in the shape of a long and low cow, near the willows. Specimen, an own sister to Somnambulist, was good behind, but rather short of breast. Roan Princess, by Hayman, from Red Princess, did credit by her robust look and early maturity to the Jeanetta sort; and Northern Belle, a roan by May Duke, from La Belle, has pleased Mr. Robinson so well with her nice neat lines, that she is reserved for May Duke again. Forest Queen was a pretty fair heifer by Hayman, and as we got back to the buildings we met Jessamine, another of the Hayman's, which is going on for the yearling class at Battersea, although her age is sadly against her.

Jericho, by the same bull, and bound on the same errand, was facile princeps of the young bulls; and his dam Jenny Cambridge, who was first in the three

year-old class at both the Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire shows of last year, has visited Hayman once more. The Duke of Leinster's muster comprised Corridor from Crystal, a fair calf, but rather short of hair, and the two dark-red bulls Composite, with two Grand Duke crosses on the dam's side, and Second Duke of Leinster. Then Claret by British Prince emerged from her barn, and stood up side-by-side with her Duke of Leinster calf, Claret-Cup. The alliance was a forced one, as she had been a most unnatural mother, and never let it suck. The little roan is a living image in colour and make of the dam, and twice over has the The Royal Bench declared the goodness of that sweet snug type. Still Claret is not quite what she was last year, and her back has got rather arched, in spite of all the regular exercise which has been prescribed for her. The Duke of Thorndale calves-which seemed all roans, full of rich hair, and with their heads very gaily set onwere only just beginning to fall. The first, a bull calf from Red Bonnet, was sold; and Queen of the Thorn from Queen of Hearts, Japan from Jonquil, and Revelry from Red Hart, completed the array, which will number nearly fifty at Biddenham and Clifton before the calf year is out. The "ill wind," which has stopped our cotton supplies, has been at least true to itself, and blown good-looking beef across the Atlantic.

H. H. D.

HOW TO RECKON THE AGES OF STOCK.-The two Irish Royal Societies, together with the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, reckon the age of cattle exhibited at their shows from the 1st of January in each year, whilst the Royal English Society_reckons from the 1st of July. It is evident, therefore, that Irish and Scotch breeders do not al

ways stand on the same footing when they show cattle in England as they would do at their own shows. For example, a bull or heifer calved between the 1st of January and 1st of July, 1861, could not be shown in the yearling classes at Battersea Park, as they would be if shown at the late spring show, the ensuing Limerick Royal Meeting, or at a meeting of the Scotch Society. These animals must be shown as twoyear-olds at London, or at any of the English Royal Shows, and would be placed in competition with older animals, namely, those calved on or after the 1st of July, 1860. This is, no doubt, felt to be a grievance to a certain extent, because the difference of a few months in the age of such young animals may lead to a difference in the manner in which they are placed by the judges. For this reason, it has been thought by some that the Euglish rule should be adopted both by the Irish and Scotch Societies, so that one uniform mode of reckoning may prevail in all cases. We perfectly agree as to the desirableness of uniformity in this as well as in other matters; but we think that the 1st of January is a better period from which to reckon age than the 1st of July, and, therefore, that any move to secure uniformity should come from the English Society-that, in short, the English Society should adopt the Irish and Scotch mode of reckoning, rather than that we should change our regulations in this respect, in order to conform to theirs. It is true that some day must be fixed from which ages shall be dated, and those animals calved immediately subsequent to that day will have an advantage in age, whether the day fixed upon is the 1st of January or the 1st of July; so that in this respect it makes little difference, one way or other. But it makes a very great difference, in our opinion, to breeders whether their calves are dropped in July, August, and September, or in January, February, and March, and this is a great point in favour of the day fixed upon by the Irish and Scotch Societies. The English plan encourages the system of having late calves, whilst the Irish and Scotch mode of reckoning encourages early calving. Now, July is a dangerous month for calving, on account of the heat and the luxuriance of the grass, and the two succeeding months are nearly as bad for the same reasons. On the other hand, January, February, and March are all safe months, being free from these serious drawbacks.Irish Farmers' Gazette,