188 



THE FARMER*S MAGAZINE. 



necessarily dimiuisli in an equal degree the quantity 

 of ordinary food, wliich is necessary to keep up the 

 weight of the body. In addition to this saving of 

 material, they facilitate and aid digestion. He then 

 adverts to the beneficial effects of the moderate use in 

 old people of weak alcoholic drinks in arresting the 

 daily amount of loss of substance, adding that this in 

 no ways j iistifies the too great indulgence in fermented 

 liquors of any kind, and that it does not palliate the 

 moral evils to which this excess conduces. 



The peculiar dangers of intoxicating liquors arise 



from their seductiveness, and the all-but-unconqui?rable 

 strength of the drinking habits which are formed. 



Teach our peasantry then, we would say, temperance, 

 not total abstinence. Introduce tea and coffee, if you 

 will, into the hay-field and the harvest field. Do not, 

 however, debar the English labourer of his beer, unless 

 you arc prepared at the same time to banish port and 

 sherry from the farm-house, and claret and champagne 

 from the vicarage, the mansion, and the club-house. 

 Let the labourer have his beer, but keep him from the 

 pot-house. 



THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY OF 



IRELAND. 



MEETING AT WATERFORD. 



Evei'ybody testifies to the advance of agriculture in 

 the sister-kingdom. Compai-atively with what it has 

 been, no country is progressing so rapidly. The move- 

 ment, moreover, is more or less a general one. There 

 are few districts now, but in which the germ of improve- 

 ment is at any rate "coming on;" while in many 

 quarters it is developing in an extraordinary and very 

 significant degree. Perhaps the most gratifying fact 

 associated with all this is that the people take an actual 

 pleasure in what they are doing. There is no 

 forcing. At best there is but little interference 

 on the part of the Legislature, It is rather a 

 joint effort of landlord and tenant to do justice to them- 

 selves and their country. This adventure so far has 

 been attended with a success that the most sanguine 

 could scarcely have anticipated. So great, indeed, has 

 it been, that it is difficult to define to what it may 

 conduce. In some matters the Irish agriculturist is 

 already becoming a formidable rival to our own. He 

 has had the spirit and judgment to go to the best mar- 

 ket for what he wanted, and he has ilone the best with 

 it. At this moment there are herds of Shorthorns, 

 flocks of Leieestei's, and sties of pigs, that are just 

 about as good as any we have on this side of the 

 Channel. 



At such a turn, then, in the history of a country, 

 an Agricultural Improvement Society holds a most 

 responsible position. Of all the many public institu- 

 tions either proposed or carried out, none other has the 

 opjiortunity of doing so much good for Ireland. It 

 is the very time when the influence of such a body is 

 most required. With its fostering care, the exertions 

 and aspirations of the people may be most materially 

 assisted and encouraged. It stands like the conduc- 

 tor of a band, every member of which is ready in an 

 instant to follow the wave of his baton. It is an evil 

 day, then, when their leader is found not equal to his 

 place. The best of his troop go wrong in watching 

 him, and the more apathetic fall back to do nothing at 

 all. It is almost impossible to imagine how much 

 good or harm a society with such an object may do for 

 a country at such a crisis. 



The Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of 

 Ireland is, at any rate, well named. More than this, it 

 is gradually becoming worthy of its title. It is fast 

 losing many of its national characteristics — such as 

 the desire of everybody to tread on the tail of every- 

 body else's coat; the good old practice of turning the 

 Council Meetings into a periodical revival of Donny- 

 brooU fan-, or of identifying each Annual Meeting 



with the commission of some monstrous " bull," that 

 shamed the Shorthorn for size, if it did not for quality. 

 It is our pleasant office to record that this meeting at 

 AYaterford was not only one of the best supported, but 

 certainly the best manacjed celebration the Society has 

 ever yet known. Let us not care to inquire too parti- 

 cularly to whose credit this may be ; sufficient be it to 

 say, that this Irish Agricultural Institution is smoothing 

 down to a well-conducted, really useful organ, that 

 promises to do far more in furthering a good cause than 

 it has ever yet had a fair chance of accomplishing. 



There were many signs of this better understanding 

 and proportionate progression at Waterford last week. 

 Useless classes and unpopular premiums, that f(n' some 

 time back had little but routine to recommend them, were 

 struck out, and new offers and classifications arranged 

 in their stead. As we shall have to show hereafter, 

 these were so judiciously studied as to result, in one par- 

 ticular instance, in byf.ir the best show of a certain sort 

 of stock we ever remember having seen ! At the same 

 time the "old-established" favourites were by no means 

 neglected. There were Shorthorn cattle, Leicester and 

 Cotswold sheep, Berkshire and Cumberland pigs, all 

 with numerous entries, and many, of the very best 

 quality. How directly this very enumeration speaks to 

 the development of agriculture in Ireland! Hou- it 

 assures us of the overthrow of prejudice and of igno- 

 rance, with their blind adhesion to their own idols ! 

 Ireland has come to us for her stock, and already is she 

 reaping her reward. Our dealers and agents who want 

 good stock are going to Ireland for it. It is well 

 known at this time that some of the best shorthorns are 

 being bred in the sister-kingdom. 



From a variety of causes, however, the general show 

 of short-horns at Waterford was not equal to what vce 

 have seen in Ireland. This was more particularly the 

 case with the aged bulls, which were certainly not up 

 to their average strength. Amongst other reasons for 

 this. Lord Monck, a very successful breeder, did not 

 exhibit, having lately had a suspicion of some kind of 

 distemper in his hei'd. Then the famous " John 

 O'Grot," though entered, was not sent, it being thought 

 hardly judicious to risk a voyage with him so soon 

 after his recent appearances in public. Mr. Douglas, 

 again, did not send his young bull, but he made ample 

 amends for this omission with the sistei', the now re- 

 nowned " Rose of Athelstanej" which just saved the 

 Society their challenge cup, beating Mr. Campion's 

 Jenny, the winner of the two previous years, as well as 

 the Maid of Kilbogget, and Mr. Turner's couple of beauti- 



