TUE FARMER'S MAGAZLNE. 



IGt 



THE SMITHFIELD CLUB CATTLE SHOW. 



Dear Sik, — Tlie stimulus given to the agriculture of 

 this country by the ciforts of tlie various societies of the 

 kingdom, and amongst them especially tiiose of the 

 SmithfieLi Club, is by no means alone displayed in im- 

 provemtnts in the breeds of ca tie, sheep, and pigs, 

 wondcrl'ul as this has been the last few years. I may 

 go further, ;ind say, that in the invention and improve- 

 ment of agricultural machinery, and in the application 

 of new mechanical powers (if steam and railroads can 

 be called mechanical) to the processes of agriculture, 

 the progress made has not only kept pace with, but has 

 far outstrippeJ, during the last ten or fifteen years, that 

 made in the breeding and fattening of animals for the 

 slaughterhouse. In some respects, I cannot see any 

 great improvement upon the efforts of 13ukewelland the 

 Collins', who by dint of that discernment, united to a 

 confidence iu their own judgment, which few amongst 

 lis are fortunate enough to possess, arrived at perlec- 

 tion, or nearly so, by what msy tie tiuly called " a 

 royal road," and produced cattle and sheep quite equal, 

 in point of symmetry, compactness, quality of fiesh, 

 and smallness of bone, to those of the present day. The 

 chief improvement I discover is in that wonderful pre- 

 cocity which distinguishes the several kinds and breeds 

 of animals, and which, however advantageous to the 

 grazier and breeder— aud I may add, in some respicts, 

 to the public in general, by affording a larger supply 

 of meat — it is still a question whether the qualily of 

 precocious beef or mutton is equal to that which has had 

 a reasonable time to arrive at maturity. Certain it is 

 that our neighbours the French are glorifying them- 

 selves on the superiority of their beef, to that which 

 John Bull himself cnn now boast.* It is true, 1 don't 

 give them all the credit they thus claim ; for although I 

 have never been across the channel to eat " ros-bif" in 

 that country ; as an old farmer ai.d grazier I can form 

 some judgment of what sort of " bif ' it must be, that 

 is furnished by a five-year-old bullock, who during at 

 least three of those years has been employed in doing all 

 thediity work ofthe farm, to the hardening of hi> muscle 

 and the impoverishment of tlie mucous- membrane 

 and the ji. ices of the body. This is not the question 

 raised ; but whether a bullock of four or five years old, 

 who has lived a (jentlcmau's life \ the whole time, does 

 not furnish better and more savoury meat than one of 

 two years, at which age so many are now killed ? The 

 same rcisoi.ing applies to sheep as well as bullocks, and 

 has much truth in it ; but we must still consider the 

 modern system of breeding and grazing a vast im- 

 provement. By it we raise a weight of meat in two 

 years as great as was formerly done in four, so that the 

 quantity brought to raarkvt is doubled, and the increas- 

 ing demand met, without a proportionate increase in 

 the number of a;iimals. 



In respect, however, to the advance made in agricul- 

 tural machinery, there can be but one opinion — that it 

 has been rapid and beneficial, 'i'he e.vhibition at Baker- 

 street was calculated to strike a stranger with astonish- 

 ment at the wonderfully inventive powers of man in the 

 construction and perfection of the steam-engine and its 



* See the " Jourual d'AgricuUure Pratique," of Nov. 5, 

 1857, 



t A negro in the West Indies was asked to deSue the 

 word " geullemau." " I s'pose," said he, " dat de pig is de ony 

 gcutleman." "How so, Sambo?'' "Why, you see, massa 

 work, misaie work, obei seer work, hor jc work, nigger work ; 

 all work but de pig— derefore de pig is de only gentleman." 



application to the various operations of the farm. The 

 " reaper,'' too, with Burgess and Key's addition of the 

 Archimedean screw, which so greatly facilitates the bind- 

 ing of the sheaves, is an extraordinary effort of gonius ; 

 and Boydell's steam-plough and traction-enyine is the 

 crowning application of the mcnter-power ;* and what- 

 ever room there may be for improvement in its con- 

 struction, the princii)!e of steam-ploughing is beyond 

 a doubt established, and its adoption on large farms at 

 no distant day is certain. These two machines, the 

 American reaper and the steam-plough, may be consi- 

 dered the most important additions to the turniture of 

 a farm, as facilitating and shortening the time of labour 

 at those periods when time is of so much value to the 

 farmer. The plough will also liberate the horses of the 

 farm, to be employed upon other work, without iuter- 

 feriiig with the tilhigc. 



In passing through the machinery department of the 

 Show, a person who, like myself, cm look back to the 

 state of the farmer's stock of implements at the com- 

 mencement of the present century, cannot but compare 

 the li^ihtness of the labour of the farm now with the 

 onerous toil of that period. It is not saying too much, 

 I think, to assert that one-third more woik can be done 

 now with the same number of hands, and that the land 

 there'ore receives one- third more tillage than formerly, 

 in the course of the year. This will undoubtedly in- 

 crease the produce, as well as place the labourer in a 

 better condition by superseding the heavier work per- 

 formed heretofore by hand. If this extended only to 

 the two departments of the flail and the sickle, it would 

 hav3 conferred a large boon upon the labourer ; for I 

 can testify, from experience, that nothing tried the 

 strength of a man more than the barn-labour and reap- 

 ing; although the latter, from its short duration, and 

 the good living incident to harvest time, was less per- 

 manently wasteful of the labourer's strenuth than 

 thrashing. 



But the lightening of labour is not confined to these 

 two depaitments. Every old imj^lement used upon the 

 farm has been so improved as to render the use of it le^s 

 laborious ; whilst innumerable 7iew ones have been in- 

 vented, all tending to the same result of economizing 

 the strength of the operator, or of superseding it alto- 

 gether by the application of machinery. I might refer 

 to the chaff-cutters, the corn-dressers and screeners, the 

 root-cutters and raspers, the h lymaking-machines, with 

 numerous others, by which the work of the farm is jier- 

 ibrmed with so much less of manual labour, and in less 

 time than formerly. The effect of this will be sensibly 

 felt in a few years ; not only in the greater produce of 

 the land, but in extending the average period of the 

 labouier's efficiency, aud rendering his old age less 

 painful and burthensome to himself, and to society less 

 useless. 



It is very evident that the implement department is 

 becoming too largi^ for the place of exhibition. As to 

 taking a systemaiie and critic;il survey, or even a cur- 

 sory examination of the various machines exhibited, there 



* It is a singular coincidence that a friemi of tuiue, coi - 

 nected with the Board of Pubhc Works, iu Dublin, suggested, 

 si Jc y em s ayo, to an enguieer, tiie very plan that Bojdell has 

 carried luto effect. The ensmeer doubted whetiier tlie shoes 

 would not tly off « hen tbe machine was in motion, an<l my 

 friend thought no more of the matter. This, however, does 

 not affect UoydcU's claim to originality, as he knew nothiog of 

 ths affair. 



