No. 10. 



JVewcastle County Agricultural Society. 



307 



dairy that produced over $1400 worth of 

 milk and batter in one year, and challcngfed 

 him to show what he had done proportion- 

 ably in the same given time; but this he 

 has not shown, nor has he had the courtesy 

 to tell me his name or ask me to view his 

 farm, stock, and management; a privilege I 

 accorded to him. 



I said that in feeding, I had neither used 

 corn nor oats, nor did I throughout the year 

 1845, and this I can prove by such testimony 

 as would obtain in a court of law — I bought 

 Middlings of Messrs. Joseph Lea & Co. that 

 year for 45 to 50 cents per double bushel ; 

 this feed with finely cut timothy hay, was 

 fed to my horses, and part mixed with the 

 slop for the hogs, which had also when fat- 

 tening imperfect ears of corn and small po- 

 tatoes steamed for them, and out of this 

 account of my manner of feeding, H. S. has 

 manufactured his remark, that "iV/r. Gowcn 

 fattens his stock altogether on corn cnbs.^^''' 

 This year I feed chopt corn and sometimes 

 oats and rye; as mill feed became exceed- 

 ingly scarce and high. I do however feed 

 cobs also, but not in the sense as H. S. has 

 it, by way of deriding me — I have a machine 

 for grinding the corn and cob together, which 

 I have used very freely throughout the last 

 winter, and up to this present time. 



In conclusion, Mr. Editor, I would take 

 occasion with your permission to state here, 

 to such of my agricultural correspondents as 

 are among j'our readers, that if I have neg- 

 lected them of late, my excuse will be found 

 in the bereavement I have to mourn, and the 

 feeble state of my health. 



Respectfully, James Gowen. 



Mount Airy, 1st of May, 1846. 



Milking Cows. — A late English paper 

 says that Mr. Harrison, a farmer at St 

 Helen's, Barnsley, having had his cows 

 regularly milked in what he conceived to 

 be rather a mysterious way — was not a lit- 

 tle surprised, upon going into his farm-yard 

 the other day, to find two of his pigs, six- 

 teen weeks old, standing on their hind legs, 

 and sucking one of the cows, which stood 

 as quietly as if one of the domestics had 

 been performing the operation in the usual 

 way. 



Newcastle County Agricultural Society. 



The following Report of a Committee to prepare a 

 list of Premiums, has been handed us for insertion in 

 the Cabinet. They have evidently given a good deal 

 of reflection to the subject. — Ed. 



The Committee appointed to make out 

 the premium list for the ensuing fall exhibi- 

 tion, have added several premiums to those 

 formerly offered by the Society, and deem it 



proper that they should briefly state the rea- 

 sons that have influenced them in this course. 



The objects of these Societies are, or 

 should be, not only to advance the cause of 

 agriculture generally, but at the same time 

 to exert a favourable influence, morally and 

 socially, on all those engaged in rural pur- 

 suits. Merely to increase the profits of ag- 

 riculture in dollars and cents, falls far short 

 of what should be the aim of these Associa- 

 tions. It is not enough that the improve- 

 ment of stock or the increase of crops should 

 alone be the result — that some fine cattle, 

 horses and sheep, should be assembled at the 

 Annual Exhibition, or that the Committee 

 on crops should be able to report large pro- 

 ducts as the yield of a few carefully culti- 

 vated acres. However laudable and desira- 

 ble the improvement of the different breeds 

 of stock, it is but one object out of many 

 deserving encouragement, and it may be 

 doubted whether it has not generally at- 

 tracted an undue portion of interest, and 

 been allowed to share too largely in the pre- 

 miums offered by Agricultural Societies. 



We see in the history of many Societies, 

 and we think generally, because of the lim- 

 ited sphere of their action — year afler year 

 a diminished and diminishing interest — a 

 want of zeal in the cause even on the part 

 of those who admit it to be a good cause, 

 and finally in many instances they are only 

 sustained by the labour and trouble — the tax 

 on the time and the pockets of a few, who 

 struggle on year after year to get up the 

 Annual Exhibition, or lacking such steadfast 

 and zealous friends, the Society is allowed 

 to go down altogether. 



The first object, in the opinion of the Com- 

 mittee, in order to success and general use- 

 fulness, should be to interest all the indus- 

 trial rural classes in the objects of the 

 Society ; let it embrace in its action objects 

 that appeal directly to all these — that will 

 naturally call them out and bring them forth 

 — no matter vi'hether they be the owners of 

 a single head of stock — no matter whether 

 they have big crops to report, or an acre of 

 ground to grow any crop on — still as con- 

 nected with rural life, as engaged in some 

 capacity in agricultural pursuits, they should 

 be present; should be allowed to participate 

 and take a part. Independent too, of the 

 objects of giving these Societies a popular 

 form in order to the greatest good, it is but 

 justice to extend the premiums to objects 

 that bring them within the reach of all. 



The Society has heretofore offered a pre- 

 mium for the best farm in the county: your 

 Committee has offered, in addition, one for 

 the best garden cultivated by a farm labourer 

 and his family, having also reference to the 



