97
M 703
A Centenary Show.
THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SHOW.
By Joseph Martin.
At the Royal Agricultural Show, which was held in Windsor
Great Park between the fourth and ninth of July, the livestock,
numbering 4,245, was probably the greatest collection of pedigree
animals ever seen in the world. Twenty-two breeds of cattle were
exhibited, 23 of sheep and 11 of pigs. Kore than 1,500 railway
trucks, including special tractors, trailers, and other vehicles for working on soft ground, were provided by the railway companies to transport livestock, farm implements, cheese, butter, cider and flowers to the show. The show covered altogether 120 acres. For
making the roadways of the show ground the railways supplied
20,600 railway sleepers.
The "Royal", as the show is familiarly called, was particularly
interesting this year because the authorities were celebrating its centenary. The first Royal Agricultural Show was held at Oxford on
the 17th of July, 1859, when it occupied seven acres and the live-
stock entries numbered less than 250. The era of railways had
begun, but the "flying chariot" was still so much of a novelty that many people refused to travel by train. Travelling was there-
fore extremely difficult, Two Devon farmers took three days to
reach the show with their exhiits. Thomas Bates, one of the men
who developed the modern Shorthorn strain, sent, four head of cattle
from Darlington in Yorkshire to Oxford.
The cattle walked from
Darlington to Hull, went by sea to London, by canal to Aylesbury,
and finished with another walk of 23 miles to the show ground.
Yet they won £70 in prizes for their enterprising owner.
Some interesting comparisons have been ade with the show,
also held at Windsor, when the Royal celebrated its fiftieth
birthday in 1889. Then the cattle exhibited numbered 1,644, the
horses 996, and the sheep 1,109. This year the cattle were more