THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



121 



sheep, and called upon !iis lordship " to tell the meeting 

 some of his secrets" (laughter). The President also ob- 

 served that he saw present his valued friend Mr. Overman, 

 ■who had done so much for the improvement of sheep ; and, 

 as it was good to bring forward young blood, he would call 

 upon Mr. Overman, jun., to respond to the toast also. 



Lord Walsingham, in returning thanks, said he had 

 long felt that it was of the greatest importance, if it could 

 possibly be done, that sheep should be actually clipped in 

 the j'ard, so that a judge might see first of all what the 

 wool was, and afterwards what the sheep were. He was 

 told, however, that this was almost impossible at the Nor- 

 folk show, on account of the time at which the meeting 

 took place, as the sheep, if clipped in the yard, would 

 afterwards stand a very bad chance in competition at the 

 general show of the Royal Agricultural Society. He be- 

 lieved it was necessary to have wool short on the back ; 

 for, if this was not the case, the mutton could not be felt. 

 It would certainly be unsatisfactory if what were called 

 " points" should be made up by wool ; but he was sure 

 judges like Mr. Turner would never be deceived as to an 

 animal being made up, and not having flesh where it ought 

 to have it. As far as his own observation went, he did not 

 discover that there was an3'thing wrong in any of the 

 sheep shown during the day. Altogether, he thought the 

 show did great credit to the count}-, and that as nice a lot 

 of Southdowns as could have been expected had been 

 brought together. 



Mr. Overman, jun , adverted to the proud position his 

 father had occupied at the» meeting. It was now more 

 difficult for him to obtain two or three prizes and some 

 commendatious than it was five or six years since ; and he 

 was delighted to hear from the judge tliat the animals of 

 those gentlemen who had been successful had been fairly 

 shown. His father had kept the greater portion of his best 

 animals at home, for the Salisbury meeting ; and he be- 

 lieved Lord Walbingham had done the same. 



Mr. Wood : We have no secrets ; we brought our best 

 here, 



Mr. Overman : I understood you to say that you had 

 kept two pens of ewes at home. 



"The judges of long-woolled and half-bred sheep, and pigs." 



No response was made to the toast, as Mr. Woods and Mr. 

 Sanday were not present. 



"Tbe successful candidates iu the same class." 



Mr. H. Aylmee, in reply, stated that his present shearlings 

 were very promising. His letting would take place on the 

 6Lh of August, aud he should be glad then to see the whole of 

 the present company. 



" Tlic judges and successful candidates in the horse class." 



Mr. Mann and Mr. Badiiam responded. 



" The judges of implemeuts." 



Mr. Keary, iu reply, observed that upon the whole he and 

 his colleague were bound to say, t'nat the ihow of implements 

 had been reisarkably good. As 1857 had not been fruit-^d in 

 new inventions, and they were restricted in awarding the 

 prizes to newly -invented implements, they had felt some 

 difficulty in making their awards. There were many imple" 

 mcnts exhibited, which did not come into competition, in 

 consequence of the rule which was made in order that the 

 Society might not clash agaiuat or reverse the awards of the 

 Koyal Society. He thought this was a sound principle to act 

 upon, although it sometimes put the judges in an awkward po- 

 sition. The first priza for the best collection of implements 

 had been awarded to Messrs. Kausorao and Co., and they had 

 had some difficulty in awarding the prize. In many othtr 



collections there were some rem&rkably good implements; hut 

 there was a good deal of chaff mixed with the wheat, and they 

 were anxious not to award prizes for implements totally use- 

 less, as they conceived, for the agriculture of West Norfolk, 

 They had had a still greater diftlculty, owing to the season of 

 the year. A most useful implement, a lever [horse-hoe, in- 

 vented by Mr. Dyball, a Norfolk man, on the Holkham estate, 

 could not be put upon trial. The exhibition of large stands of 

 implements which were not allowed to come into competition 

 was rather awkward for the judges. There were several cases 

 at the present meeting, in which implements were exhibited 

 which the judge swere not allowed to notice, and he thought it 

 was questionable whether this practice was desirable, as it 

 might oblige the judges to award prizes to implements which 

 were not thought so good. 



Mr. Allan Kansome, in returning thanks for the suc- 

 cessful exhibitors of implements, said he was sensible that a 

 large measure of the kindness with which the toast had been 

 received aro^e from an appreciation of the services which the 

 class he represented had rendered to the agricultural interest. 

 He should not be doing justice to that class, nor should he be 

 accused of over-valuing the benefits they had conferred, if he 

 did not express his belief that the present position of agri- 

 culture was owing, in a very great measure, to the development 

 of agricultural mechanics. It could not have escaped the 

 notice of anyone, that although within a comparatively recent 

 period, the general use of the best class of implements for 

 agriculture was very limited; yet, within the last 15 or 20 

 years, important agricultural implements had come greatly into 

 favour throughout the whole kingdom. This was due no 

 doubt in a great measure to the facilities of transit, and the 

 opportunities of observation afforded by the Royal Agricultura 

 Society ; but the agricultural body were also greatly indebted 

 to those who v/ere working in the same profession as himseK, 

 for their enterprise in endeavouring, not merely to supply and 

 keep up with, but even to precede the wants of agriculture 

 (applause). This enterprise was, beyond a doubt, thoroughly 

 appreciated at the present time. &. friend had told him 

 that when, some 15 or 18 years since, he advocated the use of 

 steam on a Suffolk farm, a gentleman said, that he who would 

 advocate the introduction of steam, was a traitor to the 

 cause of agriculture (laughter). There was no one now, who 

 would not acknowledge that the use of steam, so far from 

 damaging the farmer, had given him the opportunity of 

 reducing his expenditure. Perhaps it was unnecessary to say 

 much of any implements, except those which were of a deci- 

 dedly novel character, and had recently attained a position 

 among the standard implements of the country. Among 

 these were the reaping machine, and the steam plough, 

 which, he trusted, in process of time would come 

 into use. Before the Great Exhibition, when the 

 first reap ng-machiue was exhibited, his friend Mr. Garrett 

 had made a proposition to him to send over for a reaping- 

 machine from America; and on consulting on the subject, he 

 and Mr. Garrett agreed that as it was a kind of experiment 

 they should go shares in the risk. The Great Exhibition, 

 however, took place, and with it came a machine which on 

 its first trial was found to be so superior in its original prin- 

 ciples to that before adopted, that he and Mr. Garrett at once 

 abandoned theirs for it. His friends, Messrs. Burgess and 

 Key, had taken the machine, and added improvements of 

 their own, and agriculturists were greatly indebted to them 

 for the present state of the implement. With regard to the 

 question of steam plougaPg, the implement was not yet in 

 that full state of perfection which it would require years to 

 attain. Various views and schemes had been propounded, 



K 2 



