THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



101 



according to a recent statement, there were 2,660 miles of 

 railway in tliat one single state ; ao that Retting the land gra- 

 duiilly cultivated they had a country witli the Atlantic on the 

 one side, the Pacific on the other, and the Gulf of Mexico on 

 another, and the very best kind of neighbour, in Canada, on 

 the north (Cheers). They v.ere thus in a position to leara 

 agriculture; and they came here to this country, from whom 

 they derive common parentage and common law, they came 

 here, as to the mother country, to learn agriculture — he came 

 to tliia society as the representative of agriculture, and he 

 therefore took the liberty to propose as a sentiment, " Pros- 

 perity to the Royal Agricultural Society of England. (Loud 

 cheers). 



The Riffht Hon. Sidney Herbert, M.P., said : I hope 

 you will allcnv me to express the satisfaction vpitli which I 

 think we all have heard the excellent speech as delivered by 

 the representative of our eldest daughter (cheers). It is 

 quite true, I believe, as he (Mr. Freneh) says, that "ne- 

 cessity is the mother of invention." I think that we shall 

 have, before long, to apply some such spur and stimulus to our 

 power of invention, in order to enable us to compete with the 

 difficulties with which we are now obliged to cope. In look- 

 ing to-day at the show, I was very much struck with that 

 to which naturally I paid more attention, as a Wiltshire 

 farmer — I mean the sheep that are shown. Now I want 

 to ask of you practical farmers — which I am not— how you 

 intend to meet this great difficulty of the rearing of sheep ? 

 We have, I believe, done something towards it. Ten 

 j'ears ago, we never, I believe, thought that two j^ears 

 were necessary ; and now, we can rear sheep in one year. 

 The result is that, during the last ten years, we have eaten 

 thirteen generations of sheep. Now I maintain that, 

 having done so (and Mf. Mills will correct me, if I am 

 wrong), and made sheep into mutton in one year, we have 

 got no margin left on that side. I therefore say that the 

 man who would make one blade of grass do the duty 

 of two, would be a national benefactor ; and I want some 

 other persons to bo national benefactors, and either to do 

 that, or make them breed twice a year ; for, by-and-by, 

 some method must be found to increase the quantity of 

 store stock (Hear, hear). The toast I have got to propose 

 to j^ou is one you will receive with the greatest pleasure — 

 that of the first commoner in England, the President of 

 this Society. I believe, in any Society, if unconnected 

 with agriculture, we should with enthusiasm drink the 

 health of the Speaker (Hear, hear). It would have been a 

 great satisfaction to him to have been here to-day ; but he 

 has got a flock to manage which is not quite so manageable 

 as some of the flocks we have seen to-day (Hear, hear). 

 They are not remarkable for their evenness or their kind- 

 liness ; and that is one of the greatest points in breeding. 

 But I do not like to propose this toast without first men- 

 tioning that the President has served the Society by 

 writing, in the Agricultxral Journal, on the question of the 

 Duke of Portland's water-meadows. He had also the 

 honour of representing this country at the Paris Exhibi- 

 tion, on which occasion the Emperor of France was elected 

 a member of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, 

 for his service's to agriculture. He thus sowed those seeds 

 of friendly rivalry and good fellowship to which we now 

 owe the presence of so many distinguished gentlemen who 

 have honoured us with their attendance. The last good 

 deed which the Speaker has performed has been, to put an 

 end to the differences between the Government and the 

 merchants of Liverpool, with regard to the obtaining of 

 guano ; and, in consequence of the success of that negotia- 

 tion, the Liverpool merchants have promised to produce 

 100,000 or 1.50,000 tons of guano — an amount which pro- 

 mises to make turnips rise so rapidly, that the existence of 

 the fly will be entirely destroyed. I think we owe the 

 Speaker a deep debt of gratitude for his interference (Hear, 

 hear). On this point, before drinking his health, I will 

 only say we earnestly hope that the eiforts which have 

 been made, and which have done so much credit to the 

 Mayor and the gentlemen of the city, who have assisted in 

 contributing in any way to the success of this meeting, 

 will, we trust, convince the Royal Agricultural Society 

 that we have done all we can to merit the honour they 

 have confi-iTcd upon us (loud clioers). 



I/ori Po£iTM.\N having acknowledged t'.e toast, begged to 



propose the health and tl.e thanks shich the Royal Agricul- 

 tural Society most deeply owed to the Mayor and Corporation 

 of Salisbury. They all knew what the Mayor of Salisbury had 

 done on that occasion, and more than a year ago. They knew 

 that when Salisbury was a candidate for the meeting here, he 

 told them tbat imposEibilities could not exist ; what was ne- 

 cessary must be done, aud it had beeu done (Hear, hear). 

 When they had a man of that kind at the head of that great 

 corporation, they could net fail to find that success would at- 

 tend them (Hear, hear). He ventured, iu the name of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society, to tender to the Mayor their best 

 thanks for his kindness and courtesy— he mii;ht say, almost, 

 the providence — he had exerted for the success of the Society 

 (cheers). 



The Mayor of Salisbury said his duties for the last week 

 had been of so arduous a character, that he really had not had 

 time to prepare a speech for this important occasion ; he 

 therefore trusted they would take the will for the deeH. On 

 the part of the corporation of this ancient city, he begged 

 leave to tender them his cordial thanks, and he was highly 

 gratified to find such an assembly of gentlemen within these 

 walls. He could not express to them in sufficient terms what 

 he felt upon the occasion for the honour that had been 

 conferred upon Salisbury in having ihrougli their streets the 

 Prince Ccnsort. Another matter of congratulation was (hat 

 the Royal Agricultural Society had come into the capital of 

 Wiltshire ; and having done so, he hoped they might learn 

 something to be of use to them. Looking back, a great im- 

 provement had taken pl3ce in forty years on the Wiltshire 

 downs, and he trusted all would see them before they left the 

 locality, and they would then be able to judge what progress 

 hadberu made in agriculture in this couniy. They would 

 there see that Mr. Stephen Mills, a gentleman he was proud to 

 call his friend, had done much for the benefit of agriculture iu 

 this county. He was proud that Mr. French had come amongst 

 them, and that the agricultural classes of this country are a 

 very contented and respectable body of men ; and he believed 

 that nothing would tend to improve agiicultnre more than the 

 improvement of the agticultural labourer. He was proud of 

 the distinguished honour of being a member of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society, and thanked hia fellow members of the 

 corporation for the assistance they had rendered him. He 

 hoped they would enjoy health and happiness, and that they 

 would sometimes look back with pleasure to the visit they hwd 

 paid to the ancient city of Salisbury. He thnnked them for 

 the honour they had done him, and regretted not being able to 

 make them a speech worthy of that important occasion 

 (cheers). 



Mr. Marsh gave " Agriculture, Manufactures, and Com- 

 merce," acknowledged by Mr. Estccurt, who proposed " The 

 Labouring Classes" ; and Mr. Wilson next gave "The Pre- 

 sident." 



Lord PORTMAN in responding said he felt it his duty to do 

 everything in his power to promote the object it had in view — 

 ever3'thing to serve it (Hear, hearV He was quite of the 

 opinion which had been previously expressed, that it was not the 

 way to say, " I am going to do this and that," but go and do it at 

 once (cheers). They must pull altogether, and help together, and 

 everything they hoped for would have a successful issue (Hear, 

 hear). He always thought it exceedingly useful for the So- 

 ciety to have those experiments made, the fruits of which they 

 all witnessed, a s that was the way to be successful. When 

 these successfnl experiments are made, the results should be 

 laid fairly before all parties, in order that they might be en- 

 abled to judge of the results (Hear, hear). For himself, he 

 had never flinched from his duty in that respect, and, as far 

 as he could, he did not intend to do so. If there was auvthing 

 in the Society where work was required to be done, in order to 

 promote its larger usefulness, he could only say that he would 

 devote all hia energies to assist the production of such great 

 results as must uecesssrily follow, aud he was certain that 

 every other person who heard him would do the same as far as 

 possible (Hear, hear). He was very sorry to say or do any- 

 thing that might, perhaps, interfere with the operations of tie 

 Society, but he must say that great efforts lately had been 

 made to bring the expenses of the Society within moderate 

 bounds, and those efforts must be continued (Hear, hear). It 

 was not formed to promote an object in one place alone, but to 

 forward the interests of agriculture tbrcughont the country, 

 ' aud that being so everything must be done to carry that ob- 



