MAGAZINE OF SCIENCE AND ART. 
73 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
We have noticed with great pleasure tire 
recent establishment of Agricultural So¬ 
cieties in various country districts. There 
can he no necessity for us in these days to 
enlarge upon the pre-eminent importance 
of agriculture,—we do not now need the 
political economist to inform us that the 
soil is the source of all wealth,—but it may 
be useful to impress upon our agricultural 
population the importance of conducting 
their farming operations on the most im¬ 
proved and scientific principles. 
There is, perhaps, no method by which 
the knowledge of these principles can be 
disseminated so effectually as by the agency 
of Agricultural Societies. We may point 
to the vast improvements that have taken 
place in the agriculture of England and 
Scotland within the last few years, in con¬ 
firmation of our assertion, for in both these 
countries Associations of this character 
have been formed, and circulate the 
varied experience of hundreds of practical 
farmers in the records of their proceedings. 
In England, also, it must be remembered 
that there is a large class of country gen¬ 
tlemen who take up the pursuit of farming 
for their pastime, and who are constantly 
making costly experiments with a view to 
its advancement. They are, no doubt, 
stimulated to such efforts by the competi¬ 
tion that is fostered by these societies, 
which thus prove of the greatest public 
benefit. 
In this colony, Associations of this kind 
are even more necessary than at home. 
Here the Anglo-Saxon finds new condi¬ 
tions of climate, of seasons, and of soil ; 
and a great portion of the rural population 
are strangers to the best modes to be 
adopted in cultivation. How desirable 
must it be, therefore, that associations 
should be formed where each might detail 
the results of his experience, and encou¬ 
rage the followers of this noble and bene¬ 
ficent pursuit ? 
In our first number we detailed, at some 
length, the constitution and the rules of 
the Australian Horticultural and Agricul¬ 
tural Society, which appear to us to furnish 
some very good hints for the formation of 
similar associations in the country districts. 
Since then we have received the prospectus 
and rules of the Cumberland Agricultural 
Society, which we hear has enrolled a large 
number of members, and bids fair to take 
an influential position. Another society 
has been formed in the county of Argyle, 
and there are three in the Illawarra 
district. We hear that there is some 
prospect of establishing one in the Hunter 
River District, where recent calamitous 
events have demonstrated that such an 
association would be productive of the 
greatest benefit. We shall most gladly aid 
these various societies by all the means in 
our power, and we heartily invite the re¬ 
spective secretaries to forward to the office 
of this journal condensed reports of their 
proceedings, which we engage to publish 
with the same regularity that we do the 
proceedings of the metropolitan society. 
By this means it may reasonably be ex¬ 
pected that a great stimulus will be given 
to intelligent farming, and instead of the 
solitary agriculturist discovering for him¬ 
self, by painful experience, the proper 
rotation of crops, or the right seasons for 
the various operations of the farm, he will 
at once by this agency be associated with 
those willing and able to instruct him, and 
thus conduce to the wealth of the commu¬ 
nity. 
We wish we could conclude these obser¬ 
vations by recording that our Government 
had evinced any intention or any desire to 
aid the development of the agricultural 
resources of the colony. We have looked 
carefully through the estimates for this 
year, and the only item that we can con¬ 
strue into an indirect recognition of the 
value of agriculture is, that a sum of 
£16'00 is appropriated for the application 
of sewerage water to the Botanical Gardens. 
This is a step in the right direction, and if 
carried out, will, we are convinced, demon¬ 
strate the immense value of liquid manures 
in this climate. We sincerely trust that 
this vote will experience a better fate than 
it did last year, when it was rejected in 
the Legislative Assembly. Our neighbours 
of Victoria are far more liberal, and we 
believe more sagacious, for we observe 
that this year the sum of £10,000 has been 
appropriated by the Legislature of that 
Colony for the promotion of agriculture. 
If this sum is judiciously expended, it will 
return itself a hundred-fold, and instead of 
being stigmatised as a piece of extrava¬ 
gance, we are disposed to applaud it as an 
instance of large and statesmanlike eco¬ 
nomy. 
