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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



model farms, agricultural colleges, breeding establish- 

 ments, where the best English cattle are kept ; there 

 are shows, both local and general ; there have even 

 been some called universal and international. We 

 have heard of a vote of £4,000,000 sterling for drain- 

 ago; there is a bank of credit fonder; very large 

 sums of money are f^pent from the consolidated funds 

 and from local resources, in liberal prizes and encou- 

 ragement. Surely all tliese must have exerted a con- 

 siderable influence upon French agriculture, and given 

 an extraordinary impetus to its progress." 



Surely, at any rate, say his hearers, the effort is a 

 noble one ; and if such encouragement does not effect 

 sonii tiling, it ou;^ht to. But what says Monsieur ? He 

 answers us with a very terrible simile : — 



" Wc have all heard of — and some of my audience, 

 perhap'*, have seen — a strange and somewhat awful ex- 

 periment performed by means of a galvanic pile upon a 

 corpse. A wire is put in communication with the 

 spinal marrow, and life, movement, and action are re- 

 stored to the muscles; the corpse will stand erect, open 

 its eyes, move its arms and legs; its livid lips will 

 quiver as if tliey were going to speak, and to all appear- 

 ances death has been conquertd, and the corpse lives : 

 but only interrupt the mysterious current fromtiie pile, 

 and the lustre of the eyes will vanish, the arm will 

 fall inert, the jaw will hang, the eyelids will close, and 

 the ghastly corpse will fall to the ground, once more a 

 helpless mass, on the verge of decomposition. In like 

 manner the action of the French Government props up 

 a show of activity, a show of vitality, in the French 

 agricultural interest ; but it exists only on the surface. 



Who are those who exhibit at the shows ? They are only 

 a few amateur fancy farmers ; and the specimens they 

 exhibit very often constitute the totality of the stock 

 they have on their farm, and are by no means a sample 

 of the agriculture of their districts. The farmers, with 

 very few exceptions, are not only not exhibitors, but 

 not even visitors. The schools have been productive 

 of very little good. As farms, they have been lamenta- 

 ble failures, and the peasants point to them as instances 

 of the folly of modern ideas; in fact they do not pay, 

 and as model farms they ought to pay." 



And so on. But Monsieur Trehonnais should bear 

 in mind that a whole people do not take to a business 

 like this on the instant. It was some years, even, be- 

 fore our own great agricultural show came to be ap- 

 preciated, and for many it had to bear up against 

 all kinds of abuse and ridicule. We really believe that, 

 whatever the Emperor may have done for France in 

 other ways, his laudable attempts to advance the agri- 

 culture of the country have been both judicious and 

 effective. We may — indeed we must, wait for such a 

 result; but it will come nevertheless. 



We could wish to liave concurred more fully with the 

 tone of this paper. Somehow or other, however, it 

 was scarcely suited to an English taste, and there was 

 not a speaker who followed Monsieur Trehonnais but 

 that dissented from his deductions and opinions. As 

 these were chiefly friends of his own, this expression of 

 feeling is the more remarkable. The last few years 

 have given many the opportunity of seeing something 

 of French agriculture, as well as of what the Emperor 

 is doing for it. 



THE GAME LAWS. 



INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF UNDUE PRESERVATION OF GAME ON OUR HOME SUPPLIES. 



At a recent meeting of the Milborne St. Andrew Farmers' 

 Club, Mr. Richards opened a discussion on this subject. Mr. 

 H. Fookes in the chair. 



Mr. Richards proceeded— Although the circumstance of 

 my bringing before you the subject for our discussion this 

 evening originated from a passing joke, yet permit me to 

 say that I consider it a very grave and important subject, and 

 one which deserves our most serious consideration. I say then, 

 gentlemen, it is au important subject— and why ? My answer 

 is, because it involves the question of a most serious loss to the 

 country at large, and a perfectly ruinous one to individuals. 

 You who know what quantities of agricultural produce are 

 annually destroyed by rabbits and hares, will not be surprised 

 to hear me say that my opinion is, it would be possible to show 

 that the preservation of game lessens our home produce to 

 nearly the extent of our importations. I would not have 

 you understand me to say that food to this amount is eaten by 

 rabbits and hares, but that our produce is lessened in one way 

 and another to this extent. I would now proceed to show in 

 what way the preservation of rabbits, hares, and game gene- 

 rally may be said to lessen our produce ; to consider the effect, 

 direct and indirect, to individuals, and to the public ; and to 

 suggest a means by which an equal amount of sport would be 

 afforded, without the objectionable consequences which now 

 exist in many cases. First, then, in what way is agricultural 

 produce so lessened by the preservation of game ? And here 

 I may be met with the objection that rabbits are not game, 

 and therefore it is unfair to consider the damage done by them 

 under this head. To this I would answer that, in preserving 

 game, the increase of rabbits is almost a certain consequence ; 

 and although they may not, strictly speaking, constitute game, 

 yet to kill them is an offence punishable linder the game laws, 

 and an act which, on the part of a tenant, would displease a 

 game-preserving landlord. It may be said— "Why, it will 

 only take so much to keep a rabbit, and so much a hare, and 

 therefore the consumption cannot be so great." But you do 



not need to be told by me that it is a case which admits of no 

 such rule of calculation. Could farmers by any means confine 

 these animals, cause them to feed where they would choose, 

 and make them eat their way clean as they go, then it may be 

 possible to arrive at something; like a correct estimate of the 

 value of keep. But this you know to be impossible. What, 

 then, are the facts ? Take first the swede crop, which, as you 

 are aware, is raised at a heavy outlay, and which, probably, 

 the grower intends as a provision for his sheep in the spring, 

 and on which he may be solely dependent for food at that 

 period. What, then, are his disappointment, inconvenience, and 

 loss, when he finds that instead of twenty tons per acre which 

 he had on his land in November, he has, in the mouth of March, 

 not more than ten ? and, probably, of the ten tons lost, not 

 more than two or three have been eaten, or even less than this, 

 as you well know that when turnips are bitten they decay, and, 

 for one ton actually consumed, five, or even more, may rot in 

 the ground. And now, gentlemen, how shall we estimate the 

 loss arising from such destruction ? The answer of some may 

 be, " Why, you lose so many tons of swedes, the market value 

 of which is so much." That I admit is your first direct loss ; 

 but, where a flock of sheep is kept which have to be fed on that 

 farm, who shall say what the loss may be on that flock ? And 

 this is only a mere beginning of injuries ; for, if you have but 

 one-half the amount of keep to feed on your land, you leave 

 on that land only one-half the quantity of manure which 

 would have been left had you fed your entire crop. I need 

 scarcely ask you what will be the efl'ect ou your next crop ? 

 Where hares and rabbits have eaten swedes they will also visit 

 barley ; and, as by the loss of so large a portion of your turnip 

 crop you have been unable to leave much manure, your corn 

 crop grows sparingly, and the consequence is that it requires 

 a large breadth to furnish food for these nightly visitors ; and 

 at harvest you may make up your mind to be content with, it 

 may be, less than half the crop that you would have had but 

 for the ravages of these vermin. I do not intend to attempt 



