THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



58 



position as regarded its finances than it had been at 

 any former period of its history (cheers). The meeting 

 held at Warwick last summer was very fully attended, 

 and everything went off with the utmost possible eclat. 

 They had reason also to anticipate a successful meeting 

 next year at Canterbury. He was informed that the 

 prize sheets for the stock and implements would be out 

 much earlier than they had been heretofore, that whereas 

 the issuing of them had been sometimes postponed till 

 JMarch, they would, probably, in this instance be within 

 a week or two from that time in the hands of all the 

 members of the Society, while everytliing else was also 

 in a good state of preparation. He begged leave to add 

 his congratulations on the election of the new secretary 

 of the Society. They had every reason to hope that 

 that gentleman would discharge the important duties 

 which had devolved upon him with the utmost assiduity 

 and diligence, and that with the experience which 

 he had already gained as a man of business, his 

 services would be found efficient and useful. It 

 was also a satisfactory circumstance that they had 

 that day appointed an auditor who meant to look 

 sharp after the new Finance Committee, and see how 

 the funds were administered. They had sometimes had 

 a little discussion at the meetings in December on points 

 of difference ; but on that occasion everything had gone 

 off harmoniously. No gentlemen had attended to cri- 

 ticise the proceedings of the Council, or to suggest al- 

 terations in the management. The Council always lis- 

 tened with attention and respect to any suggestions or 

 proposals which were made, though they might not deem 

 it expedient to adopt them, and they would continue to 

 do so. It was once remarked that that Society should be 



made more like the Central Farmers' Club. He con- 

 fessed he could not see what advantage there would be in 

 adopting that suggestion. He believed the Central 

 Farmers' Club to be a most useful institution : he had 

 frequently read the reports of the discussions which took 

 place at its meetings : he admitted that most useful 

 practical information emanated from those meetings, 

 and he would not undervalue for a moment their im- 

 portance or the service they had rendered to the cause 

 of agriculture. But he really could not see what advan- 

 tage would arise from the two societies acting on pre- 

 cisely the same principles : he thought they should be 

 distinct in their action, and concurrent in their opera- 

 tions ; but at the same time, he thought it was by each 

 pursuing the course which had been chalked out for it, 

 each following the even tenor of its way, that the pros- 

 perity of agriculture would be most efl'ectually promoted, 

 and that through the independent agency and instru- 

 mentality of the two societies, which had been properly 

 called national institutions, the agriculture of this coun- 

 try would be enabled to maintain that high position 

 among the nations of the civilized world which it held 

 at present (cheers). He now proposed a vote of thanks 

 to Col. Challoner for the services which he had ren- 

 dered to the Society that day and on other occasions. 



Lord Denman seconded the motion, which was put 

 by Lord Faversham, and carried unanimously. 



The Chairman, in returning thanks, said, as long as 

 he had health and strength his time and his services 

 would always be at the disposal of the Society, and he 

 should always feel happy to be associated with the 

 farmers of England. 



The meeting then separated. 



THE SMITHFIELD SHOW WEEK, 



When the Clockmaker wished to give his companion 

 some notion of England's wealth, he took him down to 

 Ascot in the days that people travelled by road, and 

 not by rail. He bid him reckon up all the equipages 

 he saw by the way, what they cost to begin with, to 

 keep up, and so forth. Then he was to hasten back 

 to town, and he would not miss one of them ; it would 

 be as full as ever. "A knowing old coon, bred and 

 born in London, might see a difference, but you 

 would'nt." Let us put the converse proposition, and 

 rather fill the metropolis than empty it. Might we not 

 be satisfied, for instance, with the influx of the Smith- 

 field week, when it would not surely have required the 

 experience of an old coon to tell there ivas a difTer- 

 ence ? Every thing proclaimed as clearly as could be 

 that it was the Cattle Show Week, and that our country 

 cousins were up. Hale, hearty, well-to-do gentlemen 

 jostled you in the street. Much-hurrying Hansoms 

 were incessantly delivering varmint-looking cargoes at 

 Hatchett's, the Tavistock, or the York; while every 

 omnibus that went within a mile of Portman-square 

 sported a large wood-cut of the Durham Ox as an as- 

 surance to the unwary stranger of what they could do 

 for him. Print-sellers re-dressed their windows with 

 Derby cracks and farm -yard scenes ; and the polite Mr. 

 Green raised his price to a shilling a-pieee for permis- 

 sion to hear a song and order a supper. Oxford-street 

 was in a continual state of blockade, and the oyster- 

 houses in the Haymarket delirious with business. The 

 most punctilious of bagmen was well content to 

 get a bed "out," and the smartest of barmaids never 

 to go to bed at all. The invasion really seemed to have 

 reached us at last, and rus-in-urbe became everywhere 

 a phrase susceptible of the highest possible illustration. 



It is rarely that the week has been so busy a one, 

 or so important in its results. Indeed, never yet had so 

 many weighty matters to be discussed, if not to 

 be decided upon, within the same i^ew days. Of course 

 these did not all refer to the Smithfield Club itself, al- 

 though thefuturesuceess of thesociety may very much de- 

 pend upon what was done here. Certainly the Show has 

 never enjoyed more support than it does just at present. 

 Never were the prize animals so much handled and 

 admired, never were the implement avenues so 

 thoroughly impassable, and never, was so much 

 money taken. This applies equally to the shil- 

 lings paid at the doors, and the business done in the 

 yard. The manufacturers have seldom had a better 

 week, while town and country butchers were brisker 

 buyers than ever. Still the Show itself was, in its 

 chief attractions, hardly up to the average of excel- 

 lence. Neither of the three orthodox breeds of Short- 

 horn, Hereford, and Devon were so generally good 

 as they have been. The quality of the Durhams was 

 just saved by the presence of Colonel Towneley's mag- 

 nificent heifer : two extraordinary oxen did much for 

 the small entry of Herefords, while the Devons de- 

 pended more than is usual with them on their numerical 

 strength. In fact, the force of the exhibition centred 

 on the sheep and pigs, and on the Leicesters perhaps 

 more especially, For the first time since its establish- 

 ment the two Birmingham Society's gold medal ani- 

 mals— the best ox and the best cow— are the best in 

 London, and many other of the previous week's awards 

 are also confirmed. This may in some measure be 

 accounted for by Mr. Sanday having acted as a judge 

 on both occasions, coupled with the merits of the 

 Metropolitan meeting not being of quite so high an 



