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THE FAUMER'S iMAGAZINE. 



give them a little salt. Under other circumstances there 

 was suflScient salt in the food with which they were or- 

 dinarily supplied. To horses they might give salt with 

 impunity. 



A vote of thanks was then passed to Mr. Fordham 

 for his lecture ; and a similar compliment having been 

 paid to Mr. Owen for presiding, the proceedings ter- 

 minated. 



TIPTREE-HALL STILL ON VIEW. 



Important to Agriculturists and Others- 

 — Just re-opened, after extensive alterations and re- 

 pairs ! An early visit is requested ! Try our magic 

 crops : cheapest and best ! 



The terrible veto has been withdrawn. The long 

 vacation is over. The great lesson is once more to be 

 taught us. Tiptree-hall is still on view. Like Sheri- 

 dan's stage father, the Alderman may be firm, but the 

 farmer, he relents. We have given a long good-bye, no 

 doubt, to the famous " Gatherings." But the example 

 itself is yet at our service. Who shall say but that the 

 change is one for the better ? The transplanted City- 

 feast was never needed. The majestic Mr. Harker, 

 the Cider-cellar singers, and the amateur conjurer who 

 made no mouths at swallowing anything and every- 

 thing, were hardly in place, after all. The day might 

 so serve a double duty ; but it was not classically the 

 feast of Ceres. People came more to be amused than 

 instructed ; and there was little argument to be had 

 from a man, who declared these were the finest mangels 

 he ever saw, having never, to the best of his recol- 

 lection, seen any before in his life ! 



The innate hospitality of Mr. Mechi, then, breaks 

 out again, as needs it must. It is, however, tempered 

 with discretion, while it promises to be of far more real 

 use. A party often or twelve practical farmers will see 

 more, and will be much more ready to do justice to 

 what they see, than they would in a bounds-beating 

 chevy of some two or three hundred. The lesson, too, 

 will be reciprocal. A plain agriculturist, who would 

 not care to raise his voice amongst City IMagnates and 

 Grand Plenipotentiaries, might put a few home 

 questions to the worthy Alderman, when the eyes of 

 England were not centred upon them. Mr. Mechi 

 deserves every credit for reviving, if not originating, 

 such kind of meetings. His were only a little over, 

 done ; and they will do far better now. We counsel 

 our friends to accept the invitation as heartily as it is 

 given. Whenever the opportunity occurs, let them 

 send in a card, and book themselves for Kelvedon. We 

 shall always have a corner for what they see there, and 

 what they think of what they .see. 



The.se pleasant little " calls" are visibly on the in- 

 crease; thanks in a great degree to Mr. Mcchi's lead. 

 With one the occasion isa sheep-sliearing, with another 

 a ram-ktting, and with more, the visit of some agri- 

 cultural society to the district. Within only this last 

 week or two the opening day of the new association 

 Essex provided such means and opportunity. On the 

 Monday Sir John Tyrrell had a party at Borebam, 

 Mr. Baker a few friends during the week at Writtle, 

 and on Thursday Mr. Fisher Ilobbs his turn at I 



Boxted. All these were well done, but it is of the 

 first of them that wc purpose here to treat. Sir John 

 brought landlords, tenants, amateurs, and manufac- 

 turers well together. There were such men as Lord 

 Rayleigh, Colonel Lowther, and Captain Bennett to 

 represent the owners of the soil. Mr. Hutley, Mr. 

 Seabrook, and Mr. Bewers were directly called on to 

 act for the farmers. Some of Dray's and Smith and 

 Ashby's implements were at work ; and Mr. Alderman 

 Mechi, Mr. Dixon, and others, spoke and answered for 

 collateral interests. 



Asa test of agricultural progress, the programme 

 was not altogether a happy one. A new mowing 

 machine would not mow ; and a new hay-rake 

 was found to be nothing like as good as Smith and 

 Ashby's well-known one. The only thing, indeed, that 

 told in this way was " a cocking-rake," for use in 

 catching weather, of Sir John's own invention ; but 

 even this could not command the prize for the new im- 

 plement, on the day following. There were, however, 

 other signs of progress, especially in the speech- 

 making. Mr. Dixon, for instance, in proposing the 

 health of the host, said that, " without the support of 

 those in the position in which Sir John stood, progress 

 would be slow ; but such meetings as this augured 

 well for the cause." The worthy Baronet himself 

 stood up manfully for the use of the steam-plough, and 

 descanted on the merits of the implement he had in- 

 vented — not bad signs, either of them, of the progress 

 we are achieving. Mr. Mechi, of course, followed ; 

 and from him we may gather something even 

 a little more definite as to what standard we 

 should act up to. He commences on the old string :— 

 " The more people they had, the more prosperous and 

 powerful they would be, if tliey fed them. To do that 

 they must improve their agriculture. For himself, he 

 had passed through an agricultural purgatory, and for 

 fourteen or fifteen years Mr. Jlechi was looked on as a 

 great fool and a humbug. But he had been hopeful ; 

 he had gone on, and he had lived to see his friends 

 adopt what they before condemned. The steam-engine 

 which he put up w-as the first in the county, and Mr. 

 Samuel Jonas said he was a fool to put it up ; but 

 nearly all his friends had now got steam-engines ! So 

 it was with draining; and he was glad to find that 

 conviction had come to the minds of his friends at 

 last. He thought that to secure a greater supply of 

 food from the soil they must have increased depth of 

 cultivation. He believed they could not air the heavy 

 lands too much, or enough. He had evidence of this 

 on his farm, where, after carting mangold-wurtzel from 

 a field, he could show that, by the compression of the 



