rii 



rilE FARMER'S MAGAZIITE. 



JANUARY, 1860. 



PLATE I. 



PORTRAIT OF MR. JAMES HOWARD. 



PLATE II. 

 HOWARD'S CHAMPION PLOUGH. 



THE BRITANNIA WORKS, BEDFORD. 



MR. JAMES HOWARD, 



OF THE FIRM OF J. AND F. HOWARD, MAKERS OF THE CHAMPION PLOUGH, BEDFORD. 



The name of Howard has long been associated 

 with Bedfordshire. In a period of comparatively- 

 past history, it was pushed beyond the precincts of 

 the County, and made familiar to the world, by one 

 who claimed it as his title in the cause of humanity, 

 and as his passport to the privilege of doing good. 

 In this, but another epoch in its annals, the 

 name promises to become equally well and 

 wiilely known. The Howards are still engaged in 

 the great work of civilization. Fortunately for us 

 all, the aim i-s now a far more grateful one. The 

 bonds of ignorance have been snapped asunder, the 

 heavy weight of oppression has been removed, and 

 the grim darkness of despair has been dispelled. 

 The next care is naturally to make the most of the 

 opportunity that is oiFered — to put industry in the 

 right path, to render honest labour really lucrative, 

 and to do the best by the fruits of the earth, and 

 the fulness thereof. And here, again, a Howard of 

 Bedford, is as deservedly distinguished. In fact, 

 the career of the one would seem to be but the 

 fitting forerunner of the other. Neither will assur- 

 edly be without honour in his own country j while 

 the energy of either is even by this recognised far 

 over the hmit of local influence, or of merely 

 momentary repute. 

 OLD SERIES.] 



If, in this second era, the success of the How- 

 ards has been but gradual, it has y£t been rapidly 

 achieved. The fame of ths Bedford plough, its 

 very rise and progress, scarcely trace further back 

 than the experience of the last twenty years. It 

 dates as almost contemporary with the opening of 

 that great chapter in the records of modern hus- 

 bandry, when the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England was established, and the talismanic Lines 

 of Railway communication brought the different 

 customs and practices of the kingdom into ready 

 and continual contrast with each other. For some 

 years previous to this, Mr. John Howard — the 

 father of the two gentlemen who at present repre- 

 sent the firm — had been doing a good business in 

 the retail trade with ploughs ; that is, he acted 

 as agent for, or sold the implements of other 

 manufacturers. Not, however, getting in this way 

 quite the opportunity he could have wished, Mr. 

 Howard, in the year 1836, determined, like Nelson, 

 to " have a Gazette of his own," or, in other words, 

 to see if he could not sell a plough of his own make. 

 The extensive premises of the old " Barley Mow" 

 inn, in the High-street, were purchased at an out- 

 lay of some three thousand pounds : one or two of 

 the leading farmers of the County were consulted, 

 B [VOL. LII.— No. 1, 



