AN AGRICULTURAL AWAKENING 



levelling-up in matters of detail, added both to 

 the Society's prestige and to its financial resources. 

 So the old Society, phoenix-like, rose out of its 

 own ashes into a higher position than the most 

 sanguine of its supporters ever anticipated its 

 attaining, and took rank as one of the leading 

 provincial associations of the kindgom. 



At the present moment agricultural associa- 

 tions, especially those holding shows, have to 

 defer to war-time conditions and suspend the 

 main feature of their operations. Owing to such 

 conditions, brought about by force of circum- 

 stances, and by special legislative enactments 

 necessary in order to meet the exigencies of the 

 abnormal times in which we live, agriculture may 

 be said to be very much in a state of flux. One 

 thing, however, is abundantly clear, that it will, 

 in the public estimation, hold a very different 

 position in the future to what it has done in the 

 past. A stern awakening has brought forcibly 

 home to the mind of the kingdom at large, what 

 practical men so long urged in vain, that our very 

 existence as a nation may be dependent upon the 

 extent of our agricultural resources. When one 

 looks back upon the general neglect, on the part of 

 the State, of the greatest of our national industries 

 in the days when the latter had no representa- 

 tive Government department to protect its 

 interests one can better appreciate the magni- 

 ficent service in the cause of good husbandry and 

 in co-ordinating and stimulating the efforts of those 

 interested in it, rendered by the agricultural 

 organizations, relying entirely upon voluntary 

 support. It may further be remembered that 



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