THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



169 



they are so gaily decked. We must reluctantly do the 

 same with the fussy and busy-lookina; tufted Polish 

 fowls, shaking their shaggy helmets as if intent upon the 

 most important business. Our duty would evidently be 

 to merely give a nod of recognition to the tiny Bantam ; 

 but we cannot resist the temptation of tarrying a little 

 longer before their pleasant and really charming array. 

 Here you can see the gold and silver-laced, the white 

 and the black, all gay and crowing, turning and twisting 

 in their little pens, as if they took pleasure in showing 

 to the admiring crowd the elegance of their tiny forms 

 and tlie delicate lacing of their gay feathers. 



The ducks, grese, and turkeys are truly astonishing 

 by their great weight : we have heard of ducks of twelve 

 pounds each ; and of a turkey weighing thirty -five 

 pounds. A pair of geese exhibited by Mr. Baker, of 

 Chelsea, were certainly the largest and handsomest birds 

 we hive ever seen. 



We were pleased to observe a few pens of Creve-cceur 

 fowls, the well-known Norman breed from the other 

 side of the channel. This truly valuable variety well de- 

 serves the attention of poultry-fanciers in England ; for 

 weight, early maturity, and the delicacy of their flesh 

 they deserve to be compared with the Dorkings, whilst 

 for the production of eggs they are infinitely superior. 



There is one point in this, and other exhibitions of 



the kind, which has always struck us as tending to 

 divest them of that degree of practical utility with 

 which we should like to see them attended — that is, the 

 absurdly extravagant prices affixed to the various pens 

 of birds. It is very true that a man fixing the price of 

 one thousand <iuineas for a cock and two hens, merely 

 means ha wont sell them ; but we apprehend that more 

 modest figures, such as range between five to fifty 

 guineas, are really meant as the selling value of the birds. 

 On this we can only observe, that if poultry breeding, 

 improving, and fancying can only lead to such an 

 unpractical result ns this, these exhibitions become 

 deprived of their public utility, and sink at once into the 

 insignificance of hobby displays — solely devoted to 

 whiling away the time of idle men, and gratifying the 

 monomaniac tendencies of inoffensive but useless 

 members of society, having more leisure on their hands 

 than they have the mental power to fill up. The absurd 

 regulation of poultry societies compelling exhibitors to 

 fix a selling price upon their pens, at which they may 

 be claimed, is no doubt the cause of this extravagance. 

 As long as this regulation exists, it may be safely 

 asserted that serious and practical men will keep aloof 

 from such exhibitions, leaving the pursuits they encou- 

 rage to sinecurist clergymen, retired tradesmen, shelved 

 officers, old ladies, and to those who speculate upon the 

 weaknesses of the rich and idle. 



THE GOVERNMENT ON THE AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS OF SCOTLAND. 



It must be admitted that the question of taking 

 agricultural statistics has never travelled quite plea- 

 santly in England. Dcispito the resolutions of public 

 meetings and the testimony of individual evidence in 

 favour of the experiment, there has ever been an 

 under-current ol distrust and opposition. So far, in- 

 deed, the Government have had but little to stand on. 

 The practicability of the scheme is still jiroblematical, 

 and Mr. Caird is even now employed in devising some 

 new measure that shall "go down" a little more easily. 

 Nevertheless, there was always one trump- card ready 

 to be played. The statistics of agriculture might be 

 collected, simply because they iccre collected. If 

 prejudice, indifference, or ignorance of their effect 

 stayed us here from furnishing such returns, there was 

 fortunately no such inimical influence to encounter but 

 a few hours further on. It was surely a great fact for 

 the Government to handle— a rare weapon to use when 

 wanted — that the statistics of Scotland had been col- 

 lected by the farmers themselves, under the immediate 

 superintendence of a farming society — That such in- 

 formation was obtained not for a tiial of one year only, 

 but that the machinery had gradually been improved 

 upon and extended, so as to become almost perfect in 

 its action, and vmquestionably most satisfactory in its 

 results. With such a story to tell us, we might have 

 been kept perpetually in check. The farmers of 

 Scotland have now for some years sent in their returns. 

 So far from feeling any injury fi-om this practice, they 

 appear more and more to take a pleasure in completing 

 the form of such intelligence. They do their work at 

 little or no cost to the State. — And, in short, the whole 

 business is a vcy happy example of what may be done 

 with a good will and a proper understanding. 



But this proper understanding exists no longer. 

 This good will is destroyed. The agricultural statistics of 

 Scotland — or of England, have received something very 

 like their deathblow. Indeed, at this moment we 

 should say such a plan has far more enemies over the 

 Border than it ever had to encounter nearer home. 



And this suicidal act has been administered by the Go- 

 vernment itself. It is traceable simply and directly to 

 a blind adhesion to routine and red-tape. Ben Joufon 

 has told lis who works " with line and rule" and by 

 lino and rule, and by never looking an inch beyond the 

 line ruled, have we contrived to make foes in place 

 of friends of the great body of Scotch agriculturists. 



The murder came out at a General Meeting of the 

 Highland and Agricultural Society, held in Edinburgh 

 a few days since. Let our readers learn from Mr. 

 Hall Maxwell the chief points in this extraordinary 

 affair : — " The statistical inquiry was commenced in 

 1653 by an experimental trial in three counties. The 

 estimated cost was 000; the outlay was £672. In 

 1854 it was extended to the whole of Scotland. The 

 estimated cost was £'6,000 ; the outlay was £4,260. 

 In 1855 and 1850 the estimate was £4,000; the outlay, 

 £3,597 12s. lOd., and £3,592 8s. i was permitted 

 by Government to make, in concert with the district 

 enumerators, all arrangements, financial and other- 

 wise, without interference. My accounts were rendered 

 to the Board ol Trade; and in 1853 and 1854 I re- 

 ceived the thanks of that department for the economy 

 observed and the reductions effected. In August 1855 

 Mr. Bowring, of the Board of Trade, acknowledged tho 

 accounts for 18.^4 in the following terms; — " I am to 

 acquaint you, for the information of the directors of 

 the Society, that n:sy Lords have been pleased to ap- 

 prove of the accounts in question." 



So far certainly so good. The experiment had not 

 only succeeded, as achieving the object aimed at, but 

 had been worked at considerably undtr the estimated 

 expense; "My Lords" being, naturally enough," pleased 

 to approve of tho accounts." But here, however, our 

 old enemy. Routine, steps in, just, of coursf, at lur 

 dear, old-fashioned, tortoise pace, and demands, under 

 the authority of tlie Audit Office, in March, 1850, the 

 vouchers for the expenditure of 1864— two years after 

 " my Lords had been pleased to approve of the ac- 

 counts in question"— and vouchers, too, for everything 



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