30 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



until at last they would find it worth their while to send 

 to a distance, and compete with others. The persons 

 who now exhibited at Newport came from all parts of the 

 country, just as they did to the great exhibition of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society. It would be absurd for the 

 small farmers in this district to send there, but they were 

 in the same position here as the great breeders were at the 

 great shows; aud as they improved, so would they be 

 enabled to send to the larger socities with the probable 

 expectation of gaining prizes. He therefore looked upon 

 these institutions as of great importance to the country, 

 which must be immensely improved by them. He there- 

 fore hoped to see them all flourish. He was glad to see 

 premiums offered for good ploughing, without which they 

 could not have good farming. He did not approve of the 

 objections which had been made in certain newspapers to 

 the premiums given to labourers, which were said to be 

 degrading. He thought it was a good thing to acknow- 

 ledge the services of a good labourer, and to encourage men 

 to be good labourers. Without good labourers they could 

 not have good farming. The farmer was indebted to the 

 labourer and the labourer to the farmer ; there was a 

 reciprocity between them, which ought to be acknowledged. 

 It was not the dirty pound they gave a man ; it was the 

 fact of his worthiness and good qualities being publicly 

 recognized, which made him feel that he had done right ; 

 and if a man did right, he should be encouraged in it. The 

 small cross or the medal on the breasts of our soldiers was 

 not the object ; it was the honour and dignity of station 

 they acquired by their brave and valorous deeds. Their 

 great reward was the self-esteem they felt, and the esti- 

 mation in which they were held by their fellow men in con- 

 sequence ot what they had done. It was this which made 

 a man feel proud and noble in the feelings which animated 

 his heart, and made him proud of the position he occupied. 

 In every sphere of life, he who did well should have his 

 goodness acknowledged, as an inducement to others to emu- 

 late him, and place themselves in a position of similar merit. 



Col. Clifford, M.P., said : There was at that moment, 

 as there had been for many years past, a great desire 

 to draw out the capabilities of the soil to the utmost of its 

 power and resources. lu the parish to which he belonged — 

 one of the most isolated and rural — there was a great 

 improvement visible, and they had even ventured to send 

 forth a champion to contend for the prize for the best culti- 

 vated farm. They were still in ignorance as to who was the 

 winner, but they did not give up the hope of carrying off 

 the prize. But they had in Llantilio a habit of growing a 

 crop which, though very productive, was not very profitable; 

 and if any spirited agriculturist would give them a lift, and 

 propose a prize for that particular crop, it might have 

 a beneficial effect ; he alluded to the growth of thistles. If 

 any geutleman would next year give a prize for the best 

 crop of thistles, there should be such a list of competitors as 

 never had been lor any other prize, and the winner would 

 be found, he believed, in the parish of Llantilio. He had 

 not been a very successful competitor to-day, but he was by 

 no means certain that he might not win that prize. That 

 sort of crop showed the rich productiveness of the soil, but 

 did not bring money into their pockets, and he wished they 

 could get rid of that very prolific and troublesome crop. It 

 was no use for the gentleman on one side of the fence 

 to work his land well, if the gentleman on the other side 

 of the fence allowed his thistl s to grow unrestrained. 

 Barring tl at one drawback, he believed they had got their 

 land as clean and productive as most parts of England in 

 ordinary cultivation. 



J. A. Herbert, Esq., the Chairman, said: They could 

 not fail to notice the rapid advancement made in agricultu- 

 ral pursuits of late years, but they must also feel that vast 

 strides yet remained to be taken before agriculture could 

 attain that position in which they all must wish to see it. It 

 ■was satisfactory to look back upon past pro?ress, but it was 

 perhaps more practically useful to look forward, and see in 

 what way they might advance in the future. Without 

 attempting to deliver anything like advice upon farming 

 matters, he might offer his opinion that it was highly proba° 

 . ble that this neighbourhood would never attain very high 

 prominence as a corn-producing district, but that they 

 might vastly improve their stock. There was no reason 

 why, at some distant time, their stock should not be able to 



compete with the far-famed herds of the adjoining county 

 (Hereford). Their soil produced green crops and pastures 

 which were not very easily surpassed, when carefully 

 attended to ; but their great deficiency lay in the state of 

 farming accommodation and farm buildings generally 

 (cheers). He knew what they meant by those cheers : he 

 fully expected to be told that this was a landlord's question. 

 He admitted that it was the duty of every landlord to 

 second and encourage the endeavours of any tenant who 

 might endeavour to better his position ; he admitted that 

 responsibility, and he believed most landlords were prepared 

 to join him in this, if they were met by their tenants in a 

 liberal spirit, and if they saw their way to something like a 

 fair remuneration for their money. They were often asked 

 to put up fine buildings which were not remimerative ; but 

 on the whole, a very good fte ing prevailed between land- 

 lord and tenant in this district. This was amply shown by 

 the long duration of tenancies in the neighbourhood, very 

 many of which extended over two or three generations. 

 Pie trusted that good feeling would long continue, and he 

 wished, if it were possible, to draw a still closer bond of sym- 

 pathy around landlords and tenants ; for though each might be 

 perfectly and entirely independent of the other, yet they 

 should feel a mutual interest in promoting the fertility 

 of the soil, and in order to do so they should co-operate in 

 a cordial and liberal spirit. 



The Chairman give " Prosperity to other Agricultural 

 Societies," coupling with the toast the name of Mr. Relph, 

 as the representative of the Usk Society. 



Mr. G. R.G. Relph responded to thetonst in a humour- 

 ous and congenial strain, drawing a comparison between the 

 little farmers' club at Usk and this august assemblage. 

 But they at Usk were not so small as their name indicated 

 Mr. Morgan had said that great societies were not so 

 desirable, that they must put farmers in leading-string 

 before they could compete with a good grace at the large 

 shows. He subscribed to all that; but he found that 

 all the great guns at Abergavenny had their first lessons in 

 the little society at Usk. George Pritchard, and Warren 

 Evans, and several others, were indoctrinated at the Usk 

 Farmers' Club ; they had reaped laurels at Newport, and 

 now here, and no doubt would go from Abergavenny to the 

 next great agricultural show — that of the Royal Society. 

 He differed altogether from Mr. Morgan in one part of his 

 remarks : he did not like rewarding labourers for getting a 

 good number of children, and then keeping them off the 

 parish. He did not like giving them rewards on occasions 

 like this ; he liked to reward them in his own service. If 

 they showed that they selectedgood labourers, they would get 

 good ones ; but as long as farmers would take any man who 

 came with a hook on his back, without asking him where 

 he had been serving or whether he had a character, 

 they would never have a good class of labourers. That 

 was too much the case : if a man was discharged from the 

 adjoining farm, they did not inquire the reason why he was 

 dismissed, but engaged hira at once, without putting themselves 

 to the inconvenience of doing what would raise the standard 

 of character among the men. Until they made some little 

 sacrifice, they would never improve the character of their 

 men as they would like to see it improved. They cultivated 

 ploughing by giving prizes, and they had a very good class 

 of ploughmen in that neighbourhood ; but tliey might hold 

 out prizes to their labourers which would make them gene- 

 rally active. If they had a man who was good at jumping, 

 and running, and wrestling, he would be the more useful in 

 his work. Athletic sports should be more supported and 

 provided in Monmouthshire, so that the men could engage 

 in these exercises instead of soaking and sotting in public- 

 houses, and smoking pipes. If they could intioduce such 

 prizes it would be a good thing, and they might give prizes 

 to labourers for the best running and the best jumping, high 

 jumping and long jumping. It would improve the standard 

 of the labourers,' and instead of lopping along at the rate of 

 a mile and a half an hour, they would go on as l^ord Hard- 

 wicke said he liked to see men going, " with their elbo\ys 

 before them." He agreed with what Mr Herbert said 

 about the duties of farmers and tenants. Not one-half the 

 farmers in the county were worth putting up good buildings 

 for. He was speaking the truth, and therefore was not 

 ashamed of it. The only way to bring about the mutual 

 feeling of interest between landlord and tenant, which was 



