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The Country Gentleman's Magazine 



THE AGRICULTURAL INTEREST. 



THE Hirl of Minto, when presiding 

 lately at the dinner in connexion with 

 the show of the Border Union Agricultural 

 Society, took occasion to make some remarks 

 relative to the decrease of population in rural 

 districts. Referring to the improved dwell- 

 ings for the labouring classes, which have been 

 erected of late years in many districts, his 

 lordship stated that he had heard that this 

 was driving the people into the towns, which 

 he believed to be perfectly true, but did not 

 think it a symptom of deterioration in any 

 respect. " He believed, at this moment, that 

 there was a far larger number of persons en- 

 gaged in agricultural pursuits in some way or 

 another than there were 50 or 100 years ago, 

 though it might be perfectly true that the agri- 

 cultural residents in the country districts were 

 lower than they were. A farmer, no doubt, 

 engaged persons on his farm who had to live on 

 the spot, but the requirements which agri- 

 culture had upon industry was a hundred 

 per cent, greater than they used to be. 

 A farmer now sent to South America for 

 guano, to Russia, perhaps, for oil-cake, besides 

 employing hundreds of men in the manu- 

 facture of agricultural implements, draining 

 tiles, &c. In short, if they compared the 

 present' time with a hundred years ago, 

 they would see that the number of persons 

 employed in agricultural interests was infi- 

 nitely greater now than formerly. It was 

 quite true that the population of purely rural 

 parts had not increased, but it was a great 

 mistake to infer that the persons employed in 

 agricultural industry had decreased. He had 

 perfect confidence that the greater amount of 

 industry, of skill, and of science applied to 

 the ground, the greater would be the pro- 

 duce and prosperity of the district, the larger 

 would be the demand for labour, which would 

 be felt not only in our own manufacturing 

 towns but even in foreign countries." 

 There is much in Lord Minto's remarks 



which deserves consideration, and we are 

 glad to observe that he pointed out 

 certain facts which have been too much 

 overlooked by social and political economists. 



When " the agricultural interest" is talked 

 of, there are many who seem to suppose that 

 it is confined to those who are immediately 

 engaged in farming pursuits, such as tenant 

 farmers and those employed by them. 

 Landed proprietors are also considered as 

 belonging to " the agricultural interest," al- 

 though not perhaps to the same extent as the 

 cultivators of the soil, seeing that the pro- 

 prietors of land may, and often do derive a 

 considerable portion of their incomes from 

 other sources than the land. 



This is, however, a very narrow and erro- 

 neous view of the subject. It is no doubt 

 true that at one time "the agricultural in- 

 terest" might, with considerable justice, be 

 regarded as confined to those who owned and 

 those who cultivated the soil. The business 

 of a farmer was at that time, in a great mea- 

 sure, what we may call self-contained. The 

 man who held the plough was expected to be 

 competent to make one when required; the 

 fertility of a farm depended on its own re- 

 sources; a pair of staves, tied together at one 

 end with a strip of sheep's skin, was all the 

 machinery necessary for thrashing out the crop; 

 while the wind of heaven, blowing through two 

 open doors opposite to each other, or on the 

 top of some elevated knoll, was the simple 

 means employed in preparing the grain for 

 market. 



All this has been changed, and so nume- 

 rous; are the agencies which have been called 

 into existence by the demands of modern 

 agriculture, that it becomes exceedingly 

 difticult to say where the various ramifications 

 of " the agricultural interest " actually cease. 

 The rudely constructed plough, which served 

 the purposes of a former generation, has 

 been superseded by implements fashioned 



