596 Meport on the Farm-Prize Comi)et'ition of 1874. 



In concluding our Report we cannot help complimenting the 

 district which we A'isited, with a very few exceptions, on its good 

 and conveniently-arranged homesteads ; as well as on the com- 

 fortable cottages with their well-kept gardens and allotments, 

 indicating that the agricultural labourer was well cared for bj 

 the landowners as well as by his employer. The cottage 

 rents, including gardens, vary from 1^. to \s. 6d. per week, 

 and of the allotments from 2d. to 2^d. per perch, free of taxes. 

 Taking these things into consideration, we thought the rrien 

 fairly paid. 



Our best thanks are due to all the competitors for the kindness 

 and hospitality shown to us during our inspection, and with very 

 pleasant recollections we shall look back to our visit to Bed- 

 fordshire in 1874. 



XXVI. — Report on the Live Stock exhibited at Bedford. By 

 Robert Leeds, of Castleacre, Norfolk (Senior Steward.) 



The Thirty-sixth Meeting of the Society, held at' Bedford, was 

 in every respect a satisfactory exhibition of the various depart- 

 ments of English agriculture. 



In the town of Bedford, famous for its nobly-endowed schoolc, 

 is one of the greatest manufactories of agricultural implements in 

 the world, — historically speaking, of recent creation ; for it has 

 attained importance within the last quarter of a century, by 

 supplying the demand which it has been the great work of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England to foster. 



The county was happily chosen, for Bedfordshire, almost 

 entirely devoted to rural industry, presents a fair specimen of the 

 progress of modern agriculture. The farms are of fair size ; the 

 tenants are men of capital and intelligence ; the live stock is of 

 a superior description ; the markets of the metropolis are within 

 reach both for sale and purchase ; and conveyance to any part of 

 the kingdom is rendered easy by two important railways — the 

 London and North- Western and the Midland. 



Mr. Charles Howard, of Biddenham, has given me the 

 following interesting note on the agricultural position of the 

 county : 



" The county of Bedford claims the honour of bsino; the bh'thplace of the 

 Agricultural Societies which encourage the exhibition of live stock. 



" During the latter part of the last and the beginning of the present cen- 

 tury, two ancestors of the noble family standing at the head of the county, 

 Francis and John, Dukes of Bedford, made great exertions in the cause of 



