582 
Agricultural Statistics. 
" 107. Lord Mo>;teagle. — Do not you conceive that the feeling of dis- 
trust and jealousy which may arise at the commencement of any system 
of procuring statistical infonnatiou is likely to wear off iu proportion as 
experience shows that the information may be given without any of the evil 
conseipiences which have been at first apprehended? — Certainl}', I think that 
a year or two's experience, if you could once get over the difficulty, would 
remove such distrust and jealousy ; if j'ou could once get them to make their 
returns all over the country, and if they once do it readily, the repetition will 
have less difficulty." 
" 106. Chaieman. — Are the committee to understand, from your answer 
to a former question, that you attribute a great part of the success which 
you have had in obtaining information from the farmers, to the fact that 
they have confidence in the person to whom they make the returns, and 
that you might not have been so successful if the 2^erson to whom they so 
sent those returns had been an officer of the Government, and not a person 
connected with a society in which they had great confidence ? — That is a 
point upon which I would like the committee to examine some other person 
than myself; it is an .awkward question to put to me ; if I have stated that 
strongly, I must correct it upon perusal. The committee may judge by the 
fact, that lue have had no oi^portimity of testing that the farmers jtrefer sending 
their returns to such a person as is described in the query, rather than to one 
of their own number ; and it may be inferred whether they would have 
looked with most jealousy upon a Government official or one of themselves. I 
need have no hesitation at all events iu saying, that the farmers of Scotland 
have confidence in the Highland Society, and do not readily misdoubt the 
object which the Society has in view when it takes up a measure such as this ; 
they rather infer that the object is for their advantage ; therefore the secretary 
of that Society, if he does his duty, has facilities, pjerhaps, which no other 
IKTSon in Scotland possesses for ivorlcing such a measure as this." 
"125.LordPoETMAN. — Describe the connection existingbetween the Highland 
and the local societies. — The nature of the connection between those societies 
and the Highland Society is of old standing ; the Highland Society has been 
about 80 years in existence, and at an early period it turned its attention to 
getting vip and promoting local associations. With this object it established 
a system of local competitions, at which its premiums are competed for under 
the management of local associations ; we thus not only assist these bodies 
financially, but as we regulate the competitions, their efforts are directed into 
pro])er channels, and the regulations and practice of the central society are 
gradually engrafted on their system. The result is, that after a long period 
of years, there is a great deal not only of unifonnity of object, but of action, 
between all these local societies and the i)arent society. There is no part of 
Scotland in which we have not had districts parcelled out, and committees at 
work in connection with our local shotrs, so that we had them to fall back 
upon for assistance and co-operation in conducting the statistical inquiry. I 
therefore attribute the successful organization of the machinery necessary to 
carry out the system in a great measure to the facilities aflbrdcd by these local 
associations, and by our long-established and friendly coimexions with them."* 
Such was the early history of Mr. Maxwell's efforts, which 
in the following year 1854 yielded such satisfactory results. Let 
us now refer to a passage or two from the reports of Mr. Man- 
waring and Mr. Farnall, two of the Poor-La w Inspectors, who 
collected the Statistics in the West Riding of Yorkshire in 
* ' Minutes of Evfaence before the Committee of the House of Lords, on Agri* 
cultural Statistics,' p. 11. (June 19, 1855.) 
