The Agricultural Lessons of " The Eighties." 279 
likely to be permanent ; but of this we may be assured — that 
one of the great lessons taught by the " Eighties" is the neces- 
sity for systematic instruction in agriculture in all its branches. 
Education is not only necessary in school and college days, 
but throughout life. It seems, therefore, desirable to refer to 
the efforts made by all the great societies to promulgate dairy 
instruction by lectures and working dairies at our principal 
agricultural shows. The agricultural press has developed to a 
marked degree during the decade, and the circulation of the 
numerous papers devoted to agricultural matters has largely 
increased. 
3. Dairying. 
It is scarcely too much to say that modern dairying arose 
during the " Eighties." I am aware of the danger of formulat- 
ing too strictly, and, no doubt, interest was awaking in years 
previous to 1880; but it is none the less true that the keen 
interest now seen on all sides in the dairy arose after wheat 
ceased to be a profitable crop, and the great movement in 
favour of laying down land to permanent pasture set in. 
Among the novel features at the Kilburn Show of 1879 was 
the International Dairy, and the Laval cream-separator was 
introduced the same season. It was, however, subsequently 
that we began to seriously modify our practices by adopting 
the now general plan of washing butter in the churn, arresting 
churning at the point of granulation, forbidding the use of the 
hand, the introduction of " butter-workers," and improved 
methods of making up and packing butter. A modem dairy, 
with its Jersey, Dorset, Cooley, Schwartz, or centrifugal systems 
of separating cream from milk, its improved churns, Scotch- 
hands, ice, butter-baskets, &c, forms a striking contrast to the 
old-fashioned shallow pan, barrel-churn, and butter-tub ; and 
although there is always a danger in increasing appliances 
beyond what is really necessary, there can be no doubt as to the 
solid progress which has been accomplished. To tell British 
dairymen that they were being beaten on their own markets 
by the Danes was likely to kindle the same spirit of resistance 
to Danish rule which glowed in the breasts of our forefathers 
in the time of Alfred, and no sooner was the challenge thrown 
down than it was accepted. It is not, I think, too much to say 
that the best systems of making British butter and cheese are 
now fully equal to those of any foreign country. What is now 
required is the promulgation of the art among the rank-and-file 
of dairy-farmers throughout the land. 
On the subject of imports I will not say much. The total 
