CHAPTER XXXII. 



AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS— WINTER SHOWS, 1853-54. 



In 1853, the Directors of the Society undertook, at the 

 request of the Board of Trade, the task of collecting agri- 

 cultural statistics. Previous to this, attention had been 

 called to the subject on various occasions. For instance, 

 Mr John Dudgeon, then of Sp}'law, Kelso, fully convinced 

 of the great public utility of such a measure, published in 

 the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture for March 1842 an 

 article on the importance of obtaining authentic statistical in- 

 formation on British agriculture. This paper was intended 

 to have been read by the author at the Society's show at Ber- 

 wick in October 1841. In 1845, an experiment was made by 

 the late Sir Geo. Clerk of Penicuik, Bart., when Vice-Pre- 

 sident of the Board of Trade, in an English, an Irish, and a 

 Scotch County, with the view of ascertaining the practica- 

 bility of introducing a general inquiry. The results, how- 

 ever, were not such as to encourage further proceedings 

 being taken. Two years later, the subject was taken up by 

 Lord Clarendon, when President of the Board of Trade, 

 and the draft of a Bill was prepared by Mr Milner Gibson, 

 then Vice-President of that department ; and the opinion of 

 the Society having been asked, Mr Hall Maxwell had 

 several interviews with that gentleman. This measure, 

 however, was allowed to drop. No further step was taken 

 till 1850, when Mr Dudgeon, on ist June of that year, 

 addressed a letter to the Right Hon. Henry Labouchere, 

 M.P., then President of the Board of Trade. In that letter 

 Mr Dudgeon very clearly pointed out the nature of the 

 information required, and the method by which it might be 

 collected and published by the Government. Appended to 

 this letter (which was published in the Quarterly Journal 



