370 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



to purchaje what may suit, at prices inconceivable on 

 any other occasion. 



Thirdly. The small tenant farmers (a class we should 

 encourage) will have more heart to compete at their own 

 country shows, where landlords (after the example of 

 Colonel Pennant) cease to exhibit, being contented with 

 the laurels of a nobler arena. 



Lastly, we notice that at most of the recent Welsh 

 meetings it has been suggested that prizes should be 

 given for essays on local agriculture. How much better 

 would this object be attained by the publication of an 

 efficient Journal on the model of those issued by tho 

 other national societies, which in itself were worth a 

 guinea ! 



And, after all, what is it that we seek? To engage 

 you In another South Sea bubble or British Bank in- 

 vestment ? A speculation that may" cramp your com- 

 forts and endanger the inheritance of your children? 

 Nay, rather it is but to contribute one guinea — but a 

 sack of oats from your hunter's stable — but a ribbon 

 from my Lady's drawer ; neither of which essentials 

 would you, we will be bound, in three weeks miss. And 

 the consequence, if we succeed — and succeed we must, 

 if once fairly afloat — will be, that for those swampy 

 meadows, alder grown and mossy, which return you but 

 a scant half-crown per acre, you will come eventually 

 to receive your thirty shillings rent. In the room of 

 yon feeble tenant, the despondent owner of an aged 

 blind mare, three cows that live by gipsying, some 

 dozen Ecabby sheep, a cur, and a "greyhound pig," 

 you will have a thriving, ruddy yeoman, both able and 

 willing to give employment to the hamlet, with the re- 

 lieving officer " to let." For with stock improved will 

 prices rise, and the farmer be enabled to do justice 

 better to his animals, himself, bis servants, and his land- 

 lord. But supposing, after all, that upon trial this 

 scheme shall fall through (we cannot, we confess, see 

 how), what harm can possibly have happened but that 

 1,300 individuals have forfeited a guinea in an effbrtto 

 advance their country's prosperity ; while in vivid con- 

 trast view the beneficial results that must inevitably 

 arise from even a single such united meeting. Witness 

 the increased knowledge — the stimulated enterprise — 

 the dissipated prejudices of master and man. Nay, 

 we doubt if any would venture to deny that the 

 unwonted numbers and improved character of stock ex- 



hibited this autumn in the various show-yards of South 

 Wales, Herefordshire, Monmouth, are distinctly refera- 

 ble to the reflow of the wave which swept on Cardiff in 

 June. 



Our work, as a provisional committee, is now all but 

 done. The ball we have launched ; it remains with you, 

 the Press, to keep it rolling. Let the " fiery cross " go 

 forth at once. District meetings should be held as soon 

 as possible, and our efTorts clenched. 



It is in favour of a large contribution that the surface 

 of Wales is parcelled out amongst so numerous a pro- 

 prietary, not one of whom would miss a subscription 

 from their annual income. Did not North Wales alone 

 advance ^'2,000 towards the meeting of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England at Chester ? What may 

 not, then, the North and South united do, sinking 

 petty jealousies, which but for one journal we should 

 not have believed to exist more than in idea ? 



Laying well to heart the recent words of one of 

 Europe's sagest rulers, " The progress of agriculture 

 ought to be one of the objects of our constant care, for 

 upon its improvement or its neglect depends the pros- 

 perity or the decline of empires" (from the French 

 Emperor's speech on opening the Legislature, IGth Feb., 

 1857), we need but "a pull, a long pull, a strong 

 ■pull, and a pull altogether," to set up a noble society 

 upon a footing second to none, and from which it shall 

 never recede. We shall have a mass of most encourag- 

 ing communications from influential quarters to hand 

 over, on the establishment of a regular committee, 

 though of the issued circulars a large amount yet re- 

 mains unacknowledged. This does not, however, sur- 

 l)rise or dishearten us. A grand project moves slowly 

 at first ; and we conclude, not that it is the pheasant 

 shooting, nor the hounds that interfere, nor yet apathy, 

 as some suggest, but simply that 



" The charmed ocean 's pausiDg."j 



There wants yet a short period to the turn ; but with 

 the county meetings will subscriptions, we doubt not, 

 come racing in at speed. 



On behalf of tho Provisional Committee, 

 George Montgomery Traherne. 



Saint Hilary, Coivbridge, Glamorganshire, 

 October 20lh, 1858. 



AGRICULTURAL DISTILLERIES. 



In a recent number we inserted a letter from the pro- 

 prietors of the North-eud Distillery, at Fulhara, in rtply to 

 observations of ours, in otir Jourusl of the 13th of last month, 

 on the subject of agricultural distilleries, which it is now pro- 

 posed to introduce iuto this country, on Champonnais' prin- 

 ciple. In much of what our correspondent advances we quite 

 concur : but there are points which appear to us to be treated 

 Iheoretically rather than praclically ; aud to these alone we 

 propose to direct our present observationB. 



We do not consider machinery and science, applied to the 



increase of the products of a farm, as calculated to lessen the 

 spirit of agricultural enterprise, but rather to stimulate and 

 increase it, by placing all the operations of the farm, thus fa- 

 cilitated, upon a more rational basis, and superinducing a 

 higlier class of mind and intelligence in the operations of the 

 farm. But we do cousi'Jer that, if a farmer goes beyond this, 

 and commences as a manufacturer of spirit from the produce 

 of his farm, he then becomes a commercial as well as an agri- 

 cultural man, and has his mind distracted between the direct 

 and foreign operations of an intricate and complicated branch 



