The Express.
London, England, 1853-07-28 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

Journal of the lloval Ayricaltural Society. Murray.
While freely admitting that the results of the
annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural society at
Gloucester were in many respects highly satisfactory
—the implements numerous and ingenious, the
prize live stock perfect to as almost fabulous degree
—the Cochin Chinas monstrous—the landlords con-
ciliatory and cot:riding—the farmers hopeful and
enterprising—we cannot permit the proceedings of
the great corporation which in efft ct monopolises
the education of the English agriculturist, to close
amid the applauding shouts of an audience too little
accustomed to such gathcri..gs to be very critical,
without passing in review the theory and practice of
its policy which the book now before us brings forcibly
to mind. After a career of ftttu n years, dur-
ing which the Royal Agricultural Society, with six
thousand members, including every class from the
peer to the humble tenant-tarmer, has become nu-

. •
merous, wealthy, and powerlul to a degree rarely
varalicitd in any association of a non-commercial

character, it cannot be said to be inopportune to in-
vestigate the mat hinery and the proceedings in which

the nue and the intellect of the Society is absorbed
and employed.
In mash an examination there is nothing invidious.
Tile records of the Royal Society, of the Society of
Arts, and other similar associations, incontestably
prove that in the absence of " pressure from with-
out," such associati.ms are apt to fall into one mill-
horse round of precedents, to lag behind the spirit
of the age, and to reduce their exertions to a space
likely to be agreeable to the moderate acquirements
and requirements of their noble and wealthy pa-
trons.

When the Royal Agricultural Society was founded,
the pursuit of agriculture as a science was extremely
rare among the tenant farmer class. There were
then, as now, plenty of good farmers who worked by
tradition and experience, but there were few induce-
meats for making, and indeed few means of record-

ing, experiments and exchanging experiences. The
mere cost of travelling was a serious bar to private
visits or public gatherings of tenant farmers. The
mass of farmers knew how to grow wheat
and fatten bullocks, as their fathers had done before
them, but they did not know how to explain their
art to others, and their employment of the
aids of science was rare and empirical. They
neither wrote books nor read books, nor
communicated, as they do now, the results of their
experiences to Agricultural Journals. Indeed, those
farmers who ventured to follow at a distance in the

path of one of the first of English agricultural
authors—Arthur Youpg—were looked upon by
their brethren with marvellous little favour. Many
glasses of gin and water asd much hard riding was
required to extinguish the stain of having u ritten to
a newspaper. The consequence was that the Coun-
cil of the Repel Agricultural Society, which was
intended to represent the intellectual part of the
agricultural interest, fell almost entirely into the
hands of agricultural amateurs, who, possessing
landed qualifications of the largest, had almost all
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without taste and zeal for the encouragement of the
pursuits which they professed to direct and revivify
with "practice and science." We do not say ono
word against the original arrangement which filled
the Council with Peers, M.Ps., and other large landed
squires, and presented a few stray farmers as salt to
savour their dilettantism.
It was inevitable. Farmers capable of taking
part in a public semi-scientific movement were so
scarce that it was necessary to gather together, and
welcome and place in seats of honour all who were
ready to work and to subscribe, whether they under-
stood the difference between wheat and barley or not.
It has been the same in the infancy of many other
associations and in the organisation of other sciences.
At one time every railway director considered himself
competent to give practical suggestions and direc-
tions to the engineer in the employ of his company;
and very recently the Royal Society, which
professed to represent the science of Great
Britain, was overrun with ignorance, which re-
presented nothing except stars and garters and
the chemistry of the kitchen. But public opinion
reformed the Royal Society. The Earl of Rosse owes
his place as President, less to his Earldom' than his
astronomical studies. The growth of Civil Engineers
into an organised profession has checked the inter-
ference of amateur mechanics. We do not find Peers
taking the lead, or holding the most prominent
offices in the Institute of Civil Engineers ; yet there
are several, like Lord Lovelace, who have scientific
qualifications very far superior to those of prominent
officers of the Royal Agricultural Society. We do
nut object to—we even see advantages in the inter-
mixture of the amateur landlord with the better
instructed tenant farmer—in the system which en-
lists the young nobleman, and at an early age places
him in the Council to become inoculated with
fever for agricultural improvement ; but we do say,
that now that fifteen years have produced and
brought into notice a large crop of tenant .
farmers who unite "science with practice," who are
as capable of explaining the rationale as carrying out
the details of farming operations, either the pro-
portion of the Council should be altered, or its num-
bers shoul4l be enlarged, so that the multitude of
councillors whose qualifications lie only in their terri-
tories should be interleaved with intelligent farmers
and stock breeders. A strong impression prevails
that independent men, however highly qualified in
agricultural knowledge, have little chance of admis-
sion into the Council, unless endorsed as land agents
to a nobleman, or qualified by a large estate. And
even of the few untitled and unaristocratically con-
nected who find their way into the charmed circle, it
is to be observed that they very soon fall into the
beaten path, and are led away separately, like a wild
elephant between two tame ones.
The Council has absorbed the whole power and
influence of the Society. Simple members can prac.
tically neither propose nor oppose anything—whilo
the Council, self-elective, consists, by a large ma-
jority, of well meaning gentlemen, with about as
much real knowledge of the practice of agriculture
as they have of the practice of art. Thus we had
among the Stewards iu the Implement Department at
Gloucester a gentleman who until within the last
two years condemned and contemned the use of
horse-hoes and similar substitutes for hand labour,
and in another prominent officer a gallant colonel,
whose profound chemical knowledge led him to reject
a powerful artificial manure on the ground that it
made weeds grow too vigorously.'
Amateur agriculture has had its day, and done
good service, but now that in every branch of agri-
cultural pursuits there are to be found a plenty of
educated intelligent farmers, their services ought to
be called into requisition. Such a thorough know-
ledge of agriculture as will enable a man to direct
the agricultural education of the nation, requires
more attention, and more experience, than the ma-
jority of the Council can spare from their legislative,
magcsterial, and other local duties, incident to a
landed position in this country.
There are exceptions in the persons of highly in
telligent and enthusiastic country gentlemen like MY
Piney, of whom it is impossible to speak tco
He is an honour to his class, and to his generation.
But such exceptions are very rare. Nothing
sharpens a man's wit so much as having to live by
the pursuit he follows; and there can be no reason
why amateurs in agriculture should occupy a peti-
tion they are not permitted to occupy in the associa-
tions of artists, or lawyers, or engineers, or physi-
cians. We have no fault to find with men like
SON of Norfolk, Hobbes of Essex, Jonas Nein, of
Cambridge, and Turner of Devon, who now occupy
seats in the council, but we think there should be
more like them,—it not fewer amateurs.
Next in importance to the composition of the
Council are the reports of the discussions which take
excluded on the ground
that full reports might reproduce and perpetuate un-
pleasant discussions, and also perhaps injure the mo-
nopoly
the Society's journal now enjoys.
if the transactions of the Royal Agricultural So-
ciety were of no more practical importance than those
of the Societyof Antiquaries,thisclosesystem would be
of little consequence. But as the papers'and discussions
publiceie
ty
ar
are
t w the
atc h
emeetingsn
Fends with the view of making practical use the
facts and opinions there eliminated, it is essential
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