_The best Short-Horned Durham Bull over Three Years Old: Owned by J. M. Sherwood and A. Stevens._] [Illustration: DEVON. _The best Devon Bull over Three Years Old: Owned by W. P. and C. S. Wainwright._] [Illustration: TROMP. _The best Hereford Bull, over Three Years Old: Owned by Allen Ayrault._] [Illustration: KOSSUTH AND BRISKA. _Best Foreign (Hungarian) Cattle, over Two Years Old: Owned by Roswell L. Colt._] Of Horses, the number exhibited was of course much smaller--perhaps two hundred in all--embracing many animals of rare spirit, symmetry, and beauty. Some Canadian horses, and a few specimens of a famous Vermont breed (the Morgan) were among them. Our attention was not specially drawn in this direction, and we will leave the merits of the rival competitors to the awards of the judges. [Illustration: DEVON HEIFER. _Best three-fourth bred Devon Heifer: owned by George Shaeffer._] [Illustration: OLD CLYDE. _Best Foreign Horse: owned by Jane Ward, Markham, Canada West._] [Illustration: CONSTERNATION. _Best thorough-bred horse over four years old: owned by John B. Burnet._] [Illustration: SOUTH DOWN SHEEP. _Best Middle-Wooled Ewe, over Two Years Old: Owned by Lewis G. Morris._] Of Sheep, there were a large number present--at a rough guess, Two Thousand--embracing specimens of widely contrasted varieties. The fine-wooled Saxonies and Merioes were largely represented; so were coarse-wooled but fine-fleshed Bakewells and Southdowns. For three or four years past, the annual product of wool, especially of the finer qualities, has been unequal to the demand, causing a gradual appreciation of prices, until a standard has this year been reached above the value of the staple. Speculators, who had observed the gradual rise through two or three seasons, rushed in to purchase this year's clip, at prices which cannot be maintained, and the farmers have received some hundreds of thousands of dollars more for their wool than the buyers can ever sell it for. This has naturally reacted on the price of sheep, whereof choice specimens for breeding have been sold for sums scarcely exceeded during the celebrated Merino fever of 1816-18. _Bona fide_ sales for $100 each and over have certainly been made; and it is confidently asserted that picked animals from the flocks of a famous Vermont breeder were sold, to improve Ohio flocks, at the late Fair of that State--a buck for $1,000, and six ewes for $300 each. These reports, whether veritable or somewhat inflated, indicate a tendency of the times. Where sheep are grown mainly for the wool, it is as absurd to keep those of inferior grades, as to plant apple-trees without grafting and grow two or three bushels of walnut-sized, vinegar-flavored fruit on a tree which might as well have borne ten bushels of Spitzenbergs or Greenings. But there is room also for improvement and profit in the breeding of sheep other than the fine-wooled species. The famous