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THE FARMER'S MAGAZliNE. 



THE AUTUMN MEETINGS OF 1857. 



Our agricultural meetings are day by day becoming 

 more practical in their character. They nearly all 

 show more work and less talk. It is not so many years 

 since, when as a rule the reverse of this was the case. 

 When these autumnal gatherings were but the stalking- 

 horse behind which the orator might " shoot his wit." 

 When the practice of agriculture itself was but little 

 considered, and the great effect of the occasion was 

 made to depend upon an after-dinner speech. We 

 have gradually got out of this. Our shows of 

 stock are better, and our speeches are shorter. 

 The meeting of a local agricultural society is now 

 nearly always that it professes to be — encouraging 

 and developing the efforts of the farmer, and bringing 

 him and his landlord to a better appreciation of each 

 other. The direct tendency of such assemblages is not 

 merely the production of good short-horns, or the edu- 

 cation of good ploughmen. So surely as the value of 

 the labourer is known by the place he occupies here, 

 as certainly may we arrive at the worth of his patron or 

 employer. There may not, perhaps, be actually any series 

 ol premiums for the best landlords, but they still come 

 to be so tried one against another ; not so much by the 

 amount of their subscriptions or their presents of 

 venison, as by the real interest and share they take in 

 what is going on. 



It is only fair to say that never did the landowners of 

 England do their duty so well in this way as they are 

 doing it now. There are very few of these local anni- 

 versaries but can count upon their best support. When 

 they take care not only to be present, but evince some- 

 thing far more than a passing or affected inclination 

 to the business of the day. Indeed, some people are 

 beginning to cry out that the gentlemen take too many 

 of the prizes. At the worst, however, this is a 

 fault all in the right direction. Next to setting his 

 tenant going on liberal terms, the landed proprietor 

 can hardly do anything better than by introducing the 

 best stock and machinery into his neighbourhood. 

 And he is doing it. In many a district where even 

 yet the tenant-farmer lacks the means or the heart to 

 launch out, he finds an example in, and an opportunity 

 from his landlord. The new drill, the steam-thrashing 

 machine, or the bull with the best pedigree, may be 

 all had for the asking at the house farm. 



Such, at this present writing, are the chief charac- 

 teristics of our autumnal meetings. The higher order 

 of agriculturists and the country gentlemen are keep- 

 ing themselves well alive to the improvements of the 

 day. They are doing this, however, in no mean 

 or selfish spii-it. There is, in fact, no other pursuit so 

 utterly free from the fear of opposition interests, 

 or so happily devoid of petty jealousies. The 

 manufacturer, in his general invitations to par- 

 ties to inspect his works, often enough will stipu- 

 late that no brother-manufacturer shall be included 



in the company. The farmer, on the contrary, who 

 thinks he has something worth showing, is only too 

 happy to show it to his fellows. If they will not come to 

 see him, he will send out the best he has, for their inspec- 

 tion and approval. This is hourly becoming more a 

 habit amongst us— open house, and a readier disposi- 

 tion to enter at the agricultural meetings of the district. 

 It has so come to pass that these anniversaries are better 

 supported, and more in character with what they were 

 intended to be, than we ever yet remember them. 



In only one particular is there this year any percep- 

 tible falling off, and this is in the speech-making. As 

 far as agriculture itself is concerned, there would seem 

 to be rather the want of some object of interest. Agri- 

 cultural statistics have somewhat lost their zest. The 

 condition of the labourer— our systems of tenure — and 

 even the education of the farmer, a theme of some 

 increasing importance — have not so far come in for 

 much consideration. With the county member the 

 engrossing topic has naturally enough been one which 

 engrosses with him the attention of the whole nation. 

 At one of the earliest of these gatherings, that 

 at Thame, in Oxfordshire, Mr. Henley made one of 

 the most manly of all the addresses we have yet heard 

 or read on the state of our affairs in India. It had 

 that sanguine feeling which we believe every English- 

 man has, as to the ultimate result, at the same time that 

 it was sufficiently serious and emphatic in impres- 

 sing what would be required of us. Mr. Henley 

 has been followed, in turn, by Sir Bulwer Lytton, 

 at St. Alban's ; Mr. Disraeli, at Newport Pagnell ; 

 Lord Curzon, at Nuneaton; Mr. Hastings Russell, at 

 Leighton Buzzard ; Sir John Pakington, and, in short, 

 by almost every gentleman of any position who has 

 been called up on these occasions. It is gratifying to 

 know that with one marked exception or so, the tone of 

 these addresses has been very similar, and that a 

 Minister could not but thank the country gentlemen for 

 what they have said, and the sympathy they have 

 evinced, at so trying a moment. As with Mr. Henley 

 at the outset, all party spirit or bias has been happily 

 put aside, and the country encouraged to look with that 

 heart and confidence to the issue, it would of itself rely 

 on wherever Englishmen are engaged. 



We have said that the conduct of the landlords, in 

 supporting these gatherings by their presence and 

 active participation in the proceedings, is generally 

 worthy of all praite. But there is unfortunately no 

 rule without an exception, and there would seem to be 

 rather a remarkable one in this instance. One of the 

 very best of all the country meetings was that held 

 about the beginning of last month at Stockton. It was 

 the anniversary of the Durham Society, and the show 

 of short-horns and horses was something extraordinary; 

 Mr. Booth, Mr. Fawkcs, and Colonel Towneley, amongst 

 others, sending their best animals. After the show of 



