98 AN AGRICULTURAL FAGGOT. 



not belong to the club. Nor is it necessary that there 

 should be, I will not say abuse, but even use, of the 

 facilities for obtaining intoxicating liquors. I have more 

 than once attended meetings of the Blandford Farmers' 

 Club when from thirty to fifty members were present, 

 and not one of them indulged in anything stronger than 

 tea or coffee. At other clubs also I have noted that if 

 there has not been the same remarkable unanimity, there 

 has been at any rate a proportion present who have either 

 abstained altogether or have indulged only in non-intoxi- 

 cating beverages. My experience, therefore, impels me 

 to deny as a libel the insinuation sometimes made that 

 a farmers' club in its social aspect necessarily involves 

 anything that the most austere critic could object to, 

 while I am sure that it has possibilities which, though 

 often treated as trivial, are nevertheless of substantial 

 advantage. 



In considering the objects of an educational character 

 for which farmers may combine we approach, in the first 

 instance, the typical farmers' club from its graver side. 

 Papers and addresses on practical subjects, followed by 

 discussion, form the more serious side of its functions. 

 It is to be regretted that in this direction also there appears 

 to be degeneration. The problems and difficulties of 

 practical farming have increased enormously during the 

 latter half of the present century, partly because circum- 

 stances have compelled closer attention to detail, but 

 mainly because the application of science in its various 

 branches has thrown new light upon the cultivation of 

 the soil and the management of stock. Forty or fifty 

 years ago farmers' clubs discussed with vigour and anima- 

 tion the actual work of the farm. As I write I take down 

 at hazard a volume of the Farmers' Magazine, and I find 

 papers and discussions on the " Draining of Land," at 

 the monthly meeting of the Durham Farmers' Club ; 

 on " Growing Potatoes," and on " Growing Swede 

 Turnips " at the Wortley Farmers' Club ; on " Manures," 



