The Press.
London, England, 1854-09-16 00:00:00

MR. MECHI AT ALTRINCHAM.

LAST week the Manchester and Liverpool Agricultu
ral Society held a very successful anniversary at
Altrincham, at which the tokens and specimens of
progress and improvements in the arts of cultivation
were duly exhibited, and admired by a numerous
throng of visitors. The proceedings closed by the
usual banquet, given at the railway station, where a
large carriage shed was covered in and decorated for
the occasion. There were 450 guests, with the Earl
of Stamford for president, and many speeches of
mingled congratulation and advice were delivered
after dinner. Among others Mr. Mechi, in returning
thanks for the Royal Agricultural Society of Eng-
land, offered some observations deserving record.
He said, after some occasional remarks :

" I want to see British agriculture more elevated in
profit, in sentiment, and in character. It wants more edit-
cation more intelligence, and more capital, and that can
only be attained by the concurrence of landlord and te-
nant. I believe we are never so well off as when we are
dissatisfied with ourselves. If Manchester had not been
dissatisfied with the spinning-wheel, what would Manches-
ter have been at this moment ? And so it is with agricul-
ture. Believe that you are only just beginning to act, and
you will do well for yourselves. But you cannot do it with
your present appliances. Your land is undrained, your
buildings are unfit for a respectable farmer, your fields are
too small, and your hedgerows too numerous. I have been
told that it is because game is respected that your fields
are small. But I won't believe it, because I know that the
aristocracy of this country have a very high sense of their
position and dignity, and are ready to fall in with that
which is for the benefit of the country. We want to know
more of the requirements of agriculture. In the largest
fields in Norfolk I have seen four fields for a thousand
acres—(cheers)—and there are more partridges in the
fields of Norfolk than you ever see here. And how is this
done ? Because the farmers of Norfolk, liking to see the
landed proprietors enjoy their sport, drill a few rows of
buckwheat in their turnips, and always have capital part-
ridge-shooting. (Cheers.) I tell you that you cannot go
on in Lancashire and Cheshire as you are going on now.
(Cheers.) Your farmers cannot spend money enough—
they cannot be intelligent enough—they cannot be good
customers enough to the other classes of the community,
because your system is a starvation and poverty system.
(Applause.) Excuse me for speaking honestly, but I be-
lieve that railways and the facilities of intercourse between
man and man in this kingdom will cause a great change—
will enable farmers and landlords of any poor districts to
go into well-farmed districts in other parts of the country
which hate been reclaimed and improved and made fruit-
ful by the investment of capital and intelligence. I do
not charge upon agriculture any particular prejudice more
than belongs to any other class of the community. We
know that in manufactures, and in every invention and
improvement, we have always had great contention against
old customs and prejudices. But I address myself now to
the manufacturers of Manchester. We know there are men
in Manchester who, by science and capital, are becoming
princes, and are purchasing the broad lands of this king-
dom. I say to them, You have done great things—you
have got a magnificent city, but take care to learn agricul-
ture. Take care to raise amongst you, for money is no
object, a college in which agriculture can be taught as a
science.' (Cheers.) 1 said so to-day to a manufacturer,
and he said, Mr. Mechi, I will give you 500/. for that ob-
ject to-morrow.' (Cheers.) To the great landed proprie-
tors I would say, ' Look out amongst your tenant farmers
for some son—some young man whose father, having a
desire to make his son more than himself, has given him a
good education, and offer some premium, pay some part of
the cost to the tenantry on your estates, that their sons
may go to those colleges now existing.' Some years ago,
at great personal and pecuniary inconvenience, I took an in-
terest in the college at Cirencester, in Gloucestershire. That
college was founded for the sons of the farmers of Eng-
land, but I say it with great truth that the education was
so inferior that when we got professors of the highest class
we found it was throwing pearls to swine ; for the educa-
tion received by that class of individuals would not enable
them to imbibe that science which would have been so be
neficial to them. Therefore I say to the landlords, and
particularly the Manchester gentlemen who have plenty of
money and plenty of ability, establish a noble college in
which the agriculture of this country shall be taught. You
have not got all the difficulties to go through that we had
at Cirencester, That college is established, and we are
turning men into the world who will he an honour to Agri-
culture. Do you the same. I say, as a general rule, if we
had more knowledge—and I have had to buy my expe-
rience, as we have all had to buy our experience—but, if
you had great and established rules and principles of ac-
tion, those questions of drainage, farm-buildings, steam-
engines, and other things, would not be questions of dis•
pute, but they would be accepted as common and every-day
occurrences ; and I have no doubt we shall have no discus-
sion on the subject fifty years hence. (Cheers.) They will
be matters of course, like your breakfast, dinner, and tea.
There is another point of the utmost importance. We, as
farmers, think that if we keep 200 sheep to 100 acres we
have our farms well manured; but when you have 400,0(X)
sheep in Manchester—(cheers)—or, what is better, you
have 400,000 men, women, and children, with all their
cats and dogs—(laughter)—horses, and everything else,
and allow all these advantages to be wasted, you are not
sane men. Now you are coming to Board of Health prin-
ciples, and carrying away all this in tubes ; and I hope you
will find some spirited man wise enough to look at profit
and say, I will give 1,0001. a year for the sewerage of
Manchester. I will get an act of Parliament to bring it
fifteen miles away. I shall put it on 10,000 acres of land,
and I shall make 100,0001. out of it.' (Applause.) I am
not speaking theoretically on this question --I have laid

down two miles of piping myself, on my own farm, for the
conveyance of liquid manure ; and I can only say that I
should be too happy, if I were within five miles of a town,
to be able to get the manure from it. I assure you it will
pay. I tell you honestly you could put a ton of liquid ma-
nure, send it five miles, put it on your farm, and throw it
down in a shower, plough it, spread it in the soil for three
farthings a ton. if you don't do that, I can only say that.
the men of Manchester are not what I calculated them to
be. The Almighty has blessed us with a bountiful harvest ;
consequently Consuls go up, money gets cheep, labour will
be well employed, and our friends in Manchester are re-
joicing at the prospect of an abundant trade. I say to you
on public and on national grounds, do all you can to miti-
gate the vicissitudes of the season, which are sometimes so
fatal. You can only do that by manure and drainage—
putting in water where it is dry—taking it off where it is
wet. You ought to be the richest agriculturists in the
world. Why? Because you not only consume al! you
grow, but you import every imaginable thing that is good
fur man. Your port wine, your sherry, your turtle, coffee,
and sugar, all ought to add wealth to this country. You
bring it, throw it down the river, and go to I'eru to buy
guano at 101. a ton. ( Hear, hear.) I conclude by saying,
on public grounds, but at some personal inconvenience,
that my farm is open to any gentleman who wishes to carry
out those great and important measures so beneficial to us.
Let them send their men to my farm—let them work
with my men—let them save all the costs of the experi-
ments which the introduction of a new system entailed on
me. They are welcome to do it, and Ido it on public
grounds."
Mr. Mechi sat down amid prolonged cheering.

THE HIGH PRIEST OF FUGITIVE MAGI:III:ES, Mr. J.
Murray, of Sarkbridge tollbar, who performs marriages
by the score, some of them at sixpence each, is so highly
rented for the tollgate on account of his great gains, that
he is about to resort to an expedient by which ho may
retain his business and diminish his outgoings. A house
is about to be erected for him, we are told, by Sir James
Graham, ins field ou the English side, close to the high-
way, about 400 yards from the tollbar. He will probably
find a powerful opponent installed in his old shop at the
bar, fur there are rivals in this limited sphere as well as in
the great world. When the three Gretna prirste are on the
look out for for fugitives at the Gretna Junction, Mr.
Ward, the station-master, makes them stand behind the
railway, about ten yards from the trains ; and when the
fair ones step out they walk up to their reverences, who
are all in a row, and take their survey of them and make
their selection. They are always dressed in black on such
occasions, and look very grave.