2-970-236 - /Heritage Images

The Paris Agricultural Exhibition - the Cattle - general view, 1856. 'The total prizes amounted to nearly £18,000, and these seem to have been distributed on the principle of rewarding every class and every nation that exhibited without any serious attempt to ascertain, in a few days, the respective and exact merits of many hundred animals, machines, and articles. All who have carefully followed the course of exhibitions, whether agricultural or industrial, must have come to the conclusion that, in nine cases out of ten, it is impossible to discover what is the absolutely best animal, and still more the best machine, although it is easy to decide that such and such animals or implements are good enough to deserve a prize of some sort. All that the public ought to expect is a minimum of merit in the prize-winners'. From "Illustrated London News", 1856.