British Stock Agricultural shows, like cricket matches, have this summer
attracted exception91 crowds, but the shows have this advantage over the cricket that numbers of foreigners, most of them buyers, have been attracted. Even Russians, the principal buyers, have been induced to say "yes." A very large proportion of the English crowds come to see horses jump and flowers bloom. The foreigners are concerned almost exclusively with cattle and sheep. England is still regarded—and rightly—as the author and begetter of the best breeds of farm stock. The sale of these does not amount to a persuasive figure in the national income ; but the breeding of good stock is the very backbone of our husbandry, even psychologically, and it would be a national disaster if the clamour for grain and milk were allowed to discourage (as seems not unlikely) this branch of agriculture. It is surprising, though capable of explanation, that our farm horses are not admired as are our cows and sheep and even our pigs. That glorious —and most intelligent creature—the Shire horse is often compared unfavourably by foreigners with the Percheron, for example. Happily, it continues to flourish, in spite of mechanisation. As to our machines, the shows have given evidence, astonishing even to specialists, of the inven- tive activity of our engineers.
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