The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-07-05 00:00:00

csl.ourbribge ehemer.

SATURDAY, JULY sth, 1379.

-liii.,'RNATIONAL AGRICULTURE.

FOR. more than a quarter of a century inter-
national exhibitions have been numerous in
various parts of the world, The first, held
by Great B_itain in Hyde Parklin 1851, has
been followed from time to time by similar
gatherings in Paris, Vienna, New York,
Philadelphia, Brussels, and other cities. All
these have related chiefly to competitions of
excellence illustrative of the superiority ot
towns, as showing the superiority of this
or that manufactured fabric. Comparing
now what is beautiful in art and costly in
material with what was seen twenty-eight
years ago, the improvement is immensely on
the side of the present day, and to an extent
utiteely disproporLionate to the time which
has elapsed, In the facilities for carrying
oil war, and in the appliances for developing '
the wo:ks of peace, wonderful progress has
been made. Yet at each exaibition it is the
town which has had by far the largest share
of representation. Of course there is a
greater variety of the resulqi of man's in-
dastay in the town than ia tue country,
where the tillage of the soil is exclusively
carried on ; and this accounts for the large
populations having see-ared the lion's share
of the exhibits. Yet it is undeniable that
tlip land embodies an enormous amount of
enterprise and skill ; and the efforts it is
capable of making have beeu well exemplified
this week in the vast show-yard at Kilburn,
one of the north-western sui.arbs of L
More than half a generation has waned
away since the Etoyal Agricultural Society
of England held its exhibition in the environs
of the metropolis. it was in. 1862, the year
of the great international show at South
Kensington, that the Royal pitched its tent
at Battersea; and now, after for seventeen
successive years illustrating the energy and
the science of agricuiimre in one after another
of our great provincial towns' it has come
back to the capital again, with a noble re-
cord of its services. The distance between
1862 and 1879 seems as far as the Poles
asunder so far as is concerned the perfection
of appliances for the encouragement and the
progress of agriculture. There is nothing to
be surprised at in this; the wonder would
rather be if the result of the application of so
much intellect had been a negative one. If
we compare our advancement in the art of
destruction with oar position therein in 1862
we shall see that enormous strides have been
made. The wooden walls of old England,
which had been famous for centuries, and
then floated proudly upon the seas, have been
superseded by ironclads. The artillery of
that day were the popguns of the present.
The Minie rifle, then regarded as unsurpassed
has given place to to the Martini-Henry.
Thereiore, when -upon every hand, it was
seen that one facility after another was
being added to the means of slaughter and
astruelion, it was with a feeling of relief
that at the annual shOws of the itoyal Agri-
ea o tural Society developments were wit-
nessed in the humanizing art of cultivating
foe It is art considerably older than
that of war ; why should it ix; outstripped
by it ? In tl:e days when the earth was
young, two brothers, whose names are
-familiar to every reader of sacred history,
were respectively a keeper of sheep and tiiier
of the soil. Before the towns had spread
out over the land in tiL it compact masses oi
an'mation ; before tens of thousands of armed
men had been drawn from industrial occupa-
tions to be trained in the art of how best
to slay their fellow men; before mighty
ships of
,war 'sailed the seas fitted with every
agency of death and devastation, the lane
was yielding her increase in response to the
efforts of man. It was not meet that with
the traditions of thousands of years the land
s'n n':3 be left ben-:ntl in the race of Ma.
provernant. Taerefore it is that busy and
energetic brains have been constantly at
0.-;10 cannectian with the land, not only
in this but in other countries, and the re-
Malt has been seen in the splendid collection
bi.oaata, together at Kilburn this week.
Oaaaed in tine weather after the stortr)a
• • ,at& st
" (it Roy- tatty, the Kilburn

Show threw open its gates to the people with
every hope and promise of success. Other
industries have had their innings in previous
years ; it is now the farmer's turn. True, '
he comqs up to London in the Cattle Show
week in IMeember, and notes the steps which
have been made in the march of progress in
his own line of work. 80-. P,.t. Kilburn this
week he has been enabled to see what other
nations a:e doing besides his own; perhaps
he takes a hint from what is done in France
o in Belgium. At all events there has been
a large and ample field opened for his observ-
ation ; and this cannot fail to be of benefit in
the end. The towfl cannot do without the
country ; the householder in the great city
sees every day upon his table the products
of the land ; and it is the interest of all alike
that every possible encouragement 51 oald be
given to the development of agricultural
science.