THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



439 



THE DINNER OF THE SOCIETY. 



It has been an annual duty with us, for some years 

 past, to protest against the way in which time is cut to 

 waste at the dinners of our different Agricultural Asso- 

 ciations. How the real business of the meeting is 

 carefully kept at arm's-length till "you have 'cheered 

 the chairman' — and ' the county metabers' — and * the 

 town members' — and ' the town council' — and ' the 

 dean and the clergy' — and ' the railways' — and ' the 

 turnpike trusts' — and 'the canal companies' — and the 

 hundred and one similar ceremonies which seem in- 

 separable from such an occasion." It was only last 

 week, as we instanced at Bedford, that we sat down to 

 an entertainment comprising five-and-twenty toasts and 

 five-and-forty speeches, no thalfof which had any reference 

 whatever to farming or farmers. Or if they had, such 

 coarse fare was, as usual, politely kept bade until the 

 company, having been duly surfeited with lords and com- 

 moners, had neither stomach nor patience for more. 

 The committee, indeed, would appear to have got into 

 a conventional round there is now really no breaking 

 through. But it shall not be for the lack of knowing 

 better. A smart little volume recently published by 

 Ridgway, of Piccadilly, abounds in the quaintest and 

 boldest of Hints to Landlords, Tenants, and 

 Labourers. Cut into short chapters and short sentences, 

 full of maxims and modern instances, the author tells 

 the world how he tried to turn a bad estate into a good 

 one, and how far he has succeeded. Mr. Finney him- 

 self is, we belief, a banker by profession, so that he had 

 the first great item in the requirements of modern agri- 

 culture at his command. But it is not our purpose here 

 to inquire with how much judgment he may have em- 

 ployed such an aid, but rather to show the vigour and 

 racihess of his style in attacking an evil, or perhaps more 

 properly, an absurdity we have ourselves had so ofteri to 

 complain of. It is with bitter experience that we say, 

 nothing can exceed the tedium of the majority of these 

 rural feastiogs, when the better part of the evening is 

 devoted to " the customary toasts," and we have just 

 at last " one half-penny worth of bread to this intoler- 

 able deal of sack." Mr. Finney would reform it alto- 

 gether. Let him speak for himself: — 



I think it not inappropriate here to say a few words ou 

 the local agricultural shows and their dinners, or rather 

 the speeches after the dinners. The main object of these 

 societies seems to me to be to encourage competition in 

 producing the best article, either as stock or crops, without 

 the least regard to the cost. Nothing to me can be more 

 ridiculous than to place the produce, either of roots or 

 corn, of a man who holds the best description of land to 

 grow such articles, with a man whose land is either of the 

 poorest, or most tenacious quality, and not at all adapted 

 to grow such articles -withoatmuch labour and cost. Again, 

 a man who grows only four or five acres to be allowed to 

 compete with a man who grows forty, fifty, sixty, or a 

 hundred acres, wherein it is not possible to nurse this 

 qaantity of ground as you can the four or five anxs ; sarely 



there can be no sense in this. According to my opinion, 

 what we all desire, and ought to strive for, is the greatest 

 quantity, combined with quality, for the least money. To 

 do this the land on which the crops grow should be classed 

 as well as the crops, and let each man compete with the 

 like ground. The quality of the land, the entire expense 

 of cultivation, as well as quantity, should be taken into 

 consideration. The argument against this is the expense ; 

 then, I say, if you cannot do a thing well, do not do it all. 

 I am quite sure it would pay the landlords to subscribe 

 liberally to carry out this plan. With respect to the stock, 

 this seems to me more foolish than the awards on the crops. 

 A man in the locality can purchase an ox one Christmas, 

 give £30 or ^40 for it, put it in an attic, and show it for 

 a prize the next Christmas. Much should I like to be en- 

 lightened on the benefit this man does to agriculture. He 

 competes with roen who toil and expend their money, and 

 this attic gentleman takes the prize. In this, as in the 

 crops, the true benefit to society at large is the greatest 

 quantity, combined with quality, for the least money, and 

 not the animal that produces the greatest waste both to 

 the butcher and consumer, but more especially to the latter. 

 The subscribers would do well to themselves, and to the 

 community at large, to insist upon the owner of every ani- 

 mal sent to the show !o compete for a prize, ticketing the 

 animal with the particulars of breed, or purchase, and food 

 consumed. If bred by the exhibitor, the age and entire 

 cost of the animal should be specified; if purchased, the 

 cost and date of purchase, and the consumption. This 

 would not only encourage the breed of stock, but show the 

 necessity of combining quantity, for the price. By several 

 farmers, to whom I have suggested this, I have been met 

 with the following reply, but I feel almost ashamed to write 

 it, it casts such a heavy reflection on the farmers as a 

 class; the reply to my suggestion is, " That you will never 

 get the truth." Surely the farmers cannot be so ignorant 

 as not to be able to keep such accounts, or so dishonest as 

 to compete under false colours with any one, but more 

 especially with their neighbours, with whom they are in 

 almost daily communication. This reply, most assuredly, 

 implies that it would arise either from ignorance or dis- 

 honesty. Now, I do not believe it for a moment, but if 

 such a black sheep were found let him be disqualified for 

 ever showing again, and looked upon as a man with whom 

 no fair dealings could be had. As to the speeches aftcK 

 dinner, they, to me, seem so misplaced, and so ridiculous 

 to the purpose of the day, that I cannot help making a few 

 remarks and suggestions on them. The principal toasts of 

 the evening now are, the Queen, the Eoyal Family, the 

 Army and Navy, the Bishop, the County Members, tha 

 Borough Members, and the like, which are, with the ex«- 

 cepUon of the Queen and Eoyal Family, all rubbish to tha 

 purpose of the day. I should think the Landlord and 

 TenaH^ much more appropriate than the Army and Navy; 

 the Schoolmaster than the Bishop ; the Chemist than tha 

 County Members ; the Botanist than the Borough Mem- 

 bers. Most certainly those drunk now are foreign to the 

 purpose of the day, and only open a field for political sub- 

 jects, which are the last subjects that should be introduced 

 at au agricultural dinner ; they only create a bad feeling, 

 ond are most certainly no information to the farmer. The 



