THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



429 



have the benefit of their labours, aud that other gentlemen 

 might be induced to turn their attention to the subject by hav- 

 ing these plans put before them. 



The Chairman was extremely obliged for the compliment 

 which had been paid him. Before sitting down, he might be 

 allowed to aay that he agreed very much with Mr. Whatman's 

 last remarks. He (the chairman) thought with a very little 

 alteration the model would be such as could be ofifered for 



public acceptance. He hoped that they might be the nucleus 

 of something which might be of great aud general good. He 

 hoped it would go forth from this meeting that, although the 

 model was not formally approved by the meeting, still that the 

 model was very much approved of as a model, and that it re- 

 quired but a slight modification to make it a more practical 

 model. The proceedings then closed,— /i6ncZ</ed from the 

 Sussex Advertiser. 



SOUTH-WEST MIDDLESEX AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



MEETING AT ACTON. 



The framers of tliat time-honoured Acton notice, 

 that " waggoners and carmen are forbid to stop their 

 horses in this village, as it is very injurious to the 

 health of the inhabitants," would have been fain to 

 wink at the suspension of their sanitary order, in favour 

 of those merry freights of rural visitors who reached 

 their village for this festival on Wednesday, Oct. 1 4. 

 The present was its 21st ploughing anniversary; but 

 the'cattle and poultry show has^only numbered four 

 autumns. Hitherto the sphere of the latter has been 

 bounded by Middlesex, but as the quality of the stock was 

 so good this year, and the I'eceipts more than twice as 

 great as last, it is in contemplation to throw the show 

 open to some other counties. So far Middlesex has been 

 a laggard amongst its fellows in this branch of competi- 

 tion, but we have no fear of its being able to hold its 

 own under the new radius. Why should not com- 

 mercial and professional London flock to its Middlesex 

 Show, with the same keen instinct which causes it to 

 make an annual pilgrimage to Baker-street, to behold 

 its savoury Christmas dinner in anticipation 1 As good 

 luck would have it, the recent Order in Council had the 

 effect of postponing the meeting for a week, and thus 

 the " weeping skies" of the 7th were exchanged for a 

 bright sunny afternoon, which brought a very large 

 crowd to the Gunnersbury Farm, where the ploughing 

 match came off. Barou de Rothschild was unfortunately 

 absent; hut the Baroness, with several of her family, 

 were on the ground throughout the greater part of the 

 day. 



Under Mr. A. H. Johnson's masterly management 

 this Manor Farm has long since won itself a name. Not 

 many years ago it was comparatively a barren spot, 

 but in 1856 nearly all the winning roots at the Birming- 

 ham Show were its produce; and as some 200 cartloads 

 per month of London manure are being laid on, it bids 

 fair to be the fruitful mother of many more. " Seven 

 inches deep" were the i:)rize ploughing instructions, 

 which rather baffled some of the men fi"om a distance, 

 who had not been accustomed to exceed five ; but still 

 nearly all the work was of a very first-class character. 

 Middlesex triumphed over Bucks and Sui-rey united, in 

 the " county challenge," and the farms of Mrs. Gin- 

 ger, of Stanwell, and Mr. Sherborne, of Bedfont, fur- 

 nished the winners. 



The field presented a very lively scene, as the half- 

 a-hundred ploughs, whose drivers and men each wore 



a pink " Speed the Plough" token round their 

 hats, " made tracks" from eight to one, with 

 that veritable " do or die" Saxon air stamped on 

 every feature. Spectators they had in plenty, and a 

 fine show of coming ploughmen in arms might have 

 been extemporized on the spot. In fact, part of the 

 field reminded us of a large rustic Bartlemy Fair. Hard 

 by the waggons which contained the hay-binding 

 handiwork of seven competitors, "Three sticks a- 

 penny" was in great force; and not a few availed 

 themselves of the invitation " To come and see John 

 Bull," enacted on this occasion by a sturdy Boniface, 

 who presided bodily over an interminable pile of ham, 

 beef, and cheese. Those of his friends and visitors 

 who chose to drop in, had a hearty welcome at Mr. 

 Johnson's house, on their way to see the steam-plough- 

 ing, which was a very salient feature in the programme 

 of the day. One of Boydell's traction engines, bearing 

 the sterling imprint of ** Burrell, Thetford," slowly 

 careered round the field, with Fowler's patent five-share 

 apparatus in its wako ; but, although the work improved 

 at the second or third round, the furrows would hardly 

 bear comparison with those we had just left; and the 

 labourers, who flocked to see the novel monster, de- 

 parted not one whit less cynical than before. Williams's 

 six-share apparatus was in waiting; but it was not set to 

 work while we were present. Early in the afternoon, the 

 prizes to the farm-servants and labourers generally 

 were given to the winners by Viscount Villiers, under a 

 large tent in the ploughing field, and each sum was 

 accompanied by a printed certificate in a neat frame. 

 There were nearly eighty recipients, exclusive of the 

 ploughmen and haybinders, and yet about eighteen 

 premiums were unallotted. We do not quite compre- 

 hend the invidious sliding-scale of praise, which the 

 committee adopt, as it ranges from " a very honest, 

 sober, and industrious servant" down to simply " a 

 steady man," or nothing at all, and yet both get the 

 same amount of prize. On what principle moreover 

 is " very" and " sober" so often added or omitted ? 



The venue of the cattle and poultry show was laid in 

 Baron Lionel de Rothschild's Acton paddocks, which 

 Evening Star and her seven fair thorough-bred friends 

 and families had to vacate for a time. Their boxes 

 were aijpropriated to the horses, which numbered 21, 

 while the cattle (33), the sheep (28), the pigs (18), and 

 the poultry (74) were placed under canvass on the two 



