1084 



Ploughing and Ploughing Matches. 



[Mar. 



It is obvious that this letter has been, and will be, considered 

 worthy of the most serious attention of that growing number 

 of persons who realise that the future prosperity of agriculture 

 in the British Isles is widely dependent on what the Eoyal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England retains as its motto — " Practice 

 with Science," and more narrowly on the Institute's motto of 

 " Better Seeds; Better Crops." A copy of the second report of 

 the Council and particulars of the Fellowship can be obtained on 

 application to the Secretary, National Institute of Agricultural 

 Botany, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge. 



****** 



PLOUGHING AND PLOUGHING 

 MATCHES. 



H. G. Richardson, M.A., B.Sc, and G. E. Fussell. 



Ministry of Agriculture. 



The opinion is current that ploughing matches are one of those 

 time-honoured institutions of the countryside which are smitten 

 with decay. The farmer and the landowner, it is thought, do 

 not encourage the men, and the men who take a pride in their 

 work are a dying race and are not eager to compete in such 

 matches. From figures which will be quoted later it can be 

 definitely shown that, certainly in many parts of the country, 

 this is far from the truth, although in some districts ploughing 

 matches may have died with little immediate prospect of resuscita- 

 tion. It is hardly necessary to refer to the obvious fact that change- 

 in the system of agriculture cannot fail to affect all competitions 

 of technical skill; ploughing matches may give way to cheese- 

 making and milking competitions, or they may conceivably one 

 day disappear because they no longer have any vital bearing on 

 the daily task, because personal skill and personal pride are 



