THE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE 233 



advocated, the legal profession was against the Enclosure Act, 

 the landed interest thought the surveys were intended for 

 purposes of taxation ; and the grant being withdrawn, an effort 

 to maintain the board by voluntary subscription failed, so 

 that it dissolved in 1822, after doing much valuable work for 

 English agriculture. 



Before its extinction it had held in 1821, at Aldridge's 

 Repository, the first national agricultural show. £68^ was 

 given in prizes, and the entries included 10 bulls, 9 cows and 

 heifers, several fat steers and cows, 7 pens of Leicester and 

 Cotswold rams and ewes ; 12 pens of Down, and 9 or 10 pens 

 of Merino rams and ewes.^ Most of the cattle shown were 

 Shorthorn, or Durham, as they were then called, with some 

 Herefords, Devons, Longhorns, and Alderneys. There 

 were also exhibits of grass, turnip-seed, roots, and imple- 

 ments. 



This first national show had been preceded by many local 

 ones.'^ The end of the eighteenth and beginning of the 

 nineteenth centuries saw the establishment all over Eng- 

 land of farmers' clubs, cattle shows, and ploughing 

 matches. 



The period now before us is marked by the great work of the 

 Collings, who next to Bakewell did most to improve the cattle 

 of the United Kingdom. Charles Colling was born in 1751, 

 and the scene of his famous labours was Ketton near Dar- 

 lington. He had learnt from Bakewell the all-importance 

 of quality in cattle, and determined to improve the local 

 Shorthorn breed near his own home, which had been described 

 in 1 744 as ' the most profitable beasts for the dairyman, butcher, 

 and grazier, with their wide bags, short horns, and large 

 bodies.' He was to make these * profitable beasts' the best 



^ The Merino was largely imported into England by the efforts of 

 George III, and a Merino Society was formed in 181 1 ; but many circum- 

 stances made it of such little profit to cultivate it in preference to native 

 breeds, that it was diverted to Australia. — Burnley, History of Wool, p. 17. 



" The first, the Bath and West of England, was established in 1777. 



