Miscellaneous. 



372 



[April, 1909. 



''With certain fuels, especially when 

 much tar is encountered, it is also 

 necessary to add a sawdust purifier in 

 order to abstract the last tracts of tar 

 from the gas ... 



" In the care of the producer the 

 principal attention needed is to poke 

 the fire every few hours, according to 

 quality of the coal, in order to break 

 up and remove clinkers, which would 

 otherwise interfere with the making 

 of sufficient gas. Poke-holes are pro- 

 vided so that every part of the fire can 

 be reached conveniently." 



One of the largest suction producer- 

 plants in the United States, we are 

 told, is in Wisconsin, and comprises 

 six 150 horse-power engines and one 

 200 horse-power engine— 1,100 horse- 

 power in all— with suction gas-pro- 

 ducers, using anthracite as fuel, — Liter- 

 ary Digest. 



THE VALUE OP LOCAL SHOWS. 



At the Agricultural Conference held 

 at Warwick, in June, 1900, a very ex- 

 cellent paper was read by Mr, T. Burgess, 

 of Forest Hill, on ''The Functions of 

 Agricultural Societies." 



There are those who would belittle the 

 work done in the interests of agriculture 

 and stock-breeding, and sum up their 

 so-called arguments by saying that the 

 only function exercised by the country 

 societies is the holding of an annual 

 show. We do not care to enter into 

 disputation on this opinion, erroneous 

 as we hold it to be. Mr. Burgess, whilst 

 holding that there are too many shows 

 and too much sameness about them 

 (" see one, and you see them all," he 

 said), yet recognised their value to the 

 agricultural community, only asking 

 that they should be rendered more 

 attractive by the introduction of new 

 features into them. Mr. J. Hudson, 

 Rosewood maintained that those who 

 said that there was not much to be 

 learned from shows, big or little, were 

 not real farmers. If he did not take a 

 prize for a horse he might show, he 

 naturally went to other shows to see 

 where he was wrong. The same thing 

 applied to the cattle and farm produce 

 sections. If a farmer wanted to teach 

 his son anything in connection with 

 agriculture, let him take him round a 

 show, and point out to him the animals 

 and implements which have taken 

 prizes, and indicate the points that are 

 good and those that are bad. The boy 

 would never forget the lesson, and he 

 will have learned something that will be 



of service to him when he becomes a 

 man. On the value of country shows, 

 Lord Middleton wrote as follows in the 

 "Live Stock Journal " in 1901 :— 



That the agricultural show system is 

 beneficial, and of value to agriculture in 

 general, is a usually admitted fact, 

 though occasionally I have heard the 

 reverse opinion expressed, with added 

 gloomy forebodings that the heyday of 

 such shows is over. 



My own opinion is that agricultural 

 shows are of the greatest value, and at 

 no time more so than the present. It 

 has probably occurred to ~those who 

 have given the subject unprejudiced 

 attention that the chief value of these 

 competitive exhibitions is threefold— 

 namely, first, the opportunity they give 

 of comparison ; secondly, the emulation 

 they excite ; third and last (and by no 

 means least), their use as an advertising 

 medium. 



We all know the trite old saying that 

 many a man's goose is his swan, and 

 nowhere is this saying brought home to 

 us more vividly than iu the showyard. 

 Frequently have I (and doubtless many 

 of my readers have shared this ex- 

 perience) taken the pick of our farm to 

 the showyard, expecting great things ; 

 only to have our pride knocked out of us 

 on entering the ring by finding what we 

 hoped might be the winner of the red 

 rosette relegated to a very inferior place. 

 We have gone home sadder and wiser 

 men, with a teaching, however, which 

 will doubtless show excellent result in 

 the f uture. 



If it were not for these showyard 

 gatherings of stock, I do not see how we 

 should be able to compare our own with 

 that of others nor arrive at the pitch 

 of perfection hoav reached. There are 

 men who possess it, but it cannot be 

 counted a universal gift, that power of 

 carrying the definite picture of an animal 

 for any time in the mind's eye ; to the 

 " general," therefore, what a boon is the 

 showyard, when he can do his comparing 

 studies within small limits of time and 

 space. 



In mentioning the perfection to which 

 stock has attained in the present day, I 

 would call attention particularly to the 

 improvement in the Shire horse. It is 

 extraordinary the stride this breed 

 has made in comparatively few years ; 

 the champions of twenty years ago 

 would be regarded as moderate horses 

 to-day. There are other breeds which 

 to me seem to have made similar progress 

 of late years ; 1 might mention the 

 Galloways, the Welsh cattle, the Sussex, 

 and, in sheep, conspicuously the Suffolk. 

 Some may say it is the breed societies 



