The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-09-04 00:00:00

CHAMBER' (,E AGRICULTURE.

To the Editors.

I observe that reference is made by Mr. IL J.
More, the member for South Shropshire, at a public
meeting held at Shrewsbury, to that put I took in
the suppression of the cattle plague.
Mr. Mae is reported to have said that I in my
individual capacity called the Conference at St.
James'. Hall on February 8. Though I certainly
suggested that meeting in the lint instance, tbe
arrangements for carrying it oat and for preparing
sad circulating the petitions to Parliament, were
made by a small committee of our County Agricul.
turd Society. on withal Captain Oliver, of Shia's.
brook,. and Mr. Owen Wallis, of Ovonkone, were
my moat inclidatapble ooadjators, sod who an fully

entitled to share in the credit that may attach to •
proceeding that wee at once fortunate in its oppor-
tunity, and decisive set, its remit&
Never wart the need of such an institution as our
Central Chamber of Agriculture more apparent than
in the case of the cattle plague last stamen and
winter. With an admirable report in our bands
from the caul., plaguo c it seemed at
one tame that it was to be for us nothing better than
waste paper. The practice canted wise evidently
not homeormathy. Of TOOCOUltion, Of assaketida,
but • combined effort en the part f landowners and
occupiers to obtain by legislation a treatment of •
greet national calamity in conformity with the views
of the majority of the isommission. I turned to the
Rosal Agricultural Society to bad; but. found that
the laws contained in their Charter, which cannot at
any time be altered or departed from, Precluded the
Society from taking wt in any questions of a
political tendency, or havirg reference to measures
pending, or to be brought before, Parliament.
Various deputations appeared from the country in
Donning-a-rect, and repreeeniatious without end
were made by the Courts et Quarter Sessions all of
them, I believe, deficient in that life and character
which, in this country, can be imparted only by
those whose immediate interests and property are
jeopardieed, and whose instincts lead them to adopt
the readiest means of escape from an impending
calamity, _

Had i7hambers of Agriculture been established last
summer in England, with their Central Organization
in Lond it, I cannot but think that remedial measures
would have been taken by the Government sooner,
that we should have had no killing without compen-
sation' and that the course the plague was running
would have received an earlier check.
_ _

But Chambers of Agriculture have still other work
to do. Let them deal with the malt-tax, a tax that
presses with undue severity on the out-of-doors
labourer, to whom good and cheap beer is as much
a necessary as meat, The farmer has all the material
at hand for producing this. Barley be grows;
hope are English produce; water, fuel, cellarage,
and space for the manufacture, exist on most farm.;
but be cannot turn those to the heat advantage,
owing to • duty that is almost prohiliitory. Home-
brewed ale and clean small beer belong, for the poor
at least, to village tales and romances. The real
thing is gigantic fortunes mode on the banks of the
Trent and Thames; farmers shipping sherry and
Gladstone claret; and the labourers with their chins
to the pump spout by day, and their wises in the
" public " quart pot at night. With all thin, to
crown the mischief, wear. cursed with an abominable
licensing rystem, that does more to demoralise the
thoughtless and improvident than can be well con-
ceived. And for what For • dream of paying off
a national debt against the exhaustion ol our coal
to cheapen tea against the fell and perfect
enjoyment of a female franchise ; and to supply
Manchester with cheaper paper to roll her manufac-
tures in

Then the destruction of human food, arising from
the stocking cultivated land 'kith ground game, is •
fair question for examination; and if it inn be shown
that the preservation of hares and ralkits is Mono pat-
able with good husbandry, representations to that
effect might be urged with the view of removing them
from the game list. Certainly, the preservation
of them, out of the woodlands, for letting
or selling, or for keepers' perquisites, is a practice
productive of poor crops, inferior tenant
farmers, and poaching labourers. To my mind
recent legislation on this bead has pointed in the
wrong direction. The old laws probibi ing the tale
of game, and limiting the pursuit of it to qualified
persona only, placed the cultivator of the soil in a
better position than he now finds himself in.
Again, there is another subject which falls we-11
within the province of Chambers of Agriculture— l
mean the eninloyment of children full time in the
fields. I believe that the greatest benefit might
accrue from legislation on this head; so that either in
the morning or afternoon time, should be secured to
the child from his hours of field labour for who, ling.
Might not the labour of children be suspended during
half or one-third of the time now devoted to it with•
out unduly disarranging the course of farm work'
And if that time were spent in education, should we
not have the promise of • nos of labourers superior
in body and mind to those who now till the soil'
The price of labour would doubtless be higher, but
the quality would be proportionably improved, and
the character of our rural p ipulation feasibly raised.
I would say • word upon an objection that has
been made to Chambers of Agriculture. That they
are likely to sow desorption between landlord and
tenant; that politicsand legislation are for the owners
of the soil sod the labourer; and that the farmer, being
a middleman, must leave the ultimate results to be
adjusted in rent. As to the interests of
owners and occupiers are identical at so many points
that I have no fear of their becoming lake a 1100.110
divided against itself; and with reference to the
farmer having no politics of his own., I would reply,
that he seems to have suffered from his assumed want
of class feeling, seeing that he owns • capital equi-
valent to one sixth or one seventh of the value of the
sod he rents, it is admitted that of all investments
his brings the poorest return ; and of all capitals his
is the most imperfectly represented in the Howe of
Commons. He has hitherto been beaten, in detail
on most points advocated by him for legislative
amendment. There is • Board of Trade, bat no
Board of Agriculture ; and the opiate of an occasional
commission is considered a specific for all his ail-
ments.

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We trust that this year will see • new system
inaugurated, and that in the establishment of local
Chamber' of Agriculture In correeprindenoe and con-
nection with the central one (for without foaming in
London I believe little good will be done), opportn.
nity will be given for the expresszon with some
weight and influence of the feelings of many good
and intelligent men upon point. where they have
hitherto been silent, not no much from want of con-
viction, as from the hopeleesneee attending isolation
and the want of institutions whom charge it will be
to pram their resolutions home upon the Govern-
ment. . .