BIRMINGHAM AND COUNTIES FAT STOCK SHOW, There is certainly a chauge coming over the nature of our fat stock shows, and also a change in the principle on which they are judged. The latter makes the slowes progress. The cattle classes this year at Bingley Hall are more practically useful than last year, when we had to record a movement in that direction. There is no show animal of very extraordinary merit as a fat bɩast, taking early maturity and thickness of flesh into consideration-nothing that would stand very high if judged on the American system of awarding the highest prizes to the best "beef animal" at the earliest age-but the classes throughout are more useful than they have ever been bef re and the award of the champion prize is distinctly on new lines, a step in the right direction which we very heartily endorse. Year by year monstrosities produced by the over-feeding of over-aged animals are becoming scarcer, and as the class limit for the ages of ca tle Le omes shorter the usefulness of the animals exhibited and the practical utility of the Exhibition itself become greater. The ages of the bullocks will still bear shortening another six months, and the sconer the system whereby the exhibition of over-aged and over-fed animals is encouraged. comes to an end. the better it will be for the usefulness of fat stock shows as an educational institution, and for the breeder's industry which is, or should be, the ulterior aim and object of these meetings. " MIDLAND the use of character' in a fat stock show if it is not accompanied by good and profitable meat? It is quite time that breeders gave place to butchers and salesmen as judges at fat stock shows. The best and most profitable beef should be the Alpha and Omega of all fat stock shows, and no bench composed of breeders-with their prejudices and petty jealousies-can possibly be expected to judge on these simple and straightforward lines. They set about judging Shorthorns in a fat stock show generally as they would judge them at breeding stock show, and the condition of the animals is about the same. Aud this year it appears that there is an attempt to break down all distinction between fat stock and breeding stock in the showyard. It is well known that bona fide fat stock often appear at the Royal and other large shows, though entered as breeding stock, which are supposititiously iu-calf, but the introduction of animals fresh from their tour through the breeding stock shows of the past summer and autumn as fat stock at Birmingham and London is more of a novelty and very pernicious in its tendency. This does not occur specially amongst Shorthorns at Birmingham, but there are about as many of such entries in these ranks, proportionately, as in the others. The reserve number bullock in the class of which we were speaking when this digression was made is a big and useful butcher's beast, full of lean flesh, and is a long way the better-finished animal of the two. The class for steers not exceeding two and a half years old consisted of eight entries,and an excellent lot of things they are. Amongst the entries is to be found the winner of the Elkington Challenge Cup, the £100 prize, as the best Shorthorn, the first prize in his class, and a special prize offered by Mr. Thorley. This steer is two years and a half old, well-bred and well-fed, of excellent quality, made quickly and profitably. He does not handle as firmly as an older bullock might be expected to do, but he is covered with good beef. His hips are rather narrow and his hind quarters rather light, but in front he is capital. His chiue, back, bin, and rib are first-class, and he is a good specimen of the Shorthorn breed into the bargain. This decision met the approval of all practical men, but it wasrough on those who keep old platers round again with the hope to win by them. Mr. Darby's bullock was certainly better in some respects; was firmer, being a year older, and his extra age was well paid for by his extra weight, 22 cwt. 0 qrs. 7 lb., against 15 cwt. O qrs. 21 lb.,. Shorthorus constituted the most important feature of this show, as they do, naturally, of all shows of the kind, -and, in fact, of all cattle shows in this country. Oxeu e ceeding 3 and not exceling 44 years old, formed a cla-s o eight entries, none of which were ve y sightly, but s‹ me of them were useful. The first prize animal in this clase was bred and exhibited by the Earl of Gainsborough, a four-year-old bullock not very full of lean flesh, but fat and a fairly good prize-winning Shorthorn. The second prize-taker is a smart-looking bullock, bred and exhibited by Mr. B. Boddinott, bare on his shoulders, but a useful bullock. The third prize fell to a bullock bred by Mr. John Usher and exhibited by Sir John Swinburne, a firm-handling beast, good on his loins, and full of flesh in the most useful parts.. The reserve is held by Mr. J. J. Coleman as the feeder of an indifferent Shorthorn with bare and pointed shoulders; a big three-weight of the Champion. Nevertheless, the young beast the cornered bullock is shown by the Hon. Walter Stuart, which weighs 23 cwt. 0 qrs. 23 lb., the heaviest beast in the Show; and a leggy rambling beast by Mr. Harold. Les. This class does not contain an animal which was. worth keeping over two and a half years old. The cost of making them what they are would have been better spent on younger beasts. The next class is for Shorthorn. steers, exceeding two and a half and not exceeding three and a half years old, and the eight entries were most of them very credi able. The winner here was bred by Mr. R. Browne, and exhibited by A. E. W. Darby. He is a very thick squarely-made bullock of great merit. His forehand and middle piece are excellent, but he is a little light on his hind quarters. His crops, chine, and back are first-rate, and he handles well. This bullock pushed the champion Shorthorn very hard, but the difference iu the ages decided it against him. The second prize fell to a beast bred by Mr. H. Overman, and exhibited by Mr. J. J. Colemau; level, well covered, and good in his rounds. The third prize was given to an undeserving bullock, bred and exhibited by Mr. W. H. Hewett, bad on his back and common-place all over; yet because he had what some of the judges thought good Shorthorn character they over-looked everything else. What is is good beef and furnishes a bet er example for imitation good cow bred by Mr. Jonas Webb, and Mr. S. Chapman's third prize cow was very thick and good. The class for Shorthorn heifers not exceeding four years old contained one or two good ones and some very plain animals; as for example a very ordinary, common-place looking heifer, 4th Marchioness of Oxford, bred by the Earl of Dunmore, with a very select pedigree (sire 6th Duke of Geneva, dam 8th Maid of Oxford); a plain, leggy heifer, Red Rose of Missouri, bred by the Earl of Dunmore; Mr. J. Walter's Pride of Bearwood, and several others. The first prize fell to Mr. J. J. Ratcliffe's Priory Princess, a heifer which was second to Mr. R. Stratton's Icicle at Islington last year. She then weighed 17cwt. Oqrs. 4lb., and she now weighs 19cwt. 3qrs. 7ib. Close to her on the other side of the partition stands Icicle herself in the class for extra stock weighing 19cwt. Oqrs. 9lb. against 18cwt. 3qrs. 8lb. last Christmas; so that she has been kept a whole year at a great cost to gain 291b., and the honour of winning the first prize in an extra stock class-nothing else! Surely this absurd system of showing overfed animals will not last much longer. Singularly enough there stands next Icicle a cow which has won the champion bonours both at Islington and at Birmingham a few years ago, namely Nectarine Bud. She was purchased from the breeder, Mr. R. Stratton, by Mr. Johu Elwell after her victories as a fat beast, and she has been reduced down to ordinary condition with the object of breeding from her. But she will not breed as might have been expected. So she stands in ordinary condition, which shows the good framework on which prize meat was once grown. Taking the history of these two animals together, and comparing them together as they stand, there is no getting away from the fact that Shorthora breeders do some extraordinary things. The Hereford division of the show was rather a large one, and some good and useful cattle were shown therein. There was not, however, a well finished Hereford bullock amongst the whole lot, and not one to come up to some of the winners of former years. The oxen were big, rather coarse, and unevenly fed, and not one of the two older classes contained a first-rate Hereford. The steers not exceeding 21 years old were just a nice lot of young bullocks of fair average merit. The winner of the first prize in this class is an animal of particularly nice quality bred and exhibited by Mr. F. Platt. Amongst the CUWS are to be found some noted prize winners at the Royal, Bath, and West, aud provincial shows, and the question naturally arises whether they are intended to be kept on as breeding stock, or to be sent to the butcher. Mrs. Sarah Edwards' well-known cow, Leonora, one of the most perfect animals which ever entered a showyard, comes to Birmingham and takes £100 as the best Hereford, and the first prize in her class besides. And she is to go to Islington next week to see what she ean win there. What then? Go home and wait for the breeding stock shows to come round again next summer? If so, and this is said to be the programme, it is to be hoped that this practice will in some way be nipped in the bud. Teacher 2nd is another of these cows, an animal which has won honours at our best breeding stock shows. Amongst the heifers is Lanceshire Lass, a winner of more than one first at the Royal and Bath and West and she takes a first at Bingley Hall as a fat heifer Leonora now weighs 17cwt. 3qrs. 21lb. Devons are few in number, and the classes do not contain anything of great merit. The first prize in the class for oxen takes also the £50 as best Devon; he is an evident South Ham, bred and exhibited by Mr. T. Dyer, Liskeard, Cornwall. The Longhorns were fairly good, and useful animals of the breed; but the award of 20 guineas as best Longhorn to Mr. Burberry's ox, instead of to Sir. F. Fitzwygram's cow was not very intelligible. The ox was very plain in point of his shoulders, bare on his back, and short in his middle piece-plain all overwhereas the cow was really a good one. Polled Scots were not in strong force, only two oxen from Mr. McCombie being there, and those not very good ones. Amongst the four heifers is a fairly good one, rather light in front, which defeated the Hereford cow, Leonora, for the President's prize of £25 for the best animal bred and fed by the exhibitor. Her beef is certainly better and worth more per lb., and if the award was on these lines we endorse it heartily. Leonora, however, is a far more perfect animal Amongst the cross-bred cattle are some very capital butchers' beasts, as there usually are in this division. Oue of these, a cross between a Shorthorn and red polled, was for some time third candidate for the President's prize, but his sloping quarters and small rounds defeated his chance. The whole class of cross-bred cows or heife.s was highly commended. Lord The show of sheep was not so good as usual; in fact, the quality of some of the more important entries was considerably below par. Lord Walsingham's pen of Southdown wethers, which took first prize, were not the best of handlers-one was a real good one, one tolerably good, and the third only middling-for his flock. Walsingham took all the prizes for wethers, and a pen from the flock of the Prince of Wales should have been kept at home. It is difficult to understand the policy of sending such a pen of sheep as these to an important show, just as his Royal Highness's flock is beginning to win in good company. Shropshires were not as good as usual, nor in such strong force. The Duke of Portland's first prize pen of wethers are good sheep, of nice quality, but Lord Chesham's second prize pen are leggy and badly matched-a bad second, and a poor pen from the Latimer flock. The show of the other breeds was very small, and nothing out of the way in any of the classes. The three single entries of Southdown ewes were good sheep, the winner being a capital Southdown bred by Sir W. Throckmorton, and exhibited by Mr. Chapman, a sheep good all over, and handling to perfection. The third prize ewe is from the Prince of Wales's flock, and not far behind the second, which comes from Merton. Pigs are not a large show, but the quality is excellent: and there are fewer of those very large and uselessly fat animals which we have been accustomed to see wherever pigs are exhibited. The Berkshires are capital, and so are the small white breeds. The classes for breeding pigs are well filled, and the animals are of great merit. A pen of the old Tamworth breed is shown, and they seem to be a useful sort of pig to live hard and get their own living. LIST OF JUDGES. CATTLE. Mr. T. GIBBONS, Chiswick Street, Carlisle. SHEEP. Mr. JOHN EVANS, Uffington, Shrewsbury. PIGS. Mr. R. B. SMITH, Penrhyn, Bangor. CORN. Mr. JOSEPH GUEST, Ashted, Birmingham. ROOTS. Mr. COTRELL CORBETT, Broad Marston, Stratford-upon Avon. Mr. GILBERT MURRAY, Elvaston, Derby. PRIZE LIST. CATTLE. Oxen, exceeding 3 and not exceeding 44 years old.—1, J. Wortley, Skeyton, Norwich; 2, J. Pritchard, Stanmore, Bridgnorth; 3, W. Taylor, Showle Court, Ledbury, Herefordshire. Steers, exceeding 24 and not exceeding 3 years old.-1, J. Wortley; 2, G. Bright, Broome, Aston-on-Clan, Salop; 3, P. Platt, Upper Breinton, Hereford. Steers, not exceeding 2 years old.-1, F. Platt; 2, R. Keene, Pencraig Vawr, Caerleon, Mon.; 3, R. Heighway, Newnham, Rockletou, Salop. Cows.-1, Mrs. Edwards, Wintercott, Leominster, Herefordshire; 2, J. Pritchard; 3, J. Turner, Questmoor, Eardisley, Herefordshire. L Heifers, not exceeding 4 years old.-1, W. Taylor; 2, Her Majesty the Queen, Windsor Castle. SHORTHORNS. Oxen, exceeding 3 and not exceeding 4 years old.-1, Earl of Gainsborough, Exton Park, Oakham; 2, B. Hoddinott, Moor Court Farm, Romsey, Hants; 3, Sir J. Swinburne, Bart., Capheaton, Newcastle upon-Tyne. Steers, exceeding 24 and not exceeding 34 years old.—1, A. E. W. Darby, Little Ness, Shrewsbury; 2. J. J. Colinan, M.P., Carrow House, Norwich; 3, W. H. Hewett, Norton Court, Taunton. Steers, not exceeding 2 years old.-1, H. D. Adamson, Baljuharn, Aberdeen; 2, J. S. Bult, Dodhil House, Kingston, Taunton, Somerset; 3, J. Perry, Acton Pigott, Condover, Salop. Cows.-1, R. Wright, Nocton Heath, Lincoln; 2, H. D Adamson, Balquharn, Vale of Alford; 3, G. Chapman, Brook Farm, Exton, Oakham. Heifers, not exceeding 4 years old.-1, J. J. Ratcliffe, The Priory, Beech Hill, near Reading, Berks; 2, A. Pease Hammersknot, Darlington; 3, R. Stratton. DEVONS. Oxen or steers, exceeding 3 and not exceeding 44 years old.1, T. Dyer, Tencreek Barton, Liskeard, Cornwall; 2, J. Walter, M.P., Bearwood, Wokingham, Berks; 3, T. H. Risdon, Washford, Taunton. Steers, not exceeding 3 years old.-Prize, T. H. Ri don, Washford, Taunton. Cows or heifers.-1, J. Walter. M.P., Bearwood, Wokingham, Berks; 2, T. H. Risdon, Washford, Taunton; 3, W. R. Fryer, Lytchett Minster, Poole, Dorset. LONGHORNS. Oxen or s'eers, not exceeding 4 years old.-1, W. P. Burbery, The Crofts, Stratford-on-Avon; 2, T. Satchwell, Hernfield House, Knowle, Birmingham; 3, S. Forrest, The Chase, Kenilworth. Cows or heifers.-1, Major-General, Sir F. Fitzwygram, Bart. Leigh Park, Havant, Hants; 2, R. Hall, Tulston Grove, Derby; 3, Sir J. H. Crewe, Bart., Calke Abbey, Derby, PURE SCOTCH BREEDS. Pure-bred polled oxen or steers, not exceeding 44 years old.1 and 2, W. McCombie, Tilly four, Aberdeea. Scotch polled cows or heifers.-1, W. McCombie; 2, J. Merson, Craigwillie, Huntly, Aberdeenshire. Pure-bred West Highland oxen or steers, of any age.-1, Earl of Seafield, Castle Grant, Grantown; 2, Sir J. Swinbourne, Bart., Capheaton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne; 3, the Hon. W. Stuart, Master of Blantyre, Shottle Hall, near Derby. Scotch hori el cows or heifers, of any pure Scotch horned breed.-1 and 2, J. J. Colman, M.P., Carrow House, Norwich; 3, Earl of Seafield. CROSS-BRED ANIMALS. Fat oxen, exceeding 3 and not exceeding 4 years old.Prize, Lord Lovat, Beaufort Castle, Beauly, Inverness. Fat steers, exceeding 2 and not exceeding 3 years old.-1, Fat cows or heifers.-1, J. Mayhew, Carlton Colville, Lowestoft, Suffolk; 2, Lord Lovat; 3, J. Merson, Craig willie, Huntly, Aberdeenshire. ANIMALS NOT ELIGIBLE FOR ANY OF THE PRECEDING CLASSES. Oxen or steers, not exceeding 4 years old.-1, T. Elliot, Hindhope, Jedburgh. EXTRA STOCK, NOT QUALIFIED FOR ANY PRECEDING CLASS. Oxen and steers.-1, J. Merson; 2, R. Hall, Thurston Grove, Derby. Cows or heifers.-1, R. Stratton; 2, J. Ewell, Timberley, Castle Bromwich. SHEEP. LEICESTERS. Three fat wethers, not exceeding 23 months old.-1 and 2. Mrs. P. Herrick, Beaumanor Park, Loughborough, Leicestershire. OXFORDSHIRES. Three fat wethers, not exceeding 23 months old.-1 and 2 A. Brassey, Heythrop Park, Chipping Norton, Oxon 3, Messis. N. and N. P. Stilgoe, Manor Farm, Auderbury. Oxon. HAMPSHIRE, WILTSHIRE, AND OTHER DOWNS. Three fat wethers, not exceeding 23 months old.-1 and A. Morrison, Fonthill House, Tisbury, Salisbury, Wilts. NOT QUALIFIELD TO COMPETE IN ANY OTHER CLASS. Three fat wethers, not exceeding 23 months old.-1 and H. Farthing, Nether Stowey, Bridgewater (Somerset s Dorset horned). Fat Leicester ewe, having bred one or more lambs.-Pri Mrs. P. Herrick, Beaumanor Park, Loughborough, Leices shire. Fat Lincoln ewe, having bred one or more lambs.-Prize Fat Southdown ewe, having bred one or more lambs.-1 FAT PIGS. Three fat pigs of one litter, not exceeding 10 mouths o 1, A. E. W. Darby, Little Ness, Shrewsbury; 2, ( Duckering, Whitehoe, Kirton Lindsey, Lincolnshire. SMALL BREED. American ports for convenience' sake. In fact, the knot is absolutely Gordian, and the collapse inevitable. At the the chairman said the company are losing £800 to recent meeting of the Grand Trunk Railway in England, £1,000 weekly by the embargo. This, I take it, represents about 1,000 Chicago cattle monthly, and it is significant that, as I find by my notes, that is about the number of beeves brought from Chicago last January by the Michigan and Grand Junction lines via Canada, before the embargo. These would represent purchases by Canadian dealers, and would be represented in England "Canadian" exports. Truth may seem laggard in the race with the nimble lie, and yet it wins generally, with fair-play and time. as The following somewhat contradictory paragraphs appear in a Toronto paper : OTTAWA, November 12.-The tenant farmer delegates sail from Quebec for England on Saturday next, and it is stated that the Government is not so satisfied with their experiment as to incur the expense of bringing additional delegates to this country. OTTAWA, November 13.-The Government do not propose Five pigs of one litter, exceeding 3 and not exceeding 6 months sending any more special agents to Great Britain and Ireland old.-1, Earl of Ellesmere; 2, P. Eden. EXTRA PRIZES. Silver cup, value £25, given by Earl Howe, for the best animal in the cattle classes bred and fed by exhibitor.-J. Merson, Craigwillie, Aberdeenshire. The Elkington Challenge Cup, value 100 gs., for the best animal, to be won two years successively.-H. D. Adamson, Bulquharn, Aberdeen. £100 for the best Hereford.—Mrs. Edwards, Wintercott, Leominster. £100 for the best Shorthorn.-H. D. Adamson. 50 guineas for the best Devon.-Thomas Dyer, Lytchett, Minster, Dorset. 20 guineas for the best Longhorn.-Major-General Sir F. Fitywygram, Havant, Hants. £50 for the best Scot.-W. McCombie, Tilly four, Aberdeen. £50 for the best animal in classes 20 to 25 inclusive.-Mrs. McWilliam, Bucharn, Gartly Aberdeenshire. CANADA AND EMIGRATION. Our Canadian correspondent writes under date November 14th-Messrs. Lingham and Co., cattle dealers, of Belleville, Ontario, have, according to the papers, received orders from England for 2,000 cattle to be sent over before Christmas. The firm, it is added, will ship "from Boston," and one of their number has gone to that city to stop for a few weeks to attend to the business. The English dealers who give this order must know little of Canadian cattle matters if they think 2,000 suitable native export animals, or a quarter of that number, could be had for love or money in this province at present. Besides, the Treasury Departmental Order, published today from Washington, would in any case settle the bought-in-Ontario," but export-from-Boston, business. Here it is To Collectors and other officers of the Customs.-To aid in preventing the introduction into the United States of con tagious diseases among cattle, it is hereby ordered that in pursuance of the authority contained in Section 2,493 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, the importation of neat cattle from the Dominion of Canada is prohibited until otherwise directed. This order will take effect on the 1st of December next. By order of the Secretary, (Signed) H. F. FRENCH, Assistant Secretary. This is a cruel predicament for our cattle-fictionists' Canadian cattle must now go to Britain via Halifax ; and if after December 1st they do not go from that port it will show the world we have not got any. Throughout the coming winter it will be impossible for our mythologists to pretend they are exporting "Canadian" beeves from for the present, and will rely on the reports circulated by the tenant farmers' delegates on their return. I do not profess to reconcile these. In fact, the reports re the views of the delegates are most conflicting. In reference to "J. M.'s" letters, I must say that immigration-professionals and their champions are hard to please. Hit high, or low, you don't suit them. Simply deny their inventions, and they accuse you of ex-cathedra assertions. Bring forward documentary evidence, and they pretend you are twisting statistics, or culling tit-bits from reports and speeches. In short, you are wofully removed from the "calm, judicial, and accurate estimate of men and things," for which the professionals are distinguished. Calling a person mad, blind, biassed, unscrupulous, and so on, does not per se prove more than the bad taste and bad case of the disputationists. I have never written anything to your paper not based on careful regard to facts. I have, if anything, under-stated rather than over-stated, and my chief desire has been the promotion of the welfare of my countrymen, by laying before them plain matter-of-fact statements, useful and most needful to be known, and on which they may safely rely in deciding questions on which the life-long good of thousands may possibly depend. Of course, one would find it more pleasant not to seem to be always harping on the string of criticism and controversy; but that is a disagreeable duty imposed by the action of the interests-a point strangely ignored by "J. M." and his confréres, who appear to forget that it is they who "begin it," in schoolboy phraseology. To correct the interested statements of the agents is not to libel or be hostile to "Canada." It is the fictions of the professionals which call forth and are responsible for the efforts properly made by way of counteraction. Such efforts are not only needful but laudable. If the Canadian Government and interests do not like them, let them cashier their hired romancists. Archbishop Whately, in his remarks on Bacon's essays, well says:"He who propagates a delusion, and he who connives at it when already existing, alike tamper with truth. We must neither lead, nor leave men to mistake falsehood for truth-not to undeceive is to deceive. The giving or not correcting false encouragements, or conniving at their being held forth or believed,are all fraud." It is a false encouragement, to wit, when sundry schemers invite English farmers to emigrate to Ontario on the ground that it is a great cattle exporting country, when the said cattle are reared and purchased in the United States. If "J. M." or any other man can find my name in any public accounts; show that I have any selfish end to serve by coloured or false statements, that I have been approached by any speculators or intere sts, or that there is anybody to whom I have made suit, or who prompts or is aware beforehand of what I write,let him do so Your readers know at any rate what I have said about the so-called Canadian export cattle trade. They know what the officials and agents have said. Let them read the following from Thursday's Toronto Globe, and decide on whom rests the onus of misrepresentation or inaccuracy: During the past week there have been some six or eight fairs held in different parts of Ontario in the vicinity of Toronto. There were about 5,000 cattle offered for sale at these meetings, the principal portion of them being common native stock -oxen, steers, cows, and heifer, weighing from 600 to 1,500 lb., and a very inferior class of cattle. They were from two to five years old, and the prices realised were from 2c. to 3 c. per lb for the local markets, peddling purposes, and to be manufactured into sausages. Some farmers complain that the shippers of cattle do not pay them such a price as to make it profitable to raise them, but the reason is that the cattle offered are not suitable for export to Great Britain, Thoroughbred Durhams and Herefords would command 6c. per lb. live weight, and would realise to the shipper a fair profit in the English markets, whereas the common natives would not pay the charges of the ocean voyage. Our market is gluted with a lot of small, lean, poor cattle, which sell at lowest quotations. A great many cattle changed hands at low rates for local use. This is from the Globe's weekly review of the cattle trade. And yet "J. M." has the coolness to say he has already, shown how "unreliable" I am on Canadian cattle matters! By the way, I am not aware that he has referred to the cittle question in your columns. If "J. M." is identical with "Without Prejudice" he is to be commiserated. Over and over again I have asserted the facts set forth in the Globe and the agents have as persistently denied them. But the state of things resulting from the cattle embargo has shown who is right. See Globe's report above. An individual who can call the Stratford Beacon an insignificant" Ontario paper is not likely to be particular. Therefore I am not surprised to find "J. M." does not fulfil the first duty of a controversialist in quoting correctly. He says: In his last letter your correspondent says: "Moreover 16,183 emigrants from Canada, chiefly agricultural, left one Canadian port (Sarnia) last year for the States, and the stream of labourers is steady and continuous from the Dominion." I said nothing of the kind. It was the New York Herald said it, as may be seen on reference to my letter. The Herald got the figures from the report of the American Consul at Sarnia. In placing before you what the Herald said my object was to show up Lord Beaconsfield's nonsensical statements, and not at all, at that time, to bring out prominently either the exodus from Sarnia, or any special point in the Herald's article. "J. M." adds: Referring to Messrs. Read and Pell, the Royal Commissioners, and to the farmers' delegates, your correspondent says that unless they are of the Taylor and Clayden stamp they will be stuffed with tales similar to those Earl Beaconsfield had put into him." Here again reference to my letter will show I spoke of the delegates, not of the Commissioners. The delegates certainly will be stuffed if the feat is possible. I must remind "J. M." the Commissioners did not come to spy out the land with a view to settlement but to investigate the food capabilities of this Continent. Sundry canny people, "J. M." included, persist, however, in regarding them as immigration promoters, and confounding them with the farmers' delegates. Messrs. Peel and Read, I undertake to say, do not so regard themselves. These gentlemen are able men and experienced agriculturists, and will turn out all right. In a former letter I expressed my conviction that an imaginative or slovenly reporter had put nonsense into their mouths, and indeed it is scarcely possible they could have said what the reporter imputed to them, for, as I showed in a passage of my letter to your paper, and in which I gave an account of their movements, they had then scarcely seen anything of the country. Why the Mail, the Government organ, is growling even now in the following fashion: "A question arises in connection with the immigration interests of Ontario. Had the Commis sioners a sufficient view of the province? A negative answer must be returned. Their inspection has been nearly confined to a view of a Shorthorn herd at Bow Park, and the exhibits at an agricultural show. Who is responsible for this post haste inspection? The Ontario Government scandalously neglected its duty." That is, according to the Mail's view, the Commissioners are Canadian, not Imperial, representatives, and should have been taken hold of, and made to come and go, fetch and carry, as our wire-pullers pleased. This is a strange view. I look with great confidence for the result of the Commissioners' investigations in food and cattle matters. "J. M.'s" last and worst misquotation is as follows:— Your correspondent gives 11,988 as the export of cattle from the Dominion for the fiscal year ending June the 30th, 1878. (It was really 11,985). He stops there, and leaves his readers to infer that was the real export of Canadian "cattle." He omits to state that that export was from Canadian_ports direct, and that in addition, during the same period, 17,657 head, the produce of Canada, were exported into or via the United States. How many of these found their way to Great Britain it does not require a very elastic imagination to determine, -"We are now This is a remarkable specimen of mixing and muddling. I referred to sheep; J. M." has mixed sheep and beeves up in strange fashion. I said: a-ked to believe that the Dominion is sending more than 40 000 native sheep to Britain in 1879, though we only sent 11.988 for the fiscal year ending June, 1878" (that is, 11,988 sheep). On this "J. M." says I omitted to state that 17,657 beeves were exported into or via the United States in that year, and that I did this ou pur pose, because an elastic imagination might without trouble conclude that some of these went to Britain. What have these beeves to do with sheep? Nothing. The fact is," J. M." has got into a muddle. He started with sheep, and then lost himself, and slided into bullocks. The imagination of the immigration-professionals is elastic enough for anything, as they often show. Perhaps that is why they are so far from home in facts and figures. Moreover, in my reply to "Without Prejudice" (April 16). I took note of those very 17,657 beasts, of an inferior grade-"pony cattle"-exported to the Eastern States, via Albany, which shows I did not want to ignore them." If "J. M." does not know that those 17,657 beeves did not go to England he is not qua'ified to write on the matter. If he does know he is seeking to m'sle. d. Those bullocks were the native Canadian animals spoken of by the Globe. Graded cattle sent to Europe from Cauada via the States would go on board, and not appear in our Trade returns. The Globe, commenting ou the United States embargo on Canadian cattle says:"The Eastern States of the Union will be those chiefly affected. That is correct. They take nearly all our cattle exports which appear in our Trade returns-ex. ports of an inferior class-different from the 6 902 graded beasts sent to England that fiscal year-comprising all we had suitable for export to your side. "J. M," can teach me nothing, he may rest assured, on Canadian matters. I know not only the facts, but the I shall deal with precise significance of every fact. "J. M.'s" further statements shortly. That anybody should select as one of his main controversial points the fatal point of emigration from Canada shows surprising ignorance or inexperience. Our interests will not thank J. M." for treading on that dangerous ground. |