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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



those objects, aud did so still, with the exception, perhaps, of 

 the mauufacturers' anaual exhibition, which used to be held 

 periodically by the Dublia Society, and was dropped at the 

 period when it begaa to assume a more general charasteristic 

 than it had before, when Cork so nobly took the van in hold- 

 ing out the example of that great national mode of displaying 

 the advance of manufactures. It was no little merit to the 

 Roj-al Dublin Society to have been connected with a move- 

 meut which had produced such glorious results ; and he might 

 say that in regard to agricuUure it was still as active aud as 

 useful as it ever had been in the course of its long career. He 

 need only appeal to those people who were in the habit of at- 

 tending the special shows of that society fo confirm his state- 

 ment that there was no society in this kingdom which was 

 more valued, aud which had shown to a greater extent the 

 perfection to which the noble shorthorn breed had arrived. 

 The Royal Society of Scotland, and the Royal Agricultural 

 Society of England, of which he had also the honour of being 

 a humble member, and the Royal Highland Society, were in- 

 cluded m the toast. He had great pleasure in adding his 

 testimony to the value of those societies, in bringing into per- 

 fection those articles of produce that were worth encourage- 

 ment, and giving an impulse to the great movement for im- 

 proving machinery for agricultural purposes. There were 

 other points in which the Royal Agricultural Societies of 

 England and Scotland had earned immortal fame, namely, by 

 the publication of their invaluable journals, coataining a mass 

 of agricultural, scientific, chemical and statistical knowledge, 

 which was of the utmost value ; and he was obliged with much 

 pain to agree in the statement of the president that the Royal 

 Irish Society had not been able to publish such a journal ; but 

 he trusted that that stigma would soon be washed away. It 

 would, he was sure, conduce very much to the general pros- 

 perity of the country. He did not at all think there were too 

 many of those agricultural societies, or regret that there were 

 different societies for England, Ireland, and Scotland, as in this 

 rivalry the greatest advantage existed, each being enabled to 

 profit by the examples of the others. By these means many 

 a fine animal had found its way to these shores, after having 

 run the gauntlet in England and Scotland, and given the So- 

 ciety here an opportunity of reviewing their decisions. 



The Earl of Erne proposed " Prosperity to the County of 

 Cork Agricultural Society, and with that the Local Societies 

 throughout Ireland." In doing so he said : I well remember 

 when I came to this county, between eighteen and nineteen 

 years ago, when the first show was held here — it was, besides, 

 the first meeting of the Society— and I can bear witness to the 

 great improvement which has taken place since that time in 

 all kinds of crops, but more especially in green crops. There 

 is an amount of green crops grown now, and there is, more- 

 over, a success in the growing of them, which I can bear 

 witness was not the case some time ago. I have heard that 

 this principle has been adopted extensively in many places, 

 and I must express my wish that the time was arrived when 

 it would be adopted in every union and in every pariah in 

 Ireland, because I think it would be well if the principle was 

 brought nearer home, and closer to everybody in this land. 

 Another important advantage resulting from a good local 

 society has always been found to be a good meeting of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society; and for this reason, that by 

 greater exertions and greater means and powers it has always 

 better means of creating a good show, which will always bring 

 the Roj-al Agricultural Society in greater numbers. I am 

 about, my lords and gentlemen, to make a proposition here 

 to-night, and that is — I think an inspector-general of our 

 local societies would be a very great benefit to the societies in 

 general. 



Mr. Wai. Torr replied, as usual, for the judges : We 

 have to congratulate you, my lord and gentlemen, upon the 

 very prosperous meeting of your society for this year, for 

 though it was not so perfect in some departments as I have 

 had the pleasure of witnessing it on other occasions, still 

 you have sufficient examples of merit to warrant the adju- 

 dication oi prizes. Your show has been very successful in 

 the department of agricultural implements. We have really 

 had hue opportunitie:) of witnessing the newest and most 

 successful niachmes; and the show of sheep was very good, 

 and 1 hope I never may have less occasion to congratulate 

 you upon your show of sheep. I would not wish to follow 

 too extensively the statistics and suggestions that have 



been given to you by his Excellency the Lord Lieutenant. 

 I have no doubt they are most diligeutlj' prepared and are 

 most correct ; but I demur to any proposed decrease in the 

 breeding of sheep. As regards the humidity of the climate, 

 I must say, such an argument hardly passes in the case of 

 the county of Cork. Cork is of a dry limestone formation 

 in its soil ; and in the first county of Ireland are you not to 

 take advantage of that formation 't 1 trust that henceforth 

 you will pay yet more attention to the cultivation and breed 

 of sheep. I heartily recommend this to you. You should 

 remember the old Dutch proverb," the sheep wears a golden 

 foot," and I think you had better believe the Dutch proverb, 

 and tend your sheep. I think, too, increased green crops in 

 this country would be a step in the right direction. Gen- 

 tlemen, there is another point. The President referred to 

 the subject of cottages and houses for the poor. I would 

 suggest to you that you would not go too far — that you 

 would build labourers' cottages not too expensive, but com- 

 fortable. A comfortable home is the poor man's best 

 resource. 



Mr. Croker proposed the Local Committee, particu- 

 larizing the names of Mr. St. John Jeffereyes, and Messrs. 

 Garde and Meade. 



His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant here rose again, 

 and said : I certainly did not intend one word to drop from me 

 such as would discourage the raising of sheep in Ireland, 

 On the contrary, my wish and desire is to see raised as many 

 sheep as it is at all possible to produce. I only referred to 

 the subject to say that the proportion of cattle in Ireland 

 was much greater than that of sheep. 



Capt. Ball, in replying for the " Successful Exhibitors," 

 said he was happy in being able again to claim the hand- 

 some piece of plate that stood before his lordship. From 

 the figures laid before the meeting by His Excellency, it ap- 

 peared that there were in this country 3,600,000 head of 

 cattle. He had to say, on his own part and on that of 

 others, that a great deal of disappointment had been ex- 

 pressed, that at this great annual anniversary of the agri- 

 culture of Ireland, a subject that was of the very last im- 

 portance to the stock owners of the country should have 

 been, in some unaccountable way, passed over and neg- 

 lected in a way that should not have been done. At a 

 Council meeting held within the last month it had been 

 prominently thrown out that there was stated to be, not only 

 in Ireland, but within a very few miles of the city of Cork, 

 means said to be the most successful in the cure of cattle of 

 any yet brought before the public. The proposition with 

 regard to the Turkish Bath for cattle was, however, 

 put aside by them under a misapprehension of what was the 

 intention of those who made it. A committee was appointed 

 not more than six weeks ago, who came dovvn here on the 

 spot, to investigate the subject, and they reported on the 

 subject. Their recommendation was not that an opportu- 

 nity should be afforded to the public of bringing diseased 

 cattle into the show-yard for the purpose of trying the 

 Turkish bath, but that the general public who attended the 

 meeting might see in the show-yard the practical working of 

 a simple Turkish bath for cattle. The question had been 

 referred by the Council as one of finance; but at the meeting 

 when it came before them again, he (Captain Ball), Avho was 

 one of the gentlemen who had reported on the question, was 

 away, and if he was there he would have explained that the 

 Committee had never conceived anything so absurd or 

 monstrous as the introduction into the show-yard of a num- 

 ber of diseased cattle, to have them practised on in the 

 Turkish bath. It was on this ground that the proposition 

 had been negatived by the committee. Where so many 

 thousand cattle were swept oft' daily by distemper, it was a 

 most important thing that the healing properties of the 

 Turkish bath should be well known. 



Mr. Jefferves did not think he would be doing his duty 

 if he did not tell the meeting his experience of the Turkish 

 bath for cattle. It was a good thing for the community that 

 some one should sacrifice themselves for the benefit of the 

 rest, and unfortunately in the case of this distemper he had 

 been victimized in putting up a Turkish bath (laughter). A 

 tenant of his had put up a Turkish bath for cattle, and he 

 believed one cow recovered, but certainly two or three died 

 in it, and he himself gent two cows there, both of which died. 



