414 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



dice and distrust. Fortunately, however, a good cause 

 cannot be too much canvassed. And in this wise 

 tenant-right had, at any rate, fair play. Beginning 

 with the London one, the subject was debated over and 

 over again at every Farmers' Club of any importance 

 in the kingdom. Mr. Pusey, too, put it before them 

 in the pages of the Royal Agricultural Society's Jour- 

 nal. The farmers spoke to it, one after another, belbre 

 a Special Committee of the House of Commons. And 

 all with this grand result. It never has, and perhaps 

 never will, become the law of the land ; but it is now 

 to the country generally what it was once to a few 

 favoured districts only — the Law of Custom. 



These few terse sentences of Sir John Pakington are 

 but the echo of what is passing in the minds of the 

 gi'eat majority of our country gentlemen. If we could 

 only see the alterations that have taken place within 

 the last ten years in forms of leases and agreements, we 

 should find how extended this just principle is be- 

 coming in its influence and action. Even if we do not 

 see all these "modifications," we hear of them on every 

 side. In siiujile fact, good farming could not go on 



without them. As it has been said, " the tenant-right cry 

 is the surest sign of a spirit of improvement and advance- 

 ment in the pmsuits of agriculture that has yet been af- 

 forded us" ; and call it what they may, people dare no 

 longer disown it. It is the key-stone of Sir John's 

 summing up. The exercise of skill, the application of 

 capital, and the prosperity of the farmer must all rest 

 upon some so secure a foundation. 



Although little indeed has been said this season on 

 agricultural subjects, we take what we have quoted of 

 itself to imply a great deal. It shows how the pulse of 

 the country is beating. It shows how much better and 

 sounder, how much more business-like in a word, the 

 feeling between landlord and tenant is becoming And 

 more than this, at least to us, it shows that a principle 

 with which the Mark Lane Express has been so long 

 and especially associated is not a mistake. Through 

 evil and good report, against the advice of many well- 

 meaning, short-sighted friends, we have stood to our 

 colours. We may wave them now in triumph over smiling 

 corn-fields, or from the turrets of prospering home- 

 steads. We won" .1 there were no graver battle-ground 



RUTLAND PLOUGHING MEETING. 



Successful as these meetings have hitherto been, under the 

 management and untiring zeal of R. W. Baker, Esq., it was 

 scarcely expected that the results of the meeting held at 

 Uppingham on Tuesday, Oct. 6, would have been so highly 

 satisfactory in every respect as they proved on that occasion, 

 when we had the pleasure of witnessing the most spirited 

 competition that has yet taken place in this district — or, 

 indeed, in any other county — no Jess a number than 107 

 ploughs being entered from upwards of 30 parishes in Rut- 

 land, and the Champion Class prize being contended for by 

 ploughmen from five counties. The Rutland Ploughuig 

 Meetings were commenced by Mr. Baker in 1828, and 

 had for their object the improvement of the tillage of the 

 land, of which good ploughing, we need scarcely observe, is 

 the foundation. In 1834, having found the ploughs then in use 

 of a very inferior description, and as such ploughs were ill 

 adapted to the requirements of agricultural science, Mr. Baker 

 suggested an improvement in that implement, and introduced 

 the well-known " Rutland Plough," manufactured by Messrs. 

 Ranaome, of Ipswich ; and we shall not be saying too much 

 when we state that nearly every plough for general purposes 

 brought before the public since that time has been, more or 

 less, copied from this Rutland plough. Finding the meetings 

 productive of such good results, Mr. Baker promised, if cir- 

 cumstances favoured him and his life were spared, to carry 

 them on for 20 years: this promise he lias most laudably ac- 

 complished, almost every year proving more and more, that 

 the public appreciated his services for the general good. At 

 the conclusion of the twentieth meetiug, in 1847, having then 

 fulfilled the promise alluded to, Mr. Baker resigned the task, 

 twelve meetings having been held at Cottesmore, and eight 

 others iu various parts of the county. A very praiseworthy 

 attempt was made by a committee to carry on these meetings, 

 but that attempt failed; and in 1850 Mr. Baker was sohcitedto 

 get up a meeting on the eastern side of the county ; to this so- 

 licitation he readily and with good will responded, and the 

 consequeuce was the largest meeting ever known was held at 



Casterton, where 133 ploughs competed for the various prizes. 

 After a lapse of two years the tradesmen and other inhabitants 

 of Uppingham came forward, and in 1852, with the assistance 

 of several leading agriculturists in that neighbourhood, suc- 

 ceeded in raising funds for a very successful meeting, eighty- 

 five ploughs being entered for competitiou. The inhabitants 

 of Oakham next year followed the good example, and at that 

 meeting, which took place in 1853, 103 ploughs were entered : 

 on that occasion the agriculturists of Rutland had the oppor- 

 tunity of witnessing the operatiou of Samuelson's digging 

 machine. 



But it is time to return to the p/cceedings of Tuesday. 

 The meetiug was, as we have stat id, a very successful one, and 

 great credit is due to Mr. Baker and to the Uppiughaai com- 

 mittee for the satisfactory results. The weather was as fine as 

 could have been deai'ed, aud the fields, where the different 

 prizes were competed for, were thronged with evidently deeply 

 interested spectator?, the fineness of the weather tempting 

 many parties from a distance to visit the spot. The absence 

 of both the county memsbers was noticed and commented 

 upon. In the farmers' sous' class there were about twelve 

 competitors; in the class for ploughmen, no less than about 

 fifty; in the ploughboyfi' class, eighteen ; aud in the champion 

 class, tweuty-four. The land, which was generally of a light 

 nature, was not in first-rate order; but the competitors, never- 

 theless, did their work exceedingly well, aud the skill and 

 anxiety each displayed were the subject of general remark and 

 admiration. The work performed in the ploughboys' class 

 was, as alliu'ed to by Mr. Clarke at the dinner, " exceedingly 

 meritorious." The sites selected were upon lauds in Ridhng- 

 ton, offered by Mr. Burgess aud Mr. Wortley ; the plough- 

 men's work was performed upon land in the parish of Ayston. 



The Judges were, for classes 1, 3, and 4 — Breedon Eve- 

 rard, Esq., of Grooby ; Wm. Rimell, Esq., of Camden; aud 

 John Algernon Clarke, Esq., of Long Sutton. For class 2.^ 

 B. Painter, Esq., of Carlton Curlieu, Liecestershire ; Wm, 



