430 



THE FARMER'S MAtxAZlNE. 



real object of these societies ought to be, to produce the 

 greatest amount of corn, roots, and meat at the least cost : 

 to produce anything at a cost beyond its value is, to me, 

 the height of folly. These societies should be for the in- 

 struction of the farmer; and who better can Jo this, at 

 these dinners, than the men who gain the various prizes '? 

 Under this impression, Twill just throw doivn a few toasts 

 for an agricultural dinner : 



1st. — " The Queen and Eoyal Family." 

 2nd. — " Success to the Association." 

 This toast should be given to a man who would base his 

 speech on the advantages of such societies." 

 3rd.—" The Secretary." 



It would be his duty to introduce the rise and progress 

 of the society, and the advantages that have been derived 

 from it, with its future prospects and success. 

 4th.—" The Health of the Judges." 

 Which should be replied to in dilating on the various 

 articles and stock that have obtained prizes ; and they 

 should point out any improvement that might benefit the 

 locality. 

 5th.—" The First Prize for the Best Ox." 

 The gainer of this prize should reply to this toast, giving 

 every particular of the os and the food consumed, with his 

 opinion of the best sort of ox to fat, and best description 

 of food, and the best way of giving it, so that the most 

 meat may be obtained for the least money. 

 6lh.— " The First Prize for the Best Horse." 

 The gainer should reply with every particular relating to 

 the horse, and his opinion of the best description of horse 

 for the various descriptions of soil. 



7th.—" The First Prize for the Best Pen of Sheep." 

 This should be replied to in the same way as the ox. 

 8th,—" The First Prize for the Best Pig." 

 This should be replied to in the same way as the ox and 

 sheep. 

 9th.— « The First Prize for the Best Roots." 

 Here is a wide field for the gainer of this prize to en- 

 large on the best description of root to grow, the best sort 

 of that description, the best sort of land to grow it on, the 

 best way to feed it, the best system of cultivating the land 

 for it, that description of food that will gi-ow the best 

 quality, the best time for sowing, the best lime of year for 

 the plant to gain the most saccharine matter, and the best 

 way and time of storing them. 



10th.—" The First Prize for the Best Sack of Wheat." 

 11th.—" The First Prize for the Best Sack of Bariey." 

 12th.—" The First Prize for the Best Sack of Oats." 

 These three to be replied to in a similar way to the 

 roots. 

 13,—" The Chairman." 



He says what he likes, but by so doing does not waste 

 the evening. 



I think, by adopting a rule, or course, such as the above, 

 you would much enlarge the societies, and many more 

 farmers would rally round them, and give greater attention 

 to their business, because they would then have the desired 

 information thrown down before them ; besides which, 

 they are a class of men who are particularly tenacious 

 about receiving information from any but their own body, 

 consequently every encouragement should be given to 

 bring their own Ughl out. The upper classes should be 

 more liberal with their subscriptions, and not quite so 

 profuse with their speeches, and give greater inducements 

 for the farmers to compete one with another, in giving the 

 best information on every bearing of agriculture. 



At the dinner of the Worcestershire Agricultural 

 Society on Wednesday, Oct. 3, Sir John Pakington 

 addressed himself to the same point. It is seldom we 

 have seen anything more admirably put, and we quote 

 his speech as a model for other county members. 

 Surely The Agricultural Dinner can no longer continue to 

 be carried out on the absurd system which has so long 

 and so generally characterized its conduct :— 



" He rather leant to the opinion that these societies were 

 tending somewhat to too much speech-making. He wa3 

 happy to say that these agi-icultural associations were be- 

 coming very general, but one result of their so becoming 

 general was that it really appeared that a part of the agri- 

 cultural produce of the country was a large annual crop of 

 speeches. Of course this crop varied a good deal in quality. 

 He would not say that the crop contained a good deal of 

 'chaff" (laughter); but, no doubt, it was adapted to 

 different markets. One of the rules of these societies was 

 that politics should be avoided in their discussion. The 

 rule was no donbt an excellent one, but unluckily the prac- 

 tice was all the other way. He trusted the rule was better 

 than the practice. He did not approve the practice of 

 inti-oducing politics at these meetings. But still there might 

 besubjects political in their nature to which it would be almost 

 wrong if they did not refer. The object of members of Par- 

 liament attending these meetings should be not to court 

 constituencies, but to pay their respects to that mother earth 

 from which they endeavoured to extract as much as they 

 could. His right hon. friend Mr. Disraeli had set a wise 

 example in this respect, in liis own county of Bucks, where 

 he had addressed an agricultural meeting without toucliing 

 on politics, and he (Sir John) could wish that those who 

 drew up the lists of toasts at these meetings would not give 

 the members of Parliament for the district so conspicuous 

 a position in these lists. Their object at these meetings 

 should be to disseminate agricultural knowledge. He knew 

 there were some parts of Worcestershire in which they 

 might see some very good farming, but let them face the 

 truth, and they must admit that that was not the general 

 character of Worcestershire farming. They did not stand 

 high in agriculture in Worcestershire, and their first ob- 

 ject should be to communicate knowledge to each other, 

 and so to turn the agricultural associations to real practical 

 obj ects, He would say that for his part he would rather 

 hear one good practical speech on farming from a practical 

 farmer than he would listen to the best political speech 

 that a member of Parliament could give them." 



THE POTATO DISEASE.— A correspondent of the 

 Bristol Times drawa attention to a method employed in Kuasia 

 to prevent the potato disease. Frofeasor Bollman, of St. 

 Petersburgh, planted aome potatoes which had been acci- 

 dentally dried near a stove, till they were so greatly shrivelled 

 that it was thought they would be quite useless for seed. 

 They grew, however ; and whilst all the other potatoes in the 

 neighbourhood were very much diseased, these remained sound. 

 The Professor afterwards adopted the principle of drying hia 

 seed potatoes at a high temperature, and the plan has never 

 failed. Hia example was followed by various other persons 

 with the same auccesa ; and on many estates drying-houses 

 have now been built to carry on the process. It ia said that 

 the progreaa of the disease on potatoes partially attacked ia 

 completely checked by the heat. The experiment ia very 

 simple, and it has this advantage, it may be tested without 

 any serious amount of trouble or loss. 



