| AGRICULTURAL SHQWS. 
face, and give it the properties of an ancient 
meadow or rich old pasture. When the soil is 
highly fertile or of a very compound nature, the 
mixture of seeds sown upon it ought to comprise 
a considerable number of species ; but when the 
soil is thin, poor, or of simple character, especi- 
ally when it consists of chalk, damp clay, siliceous 
matter, or moorish and heath-growing gravel, the 
mixture may comprise but few species, and, in 
some instances, not more than three or even two. 
The lowest degrees of these poor, thin, and semi- 
barren soils, in fact, almost as steadily refuse to 
‘produce more than one or two solitary species, 
as the rich, compound, arable soils refuse to bear 
fewer than four, six, eight, or a dozen. Just, 
therefore, as the prime pasture grasses are na- 
turally found growing in a state of abundant in- 
termixture with one another on rich soils, so are 
the hard, harsh, worthless kinds of grasses na- 
turally found growing in solitary sternness on 
wild moors, on arid sands, on ferruginous clays, 
and on other descriptions of almost desert lands. 
| Thus the grasses Azra flexuosa or zigzag hair- 
| grass, Vardus stricta or upright mat-grass, Seslerva 
_ cerulea or blue moor-grass, Melica cerulea or pur- 
| ple melic, Agrostis canina capillaris or dog bent, 
| Agrostis palustris or marsh bent, Poa aquateca or 
| watery meadow grass, and several others, are 
generally found uncombined with one another, 
or with other grasses, and, if sown in a state of 
mixture, no matter of what kind, in what pro- 
portions or upon what soils, will refuse to con- 
tinue social, and eventually become solitary. 
Even the decidedly good pasture grasses are 
much affected in their habits of growth, gregari- 
ousness, and longevity, by the different qualities 
of soils, and require to be modified, as to both 
the kind and the proportion of mixture, in order 
to be profitably adapted to different situations. 
In a sandy loam, for example, Festuca pratensis 
and Festuca duriuscula ought to be in nearly equal 
proportions; in a sandy soil, with little or no 
loamy matter, Mestuca durtusculus ought to be in 
much larger proportion than Lestuca pratensis ; 
and, in clayey loam, Mestuca pratensis ought to be 
in twice the quantity of Festuca durivuscula. Most 
of the other prime grasses require similar adap- 
tation ; and nearly all will suffer more or less 
diminution of their fertility or their perma- 
nence by either indiscriminate mixture or indis- 
criminate sowing. See articles Smzp, Gurmrna- 
Tron, CorynEpons, Sowine, Grasses, AFTERGRASS, 
Varintins, WHEAT, BARLEY, and Oats. 
AGRICULTURAL SHOWS. Public exhibi- 
tions of farm stock, farming implements, and 
other matters connected with agriculture. They 
are appointed and conducted by agricultural 
societies, and are designed to stimulate agricul- 
tural genius and enterprise, to diffuse agricul- 
tural information, and to give popularity and 
importance to valuable agricultural discoveries ; 
and they serve also to lift agricultural interests 
triumphantly above the influence of factions and 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
91 
partisanship, to excite and expand the feeling of 
reciprocal interest between landlords and tenants, 
and to diffuse a corps @esprit throughout the 
various members of the agricultural body. See 
next article. 
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. Associations 
for the diffusion of agricultural science, and the 
promotion of agricultural improvement. Some 
are institutions for a kingdom, others for a pro- 
vince, and others for a very limited locality ; 
some consist of scientific and wealthy patrons 
and proprietors, and others of enterprising far- 
mers and ordinary farm-stewards; some exert a 
motive power on the energies of improvement, 
both suggesting enterprise and conducting it, 
and others exercise no stronger influences than 
those of sanctioning and news-spreading, con- 
tenting themselves with the adoption of well- 
tested practices, and the diffusion of valuable in- 
formation ; and some are supported wholly or 
partly by state endowment, others by munificent 
and numerous benefactions and subscriptions, 
and others by few and meagre private contribu- 
tions. Many of the more obscure, feeble, and 
limitedly local class have had but a brief and 
comparatively worthless existence ; some others 
of this class are of questionable character, pro- 
bably doing as much evil as good; and the re- 
mainder—constituting the great majority—have 
acquitted themselves well and powerfully, and 
are wielding a vast aggregate energy for the 
welfare of the agricultural community, yet are 
cumulatively far too numerous, and individually 
far too small, to be fit subjects of detailed notice, 
or even of enumeration. Agricultural societies, 
as a whole, are increasing in both number and | 
power, and have already achieved incalculable 
benefit throughout many parts of Europe, and | 
particularly in Germany, France, and Great Bri- 
tain. Both their objects and their results are 
well-known to almost all the reading population 
who speak the English language, and furnish 
topics of constant, varied, and extensive notices 
in all our periodicals, from the daily newspaper 
to the quarterly scientific journal. “ The news- 
papers of the passing day teem with the list of | 
prizes offered in Great Britain for improving live | 
stock in all their varieties, the invention of new 
farming implements, &c., &c., and for procuring 
the best information on all subjects connected 
with every department of rural and domestic | 
economy. The exhibitions of horned cattle, 
horses, sheep, and swine, have produced the | 
most beneficial effects in the principal as well as 
in the least favoured breeding districts; and, by 
a necessary connexion, tillage in all its branches 
has been promoted. Farm servants, too, have 
become objects of encouragement ; their skill in 
ploughing, hedging, stack-making, herding, dairy- 
management, cottage-husbandry, their morality 
of conduct, and length of servitude, being subjects 
of approbation and reward.” 
The Highland and Agricultural Society of Scot- 
—S 
