THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



289 



THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY OF IRELAND. 

 MEETING AT LONDONDERRY. 



The national Agricultural Society of Ireland would 

 seem to ilourish almost before its time. It is very cer- 

 tain that the Irish farmer is not oven now quite pre- 

 pared for its proceedings. lie cannot welcome the insti- 

 tution of such an organ as did his brethren in England 

 the establishment of a similar association. In a word, 

 he is hardly equal to the position. The small holdings, 

 still more or loss general hero, will not allow of the oc- 

 cupier taking much active interest in such an occasion, 

 lie has no stock to exhibit, and few implements to 

 buy. He is rarely a member of the Society, is as 

 seldom seen at the dinner, and year after year suffers 

 the tenant-farmer classes to pass by with " no entry," 

 or " no comj^etition." 



And yet, perhaps, there is not one of our three agri- 

 cultural bodies doing more good than this is. Its in- 

 fluence may be not altogether so apparent, but its effect 

 is unquestionable. The Improvement Society, in 

 fact, is acting quite up to its title, and is dating 

 this improvement from the fountain head. It is sim- 

 ply, so far, a school for landloi-ds. Nothing, we really 

 believe, has tended more to make the owners of the 

 soil residents on their estates. Nothing has certainly 

 ever, previous to this era, caused them to take so active 

 a share in the management of their property ; and no- 

 thing has conduced so much to its amelioration. The 

 very character of the annual meeting has something of 

 an excitement and an emulation about it, especially 

 attractive to the national taste ; and "my lord" will 

 now prepare a Shorthorn or a Clydesdale with all the 

 energy he once employed over a steeple-chaser, or an 

 entry for The Curragh. The only material difference 

 is this, that, win or lose, the estate would suffer in the 

 one case just as it profits in the other. But the diver- 

 sion in favour of the pursuits of agriculture will not 

 end here. The Irish Society must become a farmers' 

 society, after all. An improving landlord will never 

 rest content with a non-improving tenantry. The 

 owner who has learned what may be done will be sure 

 to see that it is done. Indirect as this action may be 

 at the outset, it will eventually be effective. The land- 

 lord is getting off his lesson very creditably, and the 

 other's turn must come. There is no doubt they have 

 both wanted it ; at the same time it is encouraging to 

 see how people may improve themselves. The ad- 

 vance of agriculture in Ireland is so far almost entirely 

 due to the Irish themselves — to the Irish gentry more 

 particularly. 



There are now few districts in which such a compari- 

 son as that inferred would be more striking than in 

 Londonderry. Such a meeting might at tlie first 

 glance appear almost out of place here. What are the 

 forty-acre farmers to do with costly shorthorns, or 

 the promising performances of the steam-plough ? 



What good can come of it? Can they ever hope 

 to attain to either one or the other? We must 

 let their landlords answer for them, as they did 

 at the dinner here, and say they can hope for 

 something from all this. It may begin with a 

 better horse travelling the country, or by "Sir 

 Harvey" buying a reaper or a steam-engine. But 

 the visit will not have been paid in vain. The very 

 city of Dcrry will "take up" the cause, and the 

 goodly corporations will have to follow the example. 

 It is proverbial that we have few worse landlords than 

 these public bodies ; but the day is coming when Col- 

 leges and Companies will no longer be allowed to stand 

 in the way of our advancement. 



However well or ill the neighbourhood may have 

 been previously read up, the kind of instruction pro- 

 vided here was of the highest order. Without being 

 throughout numerically the strongest, it was one of the 

 best shows the Society has ever commanded. Of 

 course, like nearly all other similar institutions, this 

 has its peculiar features of excellence — Short-horn 

 cattle and Berkshire pigs — more recently. Horses — and 

 yet more recently. Implements. It was by far the best 

 exhibition of the latter ever seen at one of these mi- 

 gratory meetings ; and yet more satisfactory was it to 

 notice the increasing attention paid by the public to 

 this section of the show. On the Ihursday the crowd 

 fairly deserted even the thorough-bred horses and 

 Challenge Cup cattle, to throng round Richmond and 

 Chandler's, and Gray's (of Glasgow) well-arranged 

 collections. The steam-plough trials, to be reached 

 by a miserable single line of railway, were too far off to 

 tempt many; but either for business or good sensible 

 enquiries, the manufacturers had never so much to 

 do at an Irish gathering. It is significant to add that 

 Mr. Torr, a judge here, and a member of Council in 

 his own country, attributes much of this success to the 

 introduction of the prize system. Some years since 

 there were no premiums given for implements in Ire- 

 land, and the show of them was a mere shadow to 

 what it has been since the offer of money prizes. 

 Surely there is some deduction to be drawn from 

 this. 



A full report of what was exhibited and done in 

 this division of the prize sheet is subjoined by a 

 valued correspondent of our own, who was present at 

 all the trials. To return to the original attractions of an 

 Irish meeting, wo have to report another famous entry 

 of shorthorns. Indeed, had all been forwarded that 

 were promised, it would have been a more than usually 

 good display of them. Mr. Stratton, however, did 

 not send his nominations, and the numbers consequently 

 came very much to a par with those at Waterford last 

 year. But to prove the superiority of the sample, it 



