434 The Presidents Address at General Meeting. 



position for tlic crowded courts .and alleys of the large towns, oven by 

 the temptation of considerably higher money wages. 



The council have, during this year, devoted a good deal of time and 

 attention to the organisation of a critical inquiry into the results of steam 

 cultivation, followed up by an examination of selected farms in most of 

 the counties of England. The high price of mutton and wool for several 

 years has given such a stimulus to light-land farming, that the strong 

 wheat lands have receded in public estimation, and are at present 

 most in need of improvement. Yet Mr. Lawes has proved that even 

 by the ordinary methods of cultivation, about two quarters of wheat 

 per acre may be grown on strong land for twenty years in succession 

 without manure; and Mr. Smith of Lois-Weedon, has carried this 

 further, and shown that by a thorough disintegration of the soil, and 

 repeated exposure of a fresh surface to the fertilising effects of the 

 atmosphere, at least 4 quarters of wheat per acre may be calculated 

 upon as the average produce of moderately good wheat land for an 

 equally long period. The only drawback to this gratifying result 

 consists in the heavy cost of cultivating the stiff clays. The steam- 

 plough is the most likely agent to get over this difficulty, and the able 

 men who are at present engaged in arranging the great mass of infor- 

 mation they have collected on this subject will, we trust, be able in 

 their reports to show us the extent to which the employment of steam 

 machinery in the cultivation • of strong land has been commercially 

 successful, and also to point oiit any special causes which have retarded 

 its introduction and diminished its beneficial effects, whether arising 

 from the imperfections of the machinery, or from improper modes of 

 applying it. : - 



One of the most promising features in the agricultural prospects 

 of the present day is the almost unlimited demand which exists 

 for many of those products -which our soil and climate are specially 

 adapted to produce in perfection. The western counties of Great 

 Britain and Ireland are ■ peculiarly well fitted for the breeding and 

 rearing of live stock, yet our constantly increasing imports show 

 that the home supply is by no means equal to the demand. If our 

 acute but misguided fellow-countrymen in Ireland would abandon 

 their Fenian follies, and devote themselves heartily to the cultivation 

 of green crops and the improvement of their pasture lands, they might 

 ai:)propriate a large portion of the vast sums which are now expended 

 in bringing live stock from the most distant parts of Europe. Even 

 now there are more cattle in Ireland than in England, 3,493,000 

 against 3,307,000, and that number might with ease be very largely 

 increased. Dairy produce, too, has for some years borne a very 

 remunerating price, and need fear no competition from distant coun- 

 tries. The effect of the cattle plague on the sujiply of milk to largo 



