CORRESPONDENCE.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 163, 19 April 1845, Page 27

CORRESPONDENCE.

I To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sir — Having spent many years at the plough, bat few at the grammar-school, any communication from me can make but a poor figure by the side of the flowery productions of your zinore learned correspondents; but being sure that you will not make this an objection to giving a place in your paper to a few plain remarks, I venture to send you a few observations sind questions upon the subject of the late cigricultural exhibition. ! Of course, sir, it would be presumptuous in me to say the judges of that exhibition were not infallible; but as I and many others in my ] me cannot see the cause of their awards, the i :ame patriotism that led them to accept so im- | >ortant and unthankful an office will, I hope, i nduce them to satisfy our curiosity and remove < mr ignorance upon the subject. I suppose the bulls must come first. Now tfbere were only two bulls shown. One was 1 vhat we call a Durham, and appeared to me a pretty good one of the sort; the other, if he a vas of any breed at all, was of a breed that I never saw; he was fat, and had a large head zmd neck. The judges gave the prize to the fat < me, because, of course, they thought we could i sxport tallow. But, sir, have they discovered a i nethod by which we can export such heads and i leeks too ? as, if they have not, it is certain we (ian eat but a very small portion of them in the dolony. Next come the mares. Of these there was a liarge show. There was one much larger than any of the rest, and one other much better made tjhan any of the rest. One of these we thought xtnust take the prize. But no; there was one itnuch fatter than the rest, and she secured the unerring award. But, sir, will it ever be worth Our while to breed mares for their tallow ?

' The rams exhibited were pronounced so very inferior, that the first prize was reluctantly awarded, while the second was altogether withheld. This cannot be accounted for on the tallow principle; and although, as I before said, I do not wish to suppose the judges fallible, yet I cannot help mentioning one idea that has occurred to me as well as to several others. It is said there are some instances in which persons have been employed in trying to make others believe some false theory until they have ultimately believed it themselves. Their award to pigs did not surprise me so much; it shows their very accurate knowledge of this country, where the climate is often wet and pigs are badly housed; they very wisely awarded the prize to the sow whose back, or rather top outline, most closely resembled the outline of a hip roof, and on whose hide the greatest quantity of oil had been that morning bestowed. i And as boars ought never to be let out of the 3ty, the same formation and the same anointing was altogether unnecessary. One thing, however, should be explained. It i!s stated, on good authority, that one of the jiudges bought on that very day two sucking roigs, out of a sow unsuccessfully exhibited and got by the second-prize boar, for which he is to j&ay 20s. each, although much older pigs, out of t}he first-prize sow, by the first-prize boar, have long been offered at half that price. I trust my object in sending you these few 1 ines will not be mistaken. Having exhibited nothing myself, I have no personal injustice to <jomplain of; and I hope the judges will not Consider their dignity lowered by giving the explanations called for by their ignorant observer, A Somersetshire Farmer.

j "The Custom of the Country." — At '.(be late Buckingham Assizes, an action was Uried in which Mr. Abel Smith, M.P. for Herefordshire, claimed to recover damages from a 3 early tenant at a farm at Wendover for bad llmsbandry. It appeared from the evidence that Wendover is badly pre-eminent for its husbandry; and the verdict was given for the defendant, not because he was free from the charge c f bad cultivation, but because his practice of f [rowing a succession of white crops had been I pursued by other farmers in the neighbourhood.