THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



411 



THE AUTUMN MEETINGS. 



There arc now few country towns but are cognizant 

 of some little bustle just at this season of the year. The 

 carriages of the County people come rolling in. The 

 yeomen jog steadily along, or freight four-wheels and 

 dog-carts with their wives and daughters. The citi- 

 zens have luncheon ready laid out almost ere their 

 own breakfast is disposed of, while the different hotels 

 are all alive with business. The glimpse of an honour- 

 able M.P. is caught, as he turns the corner arm-in-arm 

 with his solicitor ; and rosy, rural-looking clergymen 

 hail each other from the opposite side of the street. 

 There is evidently something going on, although not 

 exactly in the town itself. There is not the excitement 

 of an election, the crowding of a fair, or the raffish 

 " have-a-card " air of the race-day. Still the town- 

 clerk has got his best coat on ; there are strangers 

 enough about to tell there is a gathering of some sort ; 

 and a well-bred, bang-tailed horse in a full suit of 

 clothes swings by, in the direction everybody else ap- 

 pears to be taking. Following this, you find it is 

 neither the Monthly Market, the Visitation, nor the 

 Assizes ; but that at the entrance of a goodly-sized 

 close in the outskirts you are brought to stand and 

 deliver— a shilling for a sight of the anniversary show 

 of the Shire Agricultural Society. 



Or, it may not be the shire, or the district, or the 

 hundred, or even the ichole town show, after all. 

 These meetings have multiplied exceedingly ; and there 

 is scarcely a local journal of any repute but has to 

 chronicle three or four such occasions in the course of 

 a week. County members, prize short-horns, and 

 learned j>udges are at their wit's-end as to where they 

 should go and where they should not. Our letter 

 boxes are filled with invitations, with programmes in 

 prospective, and particulars of the past. Everywhere, 

 moreover, are these Societies flourishing, and very de- 

 servedly so, too. The' most bitter and obstinate of 

 their opponents have gradually come to admit the 

 beneficial influence of such institutions, while their 

 original supporters are as staunch to them as ever. It 

 is no doubt true that a catchy, much protracted harvest 

 may have done something this year to thin the attend- 

 ance of visitors, but from nowhere do we hear of 

 dispiriting reports. Almost all our agricultural Asso- 

 ciations have something to fall back on, and although 

 the farmer may not for once be able to spare his day, 

 still he will not, despite a bad sample and a doubtful 

 yield, withdraw the half or whole sovereign which re- 

 gisters him as a subscriber. 



When, then, the agricultural Societies of the king- 

 dom are generally doing so well, it may sound like a 

 bold word to say there are too many of them. And 

 yet there are men found equal to this. It is years since 

 we ourselves saw and declared that one united Asso- 

 ciation, to embrace the whole strength of a county, was 

 susceptible of far more good effect than any number of 



more local bodies, which just tested the strength and 

 marked the progress of their own parish. In some 

 few instances this amalgamation has been very advan- 

 tageously acted upon, but with the majority every 

 hundred or so has still its own little celebration. It is 

 clear enough that such a limit must gradually result in 

 a certain sameness and tameness, and that even Brown, 

 Jones, and Robinson may tire of beating each other. 

 Mr. Meire has seen this in Shropshire, or rather the 

 conviction has come to him from what he has wit- 

 nessed out of his own county, and there is no question 

 but that a united Society for Salop would at once 

 obtain such a position as Bridgnorth, Wenlock, or 

 even Shrewsbui'v " limited" can never hope to realize. 

 Mr. Meire has since received some very distinguished 

 support. The Right Honourable Benjamin Disraeli 

 has been saying for Buckinghamshire a good deal 

 what Mr, Meire has been advancing in Shropshire, 

 and certainly not without some cause for so doing. It 

 is but a year or two since that we were present at a 

 meeting of the Bucks Agricultural Association at 

 Aylesbury — and there was to be a meeting of 

 another Bucks Agricultural Association at Buck- 

 ingham the next day — and a meeting of a 

 third Bucks Agricultural at Aylesbury again the 

 week following — and there had been one at Winslow the 

 week previous, and so on. This year Mr. Disraeli has 

 duly been to Aylesbury, and thence to Slough, where he 

 spoke in this wise : *' I think the time has come when 

 you ought calmly and carefully to review your posi- 

 tion. You may now consider whether you cannot make 

 a still further advance. As far as the locality is con- 

 cerned, nothing can be moi-e complete in their opera- 

 tion than these Societies with respect to the elevation 

 of the condition of the labourer. No central associa- 

 tion can do that ; it requires local knowledge and local 

 feeling. Therefore I think you can't have too many 

 local societies with the distinct and avowed object of 

 the South Bucks Association. But you have to con- 

 sider whether you could not combine with (hem some 

 means by which all these local societies should hold 

 commuuication with a central body, by which on at 

 least one day in the year the whole of the enterprise 

 and skill of this county could be brought together, so 

 that we may know what is the general progress of 

 Buckinghamshire; whether we are up to the mark ; 

 whether there is that readiness either to adopt new in- 

 ventions for the improvement of the soil, or to create 

 those inventions ourselves, which is highly desirable; 

 and whether all those various divisions of labour for 

 which this country is eminent cannot produce those 

 specimens and make that show which may at once 

 maintain its reputation, and stimulate its skill 

 and enterprise to now developments. I do not 

 see why some federal constitution— if I may use the 

 phrase— may not be devised for these societies, by which 



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