THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



81 



The Grange, near Lydney. Commended : Mr. Rees Keeue, 

 Peiicraig. 



Piece of plate, value ten guineas, for the best, and a piece 

 of plate, value five guineas, for the second best pair of yearling 

 stock heifers ; Ist prize, Mr. H. lliggius, The Grange, Lydney; 

 2ud, Mr. J. Jones, Llwyngaer. 



Piece of plate, value five guineas, for the best pen, consist- 

 ing of four yearling wethers, long wool ; Mr. Rchd. Phillpotts, 

 Pwlmeyrick, near Chepstow. 



Piece of plate, value five guineas, for the best pen, consisting 

 of four yearling stock ewes, long wool ; Mrs. Elizabeth Dew, 

 Abergavenny. 



Piece of plate, value five guineas, for the beat pen, consisting 

 of four breeding ewes, under three years old ; Mr. J. Jones, 

 Llwyngaer, near Kaglan. 



Piece of plate, value five guineas, for the best pen, consist- 

 ing of four breeding ewes, above three years old ; Mr. J. Jones, 

 Llwyngaer, near Raglan. 



Piece of plate, value ten guineas, for the best piece, not 

 being less than ten acres, of Swedish turnips, growing 

 within the county of Monmouth ; Mr. William Price, 

 Bishton. Highly commended : Mr. William Cadle, Llancayo, 

 near Usk. 



Piece of plate, value five ^guineas, for the best piece, not 

 being less than five acres, of Swedish turnips, grown by a ten- 

 ant farmer, in the county of Monmouth, who does not farm 

 more than 100 acres of arable land; Mr. Henry Workman, 

 Coedkernew. 



Piece of plate, value five guineas, for the best piece, not less 

 than two acres, of mangold wurtzel, grown by a tenant farmer 

 in the county of Monmouth ; Mr. Davis, Laugstone Court. 

 Highly commended : Mr. Workman, Coedkernew. Com- 

 mended : Mr. Parker, Caerwent. 



Premium of two guineas and a-half, for farm servants or 

 labourers, for the longest servitude, uninterruptedly, under 

 the same master, on the same farm, or under the same 

 family ; William Jones, servant to Mr. Rees Keene, Pencraig, 

 38 years. 



A second premium of one guinea and a-half, ditto ; 

 John Smith, servant to Mr. George Pritchard, Llanfihangel, 

 35 years. 



A third premium of one guinea ditto ; Richard Samuel, ser- 

 vant to W. T. Rees, Esq., Holly House, 23 years. 



Judges for the Horned Stock, Sheep, and 

 Pigs.— Mr. T. S. Bradstock, Cobrey Park, Walford, near 

 Ross, and Mr. T. Morris, Maisemore, near Gloucester. 



Judges for Horses. — Mr. N, Skipp, Ross, assisted by 

 Mr. J. Morgan, Ross. 



THE DINNER 

 took place on Tuesday evening, at the King's Head Hotel. 

 Lord Tredegar occupied the presidential chair. 



After the usual loyal toasts were given and responded to. 



The Chairman gave " The Lord-Lieutenant," followed 

 by " The Members for the county" (cheers). 



Mr. O. Morgan, M.P., said he had attended these meet- 

 ings for more than thirty years with only two intermissions, 

 and it was a great pleasure to him and all bis family to see 

 the increase in the institution since it was started on a small 

 scale at Court-y-bella. The hon. Member noticed the gradual 

 rise and sure progress up to the present time, and pointed to 

 its good effects as visible in the improved farming of the dis- 

 trict, especially in the rearing of live stock. He alluded to the 

 scarcity of labour recently experienced, and which improve- 

 ments in agricultural machinery were in a measure to coun- 

 teract, as they enabled the same number of labourers to do a 

 great deal more work, and so left more hands available for the 

 defence of the country. 



Mr. Crawshay Bailey, M.P., responded to the toast 

 of " The Member for the Boroughs." He said agricultural 

 progress must go forward. We were paying 20 millions a- 

 year for corn to come into the country, and we must make fur- 

 ther improvements. He recalled the time when the labourers 

 were alarmed at the introduction of threshing machines, and 

 now it was only at the top of some of the hills that they could 

 get labourers to thresh with a flail, which was quite discarded 

 in the valleys. He wished to see a prize offered at Newport 

 for the best steam-plough, and he would be happy to subscribe 

 towards a £100 premium for that purpose. Agriculturists 

 must ke^p their fields clean from weeds', and he was surprised 

 to find in a book he had been ree ling, that there were as 



many as 50,000 seeds in one plant, and in most of them 

 3,000 seeds. Unless they keep their land clean, how could 

 they separate weeds from grain ? When they bought a 

 pound of clover, perhaps half of it was the seed of weeds, and 

 only a microscope would find them out. About Ross the laud 

 and the farming were so good, that it had been said that a man 

 might sit in his arm-chair and grow rich — but that must have 

 been when wheat was lOOs. per quarter, and they would never 

 see those times again. He wanted to see the steam-plough, 

 the harrows behind the plough, and the drill behind the har- 

 rows, so that the corn might be put in at one working. No 

 doubt that would be done before long. Labour was getting 

 scarce, and our colonies could take every man in the country : 

 there was plenty of room for the whole 20 millions. Agricul- 

 turists should most certainly encourage the cottagers. There 

 was a time when he thought the population was getting too 

 thick upon the ground, and that kept him from marrying for 

 about 20 years (great laughter) ; but now he wished he had 20 

 children, though, not being like the Mohammedans or the 

 Grand Turk, he was only allowed to have one wife. He begged 

 the agriculturists to give premiums for the best cottage gar- 

 dens in every parish, for the best hive of honey, the cleanest 

 cottage, the best pig in the stye. The hon. Member praised 

 the superior physique of the agriculturists in language more 

 emphatic than complimentary, for he said the mothers had 

 plenty of milk, and therefore the children giew up " like 

 calves." He concluded by proposing the health of Lord Tre- 

 degar, their noble President, to whom he paid a graceful com- 

 pliment. 



The toast was drunk with long-continued and hearty ap- 

 plause. 



Lord Tredegar, in reply, expressed his intense gratifica- 

 tion at the continued and increasing prosperity of the society. 

 Although he did not know much about agriculture, it was hia 

 great amusement, and he took much interest in it ; he was 

 delighted when he saw good stock produced, or good imple- 

 ments brought forward. There was a difficulty in getting 

 sufficient agricultural labour ; and what with volunteers to 

 the army and emigration, they must mainly rely upon the use- 

 ful implements to keep up the growth of corn required for the 

 support of the inhabitants of the country. The exhibition he 

 had been so pleased to see that day was superior, in both 

 numbers and quality, to anything he had seen before, and good 

 judges had expressed a similar opinion. He tendered his best 

 thanks to them all, and especially to those gentlemen of New- 

 port and elsewhere who so largely contributed to the prize- 

 list. 



The President proposed "The Judges," and said he did 

 not complain of their awards, although they had given the 

 palm to Herefords, while he showed shorthorns. 



Mr. T. S. Bradstock responded, and said he was surprised 

 to see the improvement in the show since he saw it five or six 

 years ago. He assured the president that, though a Hereford 

 man, he went into the show-yard quite free from prejudice. 

 Mr. Bradstock, whose remarks were partially inaudible to us, 

 went on to notice a speech made by Mr. Relph at the recent 

 Abergavenny agricultural meeting. Mr. Relph disagreed with 

 Mr. Octavius Morgan, and said " he did not like rewarding 

 labourers for getting a good number of children and then 

 keeping them off the parish." He would like to know whether 

 Mr. Relph would wish that men should desert their families, 

 and leave them chargeable to the parish ? The man who 

 reared a family, and brought them to share in the industry of 

 the country, was a national benefactor, and an increase of 

 population was a part of our national wealth and greatness. 

 To reward labourers in the manner mentioned by Mr. Craw- 

 shay Bailey was far better than to teach them to jump long and 

 short, and such things as were advocated by Mr. Relph. He 

 imagined if the noble lord in the chair were to go and find bia 

 tenantry so employed, he would consider it time to increase 

 their rents. Mr. Relph said, "not one-half the farmers in 

 the country were worth putting up good buildings for." He 

 knew what it was to be a tenant farmer ; and he would 

 advise a landlord who had a tenant who was not worth putting 

 up good buildings for, to give him notice to quit, and decline 

 to keep him on the estate. Mr. Relph advocated the plan of 

 letting farms by tender ; but Mr. Bradstock said he hoped the 

 time wasfar distant when such a practice would becomegeneral 

 — that would crush the power and influence of the landed pro-< 

 prietary. 



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