458 



TIic Conntrv Gcutkniaiis Ma(i-arjinc 



farmers alungsiJe, and a few tliousand acres for irri- 

 gation, at best producing only an article for local 

 consumpt, to the entire neglect of an exhausted 

 country. The ammonia within a fractional percentage 

 will be wasted, whereas the interest of this esti- 

 mated expenditure might be made equally to deliver 

 the town from the sewage nuisance, in constructing 

 . machinery for converting it into a dried poiidrdte or 

 guano condition, which, by proper appliance through- 

 out the length and breadth of the land, might produce 

 crops of every description for the million at a price 

 ^vith which no foreigner could compete. Town and 

 country must reciprocate on this momentous question. 



With a natural and obvious reciprocity and honest 

 dealing with our mother earth our fearful apprehen- 

 sions of dearth of manure and of costly food would 

 vanish. As an humble agriculturist I send these 

 sentiments, expressing in my homely way the mind 

 and feeling of not a few of the industrious sons of the 

 soil, in order that the very important question now 

 before the Council of your city may not be disposed of 

 otherwise than by their becoming alike the benefac- 

 tors of both town and country, and by cleansing their 

 town of its pollution, and saving their country from 

 the exhaustion of its soil. 



GEMS FROM THE REPORT OF A SNEER SHOW. 



A CORRESPONDENT of the /?///'//// Fnvman 

 has supjjlied that journal with the following gems, 

 which he selected from a report in one of the Dublin 

 dailies, of the Sheep Show recently held in that city. 

 It is a pity that the name of the journal in which they 

 first appeared is not given, but the subjoined extracts 

 bear a great resemblance to a Report of a Royal Agri- 

 cultural Show which we once met with in the Iris/i 

 Times, in which the reporter enlarged in a similarly 

 lucid style on what he was pleased to call " the event- 

 ful events of the past week." Here are the latest 

 examples, which we recommend to the notice of all 

 reporters of similar exhibitions, merely remarking, 

 however, that it would require a good supply of 

 " Kinahan's LL." to enable one to come up to the 

 mark : — 



" I. Root crop cultivation received such an impetus 

 from such exhibitions that the models of the tiny 

 roots then grown, contrast so diminutive with the 

 creditable samples now being yearly staged within its 

 walls that the most sujDerficial observer can at once 

 perceive the viai^nitiide of the comparison. 



" 2. The old Irish cow, whose tediousness to fatten 

 or mature, and whose usefulness, in a pecuniary sense, 

 to the owner was comparatively worthless, has been 

 now substituted by those valuable animals of improved 

 breeds which any casual observer cannot fail in dis- 

 cerning throughout the farmeries of the country. 



"3. The subject of sheep breeding in Ireland has 

 recently assumed a very undivided state of opinion. 



" 4. The most important feature in connexion with 

 the exhibition just being held is that breeders and ad- 

 mirers of sheep, of all shape and lineage, have been 

 placed in such proximity that a rare opportunity is thus 

 afforded to all, to see placed within the precincts of the 

 agricultural hall all descriptions of sheep of the dif- 

 ferent sorts. 



" 5. Every attempt to improve and perpetuate a 

 more i/nproi'cd or judicious class of the bovine trilje was 

 most transparent throughout the day. Graziers, ex- 

 porters, importers, and the general farming community, 

 seemed alike anxious to possess themselves of exchange, 

 or hire out the sei-jices of their celebrated ram sheep- 

 ivalhs as suited the count rv." 



