FIFTY YEARS OF A SHOWMAN'S LIFE 



There is a document in the Society's possession 

 which forms an interesting link between the 

 present and the past. It is a communication 

 addressed in 1795 by the President (Sir John 

 Sinclair) of the first Government Board of Agri- 

 culture to the Society's secretary, testifying to 

 the good work the Society was then carrying on, 

 and expressing a desire still to further utilize 

 it, whilst one of the earliest acts of the present- 

 day Board of Agriculture was, as already stated, 

 an official recognition of the Society's efforts. 



The old Board of Agriculture was established 

 in 1793, its initiation being due to Sir John 

 Sinclair, who became its first " President." He 

 had considerable difficulty in inducing the Govern- 

 ment to entertain his proposals, and this led to 

 a singular difference between Arthur Young and 

 himself. The former betted the 19 volumes of 

 his Annals of Agriculture against Sir John's 

 21 volumes of his Statistical Account of Scotland 

 that Sir John would not succeed in his efforts. 

 The Board, however, was established, and Young 

 was appointed its first secretary, but it lacked 

 the necessary vitality to give it length of days, 

 for it ultimately flickered out, in 1820, and com- 

 paratively few persons are now aware that it 

 ever existed. The fact that the old Bath and 

 West Society has outlived by many years an 

 institution which had the active interest of the 

 King, the support of such statesmen as Pitt and 

 Fox, and the pecuniary help of the Governments, 

 affords some testimony of the vitalty of voluntary 

 effort. 



Since the establishment of the Butter and 

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