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It has often been noticed that institutions which in 

 other countries are originated and thrive only under the 

 fostering care of the State, are here initiated and nurtured 

 by private effort and enterprise. The history of the 

 Smithfield Club is an illustration of this fact. 



What may be termed its democratic character accounts for 

 a certain measure of the popularity it has attained. But the 

 main cause of its long-continued progress and prosperity is 

 without doubt the strong conviction that the aim of the Club, 

 in seeking by all possible means to improve the stock of the 

 country, is a national one, and one that has not lost its import- 

 ance because at the present time our agricultural conditions 

 have changed. It is this conviction which has not only 

 gained for the Club the strong adherence of some of our 

 most noted agriculturists in the past, but continues to 

 draw to itself the support of the Royal Family, the 

 nobility, and others interested in the objects for which it 

 exists. 



The relations of the Royal Agricultural Society in its 

 early days to the Smithfield Club has already been alluded 

 to, but that is not the only Society which owes its existence 

 directly or indirectly to the influence or example of the 

 Club. Apart, however, from any particular case, if 

 imitations of its aims or its methods be considered a proof 

 of parentage, then its progeny is a large one. 



But meanwhile the Smithfield Club has kept its own 

 place. Instead of detracting from its influence or 

 prospects, these offshoots have only in the main emphasized 

 its position as The National Fat Stock Show of Great 

 Britain, and the final arbiter in the competitions of the 

 many great societies which have sprung into existence 

 throughout the kingdom ; and after a century of full and 

 useful work, its entry on another stage of its existence as an 

 Incorporated Society finds it, like the nation of which it is 

 a typical institution, strong in the consciousness of its 

 strength and power to carry out its own mission, and 

 rejoicing in the number and importance of its vigorous 

 offshoots. 



E. J. P. 

 December, 1900. 



