28G 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



THE "NEW" NUMBER. 



Looh sharp ! is tlie pass-word of the age we live in, 

 when " Better never than late" has become a far more 

 popular reading of a musty old proverb. Bis dat qui 

 dat cito, is tlie law of the land ; and punctuality holds 

 a place amongst the most honoured of virtues. Her 

 gracious Majesty opens the* House, or sits down to din- 

 ner to the very minute she has ordered it. The Holy- 

 head Express would not wait ten seconds for the 

 Prime Minister of England ; and the great Duke him- 

 self did his duties by clock-work. We get even occa- 

 sionally beyond this, especially in the conduct of that 

 important principle, the Press. The electric wires now 

 habitually anticipate the arrival of the Mails and "the 

 latest intelligence ;" we have new Monthlies out two 

 or three weeks before the time they are supposed to be 

 due, and Punch is old and soiled by the day it is dated 

 for. Tlie very morning papers give us to-morrow's 

 news in a second edition of this afternoon ; while many 

 of the weeklies have closed their columns before the 

 week is half over ; and you can always get the Sun- 

 day Times on a Saturday. 



But this Iiot haste may not be everywhere so accepta- 

 ble, and the farmer especially is taken to be one of those 

 not inclined to hurry himself. However correct this 

 tradition may be at the present time, some of his 

 fi'iends are still quite willing to respect such a feeling. 

 He, at any rate, shall not have his pei'iodical born 

 prematurely days or weeks before its time, but, on the 

 contrary, he would seem to prefer it two or three 

 months after date. For this reason it must be that the 

 Christmas number of the Royal Agricultural Society's 

 Journal is circulated in March, and the Midsummer- 

 day part at Michaelmas. We say this with all proper 

 seriousness, for it would be really almost impossible to 

 suggest any other just cause or impediment. There is 

 not ostensibly a paper in the new number of the 

 Journal that could warrant the delay. The majority 

 of the articles either were or should have been finished 

 months since ; or, in any case, would have suffered 

 but little from standing over. Then, as regards the 

 contributions of more immediate interest — that is, 

 the Reports of the Judges on the Canterbury 

 Show — the first query would be, why they did not ap- 

 pear in the previous number, considering that was not 

 published till September, and the meeting was held 

 in the middle of July ? Not but that these Reports 

 are for the most part very carefully made by the 

 different "sets" ofjudges engaged on the trials of the 

 implements ; but these deal chiefly in facts and 

 figures that must have been noted at the time, and 

 ready, at the furthest, long before Christmas. We tho- 

 roughly agree, however, with the exception made by 

 Mr. Caldwell, the Steward, to the Report from the 

 Judges of the Miscellaneous Department. It is little 

 more or less than a direct puff for most of the things 

 brought before them ; and we say again, with Mr. 



Caldwell, that this department wants looking to. The 

 two Judges, indeed, support the recommendation, in 

 their inventory of the cucumber slices, bedsteads, car- 

 pet-sweepers, cork-drawers, dish-covers, fishing-rods, 

 photographs, union jacks, and other agricultural im- 

 plements of high aim and character which they were 

 called upon to inspect. Mr. John Clarke and Mr. W. 

 Tindall must be two gentlemen easily pleased, to have 

 found the good in everything that they seem to have 

 done. Their duty, the rather as it strikes us, should 

 have been a resolute remonstrance against the mass of 

 absurdities — sent simply as advertisements— that they 

 wasted Iheir time over. 



Mr. Frere himself disposes of the Stock Show 

 at Canterbury in three pages, and in which he 

 does the Mark Lane Express the honour to 

 quote our own sketches, as given at the time 

 of certain distinguished prize winners, such as 

 "Royal Butterfly" and Barthropp's " Pilgrim." The 

 Editor does so with the following graceful acknow- 

 ledgment in the outset; "After a lapse of several 

 months, few subjects lose more of their attractiveness, 

 both for the writer and the reader, than that of an agri- 

 cultural show. Graphic accounts of the Canterbury 

 Meeting appeared at the time, from the pens of writers 

 whose speciality it is to enlai'ge on the be:mties and 

 merits of high-bred stock. To copy these would be 

 plagiarism : to vary, but to change them for the worse. " 

 The Editor's own remarks are further supported by a 

 Report from the Judges of Shropshire Sheep, in which 

 they speak in the highest terms of the entry, and 

 recommend that for the future the breed 

 shall be placed upon an equality with other 

 sorts, as regards the number of prizes to be 

 competed for. This brief summary is followed 

 by a novelty in the pages of the Journal, but a most 

 acceptable offering. It is called a " Report on the 

 Riding Horses and Ponies shown at Canterbury, with 

 Remarks on the present Breed of Riding Horses," and 

 is supplied by Mr. Earle Welby, one of the judges. 

 It is acceptable, we say, as directing attention to a 

 feature the Council is at length encouraging in a degree 

 something equal to its importance ; but it is by no 

 means a paper we are inclined to altogether agree with, 

 though Mr. Welby's opening is after many such an 

 argument of our own : " First, on Class I. — ' For 

 thoroughbred stallions for getting hunters,' &c., for 

 which £25 and £15 have been the rates of remu- 

 neration, I would venture to remark, that having 

 watched this class since the establishment of the Royal 

 Agricultural meetings, I have come to the conclusion 

 that it is one which in all districts is worthy of the 

 patronage of the Society : it gives variety to their 

 shows, it attracts a number of people who are not 

 much interested in the beasts and sheep, and so adds 

 grist to the mill; and, if only the prizes be liberal, and 



