ANNIVERSARY

MEETING OF THE ROYAL

AGRICULTURAL

SOCIETY OF ENGLAND, HELD AT DERBY, JULY 12. 1843.

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'Among the other salutary regulations which the Judges were required to observe, was one to the effect-that as the object of the Society in giving prizes for neat cattle, sheep, and pigs, was to promote improvement in breeding stock, in making their award the Judges were not to take into their consideration the present value to the butcher of animals exhibited, but to decide according to their relative merits for breeding."-Morning Chronicle, July 13, 1843.

TO *

WILL you pardon me, Sir, if, in this my endeavour

To profit through life, I recline on the road, With a modest demand on a party who never

In science have yet many lessons bestowed?

This party, comprising the wealthiest lords

That dwell on the face of the earth we inhabit,
And who ever delight in the breed that affords

A reward, from the bull to the little wild rabbit—

Maintain that, as muscular fibre exceeds

Other animal products in weight we can mention,

It follows of course that the heavy-fleshed breeds

Should always engage undivided attention.

An equally laudable motive they find

For determining thus a preeminent question, In the fact that the physical good of mankind

Is advanced in the way of a healthful digestion.

And counselling Nature with Art to provide
Them with models of beauty to aid the design,
They have cautiously followed their practical guide
Through a long and directly continuous line.

The magnificent boon how deservedly granted
The late exhibition abundantly proves!

Except that in one single instance it wanted

That feature which even the meanest improves.

For admitting as settled what few will deny,

That the best is the stock of a muscular class, Why refers not the rule to the brutes of the sty, As well as to those which subsist upon grass?

In the course of my ramble along the division
Apportioned to pigs, irrespective of size,

I marvelled to find that the Judges' decision
Had awarded three black ones a liberal prize.

So totally void were the subjects of hair,

Or bristle, and being moreover as big as Some others that often lie equally bare,

I thought that at first they were little fat niggers.

But not to dilate in the manner of spleen

On the softness they yielded throughout to the touch,

A critic would say they had not enough lean,

And would instantly therefore denounce them as such.

The favour I then, in conclusion, would ask

Of the party to whom I am taught to defer, Is their gracious reply to the following task, That in trouble to it I may ever refer:

What reason have they for adopting, in beef The flesh before fat, as if haply mistaken, While attaching importance, as clearly the chief Of them do, to the motto of all fat in bacon?

THE FATE OF A TRUANT PIG.

WRITTEN FOR ONE OF MY CHILDREN.

SAID a little pig, born of a quarrelsome sow,

To another pig, "Brother, pray do you know how

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We can all get away from the sty?"

By a simple contrivance" he answered, and when

He had finished his speech, he jumped out of the pen,

And exhorted the others to try.

But the shrewd little querist now wanted to learn

If his brother without could as quickly discern
By what means he could safely get in?
"By a similar frolic" he told him, but fell
In his effort, and raised such a terrible yell,

That the neighbourhood rang with his din.