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TilE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



not suppose that bscaiuc it u an aacleiit art, auj ouc (hat has 

 becQ prosecuted in its simplest forms, it is therefore otherwise 

 than an art which, of all others, perhaps, affords the meat 

 varied scope and the largest sphere of development to the 

 powers tf the human mind (Hear, hear). And it is most 

 essenti'.l , if, indeed, it be true, as true it is, that a large part 

 of the national welfare hangs upon its prosperity — it is most 

 esieutial that you should have the best aud most' efficacious 

 means of comparing its state in one year with its state in 

 another — of recurdiug for future encouragement the progress 

 that has been achieved ia the past ; find if perchance a time 

 should ccme when in any one of its branches of enterprise 

 some partial failure should be perceived, that that failr.re 

 should be uoted at the first moment when it becomes visible, 

 iu order that the sense of the defect may lead to its being at 

 once repaired (Hear, hear). My lord, I thiuk it may be truly 

 observed that this — I must say distinguished — I may say 

 illustrious society, appears to me to supply a want which is 

 the greatest inherent want of agriculture. If wc IooIj to the 

 case of manufactures, it is their nature to collect themselves iu 

 enormous masses around great centres of industry. If we look 

 to commerce, incessant communication between every part of 

 the commsrcial system of the country is the very vital air it 

 breathes, and is uaturallj* inseparable from commercial de- 

 velopment. But with agriculture the case is different ; for, ou 

 the contrary, its nature is to be gathered around local ceutres 

 which, under ordinary circumstances, have little or no connec- 

 tion or communication with one another. It is, iu comparison, 

 an isolated art, and therefore it might follow, under general 

 circumstances, that agriculture was languishing in various 

 quarters of the country, eimply from the want of a knowledge 

 of the progress achieved in other portions of the land (Hear, 

 hear). Well, now, if I am right in saying that this is the 

 besetting danger and difficulty of agriculture, is it not true and 

 obvious that the society, whose festival we commemorstc to- 

 day, is, by the very principles of its construction, adapted 

 effsctually to supply that want — (Hear, hear) — for its business 

 is to bring together the men and the minds of all portions of 

 the country. The stock of Devonshire, the horses of Suffolk, 

 the various products of England, are exhibited in the yards 

 to-day. The agriculture of England, through the means 

 mainly of this society, is rapidly attaining to the position to 

 have but one heart and one mind — one common pulse that 

 causes the circulation of the vital fluid throughout the whole 

 system — one common stock, into which everything that skill, 

 that industry, that intelligence, that capital had achieved in 

 every single part of the country, made the common property 

 of the other portion of the cou'itry (applause). Well, 

 again, my lord, I will venture to give another reason 

 why mjsel', an uninstructed person, ventured to feel 

 a sentiment of gratitude to those who, in this matter, 

 give us the benefit of their instruction. If we look to tlie 

 trade of the farmer, it seems to me to stand distinguished 

 from all other trades — not in the less, but in the greater 

 amount of the de;nand that it makei> upon his mental powers. 

 In point of fact, if we are to regard the farmer as an isolated 

 man he has got to struggle with everything. He ought to 

 understand the whole universe iu which he lives, aud almost 

 every science that belongs to the entire range of the human 

 intellect. He ought to be profound iu meteorology ; he ought 

 to be a consummate chemist ; he ought to have such a know- 

 ledge of birds and animals as scarcely a life could acquire. 

 lie ought to be a mechanist of the first order; and 

 in point of fact there is no end to the accomplishments, 

 which the individual farmer, to be a good farmer, if he 

 stand alone, ought to possess (applause). Aud if I take 



the c.ac of two men seltiug out in life with a moderate 

 capital at their command — say two men who have 

 £5.000 to dispose of; aud the question beiag whether they 

 are to enter into some ordinary trade, or whether they are to 

 enter into the business of farming, I say that man who takes 

 his £5,000 to stock a farm, which is let to him as a tenant 

 farmer, will require far more of intelligence in order to enable 

 him properly to transact his business than if he opened a shop 

 iu some street in a great city (Hear, hear). Well now, gen- 

 tlemeu, it is eminently desirable, but you will agree with me 

 that it ia not possible, that the farmer should be a profound 

 chemist, an accomplished meteorologist, and the possessor of 

 those other arts which it is desirable he should possess. A 

 pretty good knowledge of some of them he may attain through 

 practice, but he cannot be possessed of every accomplishment 

 necessary. What has he to know of the working of machines? 

 Does not the comparative value of machines turn ofteu on 

 matters of profound caliulatiou ? What is he to know of the 

 analysis of soils? What of the manures which he employs? 

 Here, again, comes in the Royal Agricultural Society. The 

 Royal Agricultural Society applies to the machines that arc 

 cITered to your patronage, the severest test that science has 

 devised. It applies to the manures with which you are to 

 fertilise the ground, those searching analyses which enable 

 you to know with what materials you ate dealing; and, in 

 point of fact, in general enables you to prosecute the arduous 

 path of improvement under the safeguards aud guarantees of 

 a knowledge which no single individual can possess, but which 

 this society amasses aud accumulates, brings to the door of 

 every man, and places therefore at his disposal (applause). 

 Well, now, my lord, I have given, I think, reasons enough why we 

 should be grateful to the Royal Agricultural Society for having 

 come here to hold its meeting in the ancient and venerable 

 city of Chester. I feel indeed ashamed to be the organ, in any 

 sense, of the 'sentiments of this ueighbourhcod, when I re- 

 member the recency of my own connection with it, and when 

 I recollect that I speak iu the presence aud iu the neighbour- 

 hood of those whose families have been rooted to the soil for 

 more centuries almost than I could count years. But, at the 

 same time, I cannot help fecliug how appropriately this scene 

 has been chosen for the present anniversary. In this town we 

 meet under the shadow of a venerable cat'iiedral. We meet in 

 a city which derives its name from a denomination established 

 in England 2,000 years ago. But yet we see tliis ancient 

 city, which has lately beea subjected to the influence of change 

 — we see it now becoming the centre of a new traffic — stretch- 

 ing forth the arms of its suburbs right ani lefr, aud promising 

 so to flourish and to grov/ that the Chester of the 18lh century 

 will byc-and-hy be scarcely recognised in the expanded dimen- 

 sions of the Chester of the 19th. It associates the new and 

 the old — it associates them as they arc associated by the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, which, aiming at the improve- 

 ment of the one great primitive pursuit of man, brings to 

 bear upo.i the primitive pursuit of every discovery of his- 

 toi-y— all the patient thought of to-day, all tha hope of to- 

 morrow and the future (applause). And let me add this 

 — for I am sure, if there be one cause more than another 

 that has given to this society its place in your universal 

 confidence, it is that which I am about to mention. I 

 have no doubt you love it for the purposes to which it is di- 

 rected. I have no doubt you rejoice ia the union of classes 

 which it exhibits. But, as it appears to me, there is nothing 

 more adminible in ita constitution and machinery than that 

 prevadiug spirit of p;iblieity and fair play which attends the 

 whole of its proceedings (applause). It has functions to dis- 

 charge vhich involve the rewaid of merit. The rewsrd of 



