The Express.
London, England, 1862-04-17 00:00:00

111121r0H AGRICULTURE-THE INTER-
NATIONAL CATTLE-SHOW.

(room ova anew,

MISSY, WZDKOLDAL
France, pre-eminently the country of resole-
ties.., now offers the spectou:le of one from which
Lenoir% but good can be expected. It is not the
re—rites rising to overture the Empire, but the
Eu'l'er"r seethe to consolidate his power by
oh euiug up the resources of the country, and
laving o capital that coundeuce which can only
b.• derived men a firm government. The special
id.;:eoe of t:.i. revolution I WO here to chronicle
e. mem end-elm-eh A number of cattle, sheep,
atal pie,- are collected at Parry, near to Paris, and
are here thuged side by side with wine Ina rupee-
sedative's ..t our English breeds. The whole are
drawl' together by a large amount of prize money,
anunatiug k. 5,7381., exclusive of gold medals
sea cup. offered by the French government.
Teeth is Mete in all this than appear% to a casual
obeerver. There are but few who remember what
Eraileed was eighty years ago ; but those who
have made themeelves acquainted with the prodi-
gents change which has occurred in our agriculture
aoU be at no lees* to recognise the significance of a
bucolic asecuthlage like this, nor of the presence
here of the cylindrically formed English short-horn.
France, tow often led by clever clap-trap, owe
felt herself clattered by the well-known saying,
" Freese, is rich enuegh —to pay for her glory."
Eh* now seems disposed to say, France is rich
enough in glory to think of her finances ; and eel--
Leinly if we by the action of public opinion can
encourage her iu this wise decision it will not be
ourown uitertaa alonethat we shall nerve. Sosoon as
the fertile soil of France shall be made to yield its
increase, and bread shall be cheap, and content-
ment Audi promenade iu holiday attire the Champ.
Elyeees, thee may that immense ataudiug
army (so expensive a bugbear to England)
gradually merge again into the populace,
mid from being au uupruductive element, serve by
its well-direeted energies in trade, commerce, mod
agriculture to aagineut the national wealth. It is
a very common motion that Napoleon is a profound
man, that he returned to France as the elected of
timaieople, with a mysteriously forecast plan of do-
mane and foreign policy, to which everything has j
been made to bend, and which will eventually land I
him above the reach of deadly projectiles in some
thirst heaven so other. There are those however,
who mere alwayr• esteemed him a man of simple '
though bold cast of tided, having a singularly
sagacious knowledge of the French character. He ,
seems to hive made blunders like other Dien, and
Uhe has had plans, to have deviated from them
when circulastames have required it of hint. The
main single idea to which he has kept true seems
to have been the development of the internal re-
sour:es of the country, and particularly those of •
the -oil. There is something said about some
memorable speech of his, wherein he tells his eountry- •
men that he represents a defeat, and a defeat to be
revenged ; but looking at him, and at the character
of his reign, there is reason to think that be must
just thee have been in an ironical mood, and
alluded to the rural defeat so lucidly portrayed by
M. de Lavergne, where he shows statistically that
the soil et England, though less fertile, produces
just twice as much as that of France.
Nothing is more certain than that in agricul-
ture the work of progress is going rapidly for-
ward, and that it is going forward under the
Mewl eacieurageweet awl fostering care of the Em-
peror. Aware that example is more influential than
precept, be_resesses farms in all quarters of his
doiminiuus. They are model eatablishments, and are
desigual to show to the cultivators of the neigh-
bouraurel round what they way do to improve
their breeds of cattle and their methods of cereal
cohere. The Emperor is, in fact, the largest
fanner in his own domains at any rate, if not in
Europe. lie cultivates 51,000 acres of land, and
gives to his rural affairs an attention as hearty as
he does to attains military and naval. The year
before last, when the Empress visited the lima-
field Club Cattle Show, the honorary secretary
was amazed by the minute intimacy which
that lady discovered with the breeds and sub-
breeds of France, and also with those of England.
The government is encouraging agriculture far
and wide. There are twelve regoonal cattle shows
throughout France annually. It would be better,
certainly, that these shows should be dery
to private enterprise, and not to the go-
terniug power ; but if private enterprise is
at fault, it is well that official alertness
thou'd take its place. All is yet contained within a
little official world, but the dimensions of this
world are growing larger. Thsee meetings and the
large prism offered by govemnieut are drawing
every year more exhibitors, and every men who at-
tend. returns to his herd, his flock, or his town
agricultural associatien, the wiser for the experience
thus gained. Bet, beyond the influences thus
brought to bear, there are seventy-one agricultural
schools, for the purpose of training bola in correct
theoretical principles of cultivation and in the
proper reduction of those priuciples to practice.
Thisbe en-exist with colleges of agriculture, breeding
establidaneuts Where the best English cattle are
kept, national flocks and studs of thoroughbred
horses, and a bulk of credit fulici,r, by means of
which wonders are wrought beyond the barri;res
of Paris quite equal to those which astonish
even the residents within them. It will not
surprise anybody to know, after what has
been shoted, that there is springing up a reading
agricultural public, and this intelligent taste is
being auurishe.l by such periodicals as the Joined
rfAerirulfere Profiler and the Roote Ayricule,
and by *rich works as those which M. de Lavergne
has ma•talv furnished for the edification of English
as well as Freuch readers.
Notwithetan-ling all this advance, sail all these
ails to advancealriot, much remains to be done.
The Leetamuial writer, after showing that the gross
produce of land in France line iecreireed from It..
an acre in 1780 to Mk all ;Lore in 1816, and to :ills.
an acre in 1850, goes on to ay that this progress,
bail not half the thin, that has elapsed since the
Revolution been wasted, might have been twice as
great. "A might. mring country, in a bleb the
principle. of 17th have loco, notwitlistauding a
few apparent exception*, more anciently Nei more
comitautly apOied than with us, 'has accomplished
in the same throe a progress much more rapi.l
still. In 1789 the United Kingdom had
thirteen millions and a half inhabitants ; in 1858
its popelatim. had increased to 28 millions, with-
out reckoning the millions of English-bay indivi-
dual...attire...l in distant colonies and all over the
eyelid. The population of, England has thus more
than doubled, whilst ours has iecremod only by
one-third. It has taken 11 a7O years to "whine five
*makes acres of waste bowie, suppress half of our
bare fallewsolonble our agricultural produce, in-
c rem.: omr;s•pnl, ties by 311 per cent., wages 100 per
amt., and rent 150 per cent. At this rote we
should respire three-Tarter* of a 4.1. ti ory • to
reach the petal of prosperity which Diem'd has
already atrAined."
Our t ei;:.bogrs. however, do not seam disposed
to tn.% t :7 rate. They have devised a
short cut, awl certainly it is the best they can
adopt. 011errTiej the prieligheas results which are
due to the niptacietive islet-nos of animals for re-
velries:thin eve:reified by our breeders of cattle and
sheep, WA the sulatitution of some three or four
pure and noble breeds in each iu
place ed a great many poor out., which
were only valuable so long as local cir-
etnlistanOra, sitter extinguished, retelereil them
eo, the French hosted proprietors heve readily
availed themselves of the stuck so obt.iinol, and we
ass glad they should have done *O. Tbe establish-
ment whAt is called the short-loin, br.lel has
proved a urine of wealth to cos. In Ireland and one
colonies it is working wonders ; an-I already, as is
visible at Yoissy, it has set its seal nisei some of
the Fret.ch local breeds. The Herefords sod ter-
- tale S:otch breed. have also been imported into
Frame with the best effecta. Our readers will
perhaps scareely be prepared for the announcement
that there is now quite a bulky short-horn herd-
book. Turning over the volume published this
year, it is observable that 1,646 pedigree animals
ere therein entered, bred or imported by 140
breeders, including the Emperor. This has been
going fur years.