On the Exhihitioii of Live Stock at Chester. 353 



English counties. That it is all needed is apparent from the 

 rapid increase in our population, the growing wants of the people, 

 and the increasing foreign trade in English animals. The con- 

 sequently increased demand upon the land shows the national 

 importance of closely observing and applying the best principles 

 of agriculture, so that not only an increased number of the best 

 animals may be perpetuated, but an additional weight of animal 

 food supplied. 



The subject of this Report, ' the exhibition of live stock, the 

 produce of a nation,' is, indeed, in this view of it, one of very 

 great moment. Twenty such exhibitions have now taken place, 

 namehj, at Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, Derby, Bristol, South- 

 ampton, Shrewsbury, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Northampton, York, 

 Norwich, Exeter, Windsor, Lewes, Gloucester, Lincoln, Carlisle, 

 Chelmsford, Salisbury, Chester — every one of them contributing, 

 and the last one most of all, to our increasing annual agricul- 

 tural produce, by enabling, as I have said, both the observation 

 and the application of sound agricultural principles. 



Now that the Society has held its twentieth anniversary, it may 

 be well to continue the good work commenced by Mr. Jonas (as 

 senior steward) in 1852. In his Report of the Lewes meeting he 

 gives a tabular statement of the Society's exhibitions up to that 

 year. This Report, extending as it does over the first fourteen 

 years of the Society's progress, is exceedingly interesting. It is con- 

 tained in vol. xiii. p. 398. Before, however, giving a continua- 

 tion of these official figures, I must cordially thank my friend 

 Mr. Jonas for the zeal shown by him for the Society's interest 

 at the Salisbury meeting, where the whole responsibility of the 

 stewardship devolved upon him. In addition to discharging 

 thus the duties of three men there, he wrote a Report of the Ex- 

 hibition, but this reached the Journal Committee too late for 

 insertion in the subsequent Journal. This document has been 

 handed over to me ; and although its immediate interest has now 

 passed away, yet I am bound in justice to my colleague to quote 

 his statement of the difficulties in which he was placed on that 

 occasion. 



" Iq the absence from the Show of Sir Stafford iSTorthcote, the senior steward 

 of the yard, and the unavoidable absence of Mr. Eobert Smith, the other 

 steward, the duty of drawing up a Eeport has devolved upon me. I think 

 that, under the extraordinary circumstances in' which I was thus placed, I 

 am justified in craving the indulgence of the Council for this imperfect Report. 

 Notwithstanding the weight of undivided responsibility, to say nothing of the 

 amount of labour, thus entailed upon me, I at once applied mj^self to the dis- 

 charge of the duties of the office in a manner, if possible, to prevent com- 

 plaints, in which I trust I have succeeded ; but I am bound to say that the 

 successful issue of our meeting was owing to the extraordinary order, method, 

 and arrangement adopted by our honorary Director, Mr. Brandreth Gibbs : 

 his system is so perfect, that no mistake can well occur. I am proud in 



