Report on the Exhibition of Live Stock at Wolverhampton. 583 
than one occasion prompted us to greet a friend with the familiar 
words of " Talpa," — 
" Came you iu boots, sir, or in boats, 
By land, sir, or by water?" 
The choice of Wolverhampton as a site for the Royal Show of 
1871 was from the first, and has been all along, severely criticised 
by a considerable portion of the public ; but in arriving at this 
decision, by a very large majority, the Council were actuated both 
by an earnest desire to give the county of Staffordshire (the show 
never having been held in this county before) an opportunity of 
seeing by what means its agriculture could be benefited, and at 
the same time to maintain the interests of the Society itself. 
But however necessary and desirable it may be to keep the 
coffers of the Society well and amply supplied, I am not of 
those who give priority to this feeling over the higher and more 
noble object for which the Society was instituted, viz., "the 
encouragement of the science and practice of agriculture," nor 
am I prepared to endorse the principle of maintaining a large 
funded property for the benefit of a future generation in pre- 
ference to a more liberal, though reasonable, annual expenditure, 
in deve]oj)ing and furthering the agriculture of our own day. 
In consequence of the disagreeable state of the weather and 
Show-yard, " a damper " seemed spread over the whole meeting : 
wet jackets and dirty feet did not tend to improve men's tempers, 
whilst small difficulties — which under more favourable circum- 
stances would soon have disappeared — were readily multiplied 
into unpardonable sins, and therefore one was not surprised to 
hear complaints, loud and many, showered down upon the authori- 
ties of certain railway lines for their exorbitant charges for the 
delivery of stock into the Show-yard. In truth, there was some 
cause for these complaints, for on inquiry I found that one com- 
pany was charging twice as much as another for such delivery ; 
but injustice to them, I must say that on a proper representation 
being made, this matter was at once ordered to be rectified. 
I am reluctant to pass over this question of "railway accom- 
modation " without taking the opportunity of expressing my 
opinion that the weakest part of our Show-yard arrangements is 
that of " raihvaj/sJ^ I am far from being an advocate of the prin- 
ciple that "a railway must be laid into the Show-yard under any 
circumstances," for we have many bright examples of most suc- 
cessful meetings where such accommodation has 7iot been pro- 
vided. Even at Wolverhampton, the most sceptical exhibitor 
could not complain of any want of expedition, or of facility 
in the delivery of his stock, but it was the charges to which 
exception was taken. The complaint at the General Meeting 
