412 president's address. 



Speaking of Cornish Industries, lie remarked that Cornish 

 mining, it seemed to him, after going through a period of great 

 fluctuation, was now in a better position than for some time. 

 There was no doubt that the country had been suffering from a 

 long and distressing period of depression, but he hoped and 

 trusted that there was now evidence of the clouds lifting, and 

 that all branches of trade and commerce and industry were 

 assuming a more cheerful aspect. Last year was a curious year 

 — a very sunless year — a year of neither extreme heat nor extreme 

 cold — and the cereal crops were not so good as they would 

 otherwise have been, but the Cornish agriculturist depended less 

 year by year on the growth of cereals, and he was not so 

 much affected last year as the agriculturists of counties where 

 corn is more particularly grown. The root and hay crops furnished 

 a quantity of excellent keep for animals during the winter, and 

 they had seen that the price of fat cattle was very remunerative, 

 and the price of store cattle exceptionally high, so that he hoped 

 they might congratulate the agriculturists of Cornwall upon 

 having a little more in their pockets than they had twelve months 

 ago. The government returns shewed a gradual diminution of 

 the stock of animals in the country — of cattle and sheep certainly. 

 That might arise from a variety of causes ; whether it arose 

 from this fact, that the competition of live and dead meat from 

 foreign countries had rendered it less profitable to farmers to 

 keep the same amount of stock as formerly, he could not say ; 

 it might arise from this fact, and he hoped it did, that the 

 English farmer was more scientific now in the breeding and 

 selection of his animals, and he brought them to the market 

 earlier by selecting those which could be brought to maturity at 

 a very early age. 



There was one industry in Cornwall which had begun to 

 show development — the dairy industry, and he was of opinion 

 that if co-operative dairies were established throughout Cornwall, 

 such as those which have been started with such success in 

 Denmark, they could hold their own in Cornwall against any 

 dairy producing country in the world. 



As to the fishing interest, the past season had been, he 

 believed, one of the best pilchard seasons for many years, and 



