at the Canterbury Meeting, 1860. 
513 
XXV.— 37<e Canterhurij Meetinrj. By P. H. Freue. 
After the lapse of several months few subjects lose more of 
their attractiveness, both for the writer and the reader, than that 
of an Agricultural Show. Graphic accounts of the Canterburv 
Meeting appeared at the time from the pens of writers whoso 
specialty it is to enlarge on the beauties and merits of high-bred 
stock. To copy these would be plagiarism ; to vary, but to 
change them for the worse ; and yet some notice of the Meeting 
is called for, that the niclie appropriated to 1860 may not be 
quite vacant in the annals of our Society. 
Although the Meeting was not a successful one, especially in 
a financial point of view, justy^e has been rendered on all sides 
to the motives which determined the Society's choice of a locality. 
The cordiality with which the town and corporation of Canter- 
bury first invited and then received us deserves an acknowledg- 
ment, in which great part, if not all, of the county may claim a 
share. 
If agriculturists were not tempted to visit Kent to sec im- 
proved farming, or Avere disappointed if they looked for it, there 
were other lessons which they might read if they thought of the 
"yeoman of Kent, with his yearly rent," contrasted with the 
beggarly nobles, squires, iScc, of old times, and then caught a 
glance of a stray modern specimen of this sturdy but slow and 
tenacious race. Though the men of Kent have little resemblance 
to the hare, assuredly their course in the race of agriculture has 
been not unlike that of the hare in the fable, — they had a good 
lead, and have not kept it. Perhaps the very strength of the 
soil is against progress : bad managers cannot well exhaust it, 
and none but very good management can improve it. 
The site and arrangement of the show-yards was all that could 
be desired ; if that assigned to implements was not as full as 
usual, this is hardly the place to canvass the causes which led to 
a decrease in the number of exhibitors. 
The Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society is designed to 
be an abiding record of purely scientific matters connected with 
the progress of agriculture ; its pages would be very ill-filled by 
references to misunderstandings which cannot be too soon for- 
gotten. Its editor, moreover, whose duties lead him to seek 
for information and cordial co-operation from all quarters, is the 
person whom it would least befit to entangle himself in what 
may be called the politics of the Society. 
In the stock-yard, although some breeds of animals were 
rather scantily represented (as was to be expected in that south- 
eastern nook of England), yet some classes (for instance, that of 
;?lu)rt-horn heifers) were very strong ; and in almost all there 
