The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-19 00:00:00

Lord Stanley on Agriculture.

en es rolietve remen, I e,
afraid I shall have to try your patience once more.
(Applense.) If we had a toastmaster here he would
tell you to fill your glasses bumpers, because I am
now going to call upon you to drink what on these
occasions is called the toast of the evening, " Pros-
perity to the Ormskirk and Southport Agricultural
Society"—(applause)—but in doing that it is my
duty first to lay before you as briefly as I can the
position and the prospects of the society whose an
nivereary we are now keeping. (Hear, hear.) We
are not a very ancient society—all the better fur
us, I say, because we are clear of antiquated rules
and unsuitable customs. (Hear, hear.) We are not
an old society, but these are the days when men
live fast, and when one year does the work of halt-
a-dozen. (Laughter.) We have seen within one ge-
neratioa on this very spot a village grow upinto
a town of 20,000 people ; and we need not, there-
fore, be ashamed of owning that our society is a
little younger than Southport—being only eight
years old. (Laughter.) Nor can we claim to be
at present a very numerous body. We have upon
our list as paying 10,3 and upwards 220 members,
but there have been fluctuations. Two or three
years ago the number was rather larger than it is
now, but I lay no stress upon that, because I con-
sider we are still growing, and that we have not at
all reached what may be considered as our perma-
nent position. (Hear, hear.) But in a society of
this kind the number of enrolled members is no
test whatever of the amount of the work which
you have done, or Which you are doing. There
are very many persons who don't care to subscribe,
but who, nevertheless, come as regularly as any
subscribers to our yearly meetings, and who
pay their shilling upon the ground, and who go
away, having carried off whatever they could learn
there in the way of agricultural experience. Now,
those attendants, though they might not show on
our lists, yet not only do some good to themselves,
but very materially assist in the aggregate of our
finances. I don't mean by that that I should not be
very glad for one to see the sutsscriptiuns to this
society increased. I think they ought to be increased
and I think they will be increased ; at the same
time I can make large allowances for men who are
not very willing to part with money that has been
hardly earned by their own labour, or by labour
which they had honestly paid for. It is one thing to
be free with your cash when you have made Gad
knows how much by speculation, at the risk of total
ruin, and it is another thing to part with that which
has been honestly and hardly earned. (Hear.) But
what I do say is this, thatthe influence and useful.
ness of a society of this kind is not in any degree to
be measured by the number of its annnal subscrip-
tions. I think we have a much better test in the
attendance at the show yard, and in that respect it
shows a very marked improvement. The amount
taken at the doors last year, I am told, was £ll7.
To be sure, it was wet, bat that is not a very un-
usual thing in Lancashire. (Laughter.) The amount
this year I believe has not been accurately made up,
bat it this day considerably exceeds £2OO, and that
I hope is a ;fair measure of the progress we are
making. (Applause.) On the whole, if we look back
at the past, although we may not be able to point to
any very brilliant or extraordinary achievements,
still we may :airly say that we have done and are
doing our worm in a steady and unostentatious way.
(Hear, hear.) There is such a thing as making
the pace too good to last, and spending all one's
energies at the outset. Well, I hope we have
not done that. (Hear, hear.) Plants which are
the fastest of growth are tha most rapid also to
decay. That has not been our case, and I think
we have taken root in the soil; and although
we expect to be blown about and buffeted, oar
association will grow up into a stately tree. Having
discussed these financial details, let me say one word
as to the value of local associations of this kind.
There are some people who think it would be better
if there were only one or two great agricultural
associations in a county, and if all these smaller
gatherings were done away with. I believe they
are entirely mistaken. I don't lock upon it that we
take away one subscription or ore visitor from the
Liverpool and Manchester or from the North Lan-
cashire agricultural societies. (Heat.) There are
many gentlemen who attend here in their own
neighbourhood, among their owe friends, where
they can recognise every other face they see, who
would never think of taking the trouble of going to
one of the inland towns among vrangers halfway
from here to Yorkshire. (Hear.) No, there are
some people who say, " I can't afford to subscribe to
both the county and the local society, and I prefer
the local." That is true ; but then the larger asso-
ciation may set this against it—there are many
persons who acquire a taste for these meetings, and
an inclination to compete at them, who would never
have acquired that taste had not the opportunity
been brought to their doors. (Hear, hear.) There
is another point. We are a little out of the way
here. The greater societies very properly and natu-
rally look to their balance-sheet, and, as that de-
pends very much upon the number of admissions to
the show-yard, they are always anxious to hold
their meetings in the most central towns, where a
large number of persons can be brought together.
That is quite right for them to do ; but I am afraid
if we had to rely upon them exclusively, we in
Southport and in Ormskirk might find ourselves, to
use an American phrase, " lett out in the cold."
(Laughter, and hear, hear.) -Well, I say, therefore,
let us live and let live. (Hear.) There is ample
room for our society ; ample room for other associa-
tions of the same kind, and I hope that we may con-
tinue to flourish by the side, and, if they so please
it, under the shade of our bigger neighbours. (Hear.)
They won'tohurc us, and I don't believe we shall
hurt them. (Applause.) Arad now will you let me
say a few words upon a question deeply interesting
to us all, and which on these occasions we can't en-
tirely avoid—namely, what are the prospects of
agriculturists in these districts, what has been done,
and what is doing here ? (Hear, hear.) I have al-
ways said, as I say now, recognising as I do the
immense improvement in the last 25 years, that
Lancashire farming is still not, upon an average,
what it ought to be. and not what it will be. (Hear.)
Partly this is due, I think, to the enormous increase
of trades and manufactures in these districts, draw-
ing off capital and energy in other directions; partly
it is due, not to poverty, but to the over wealth of
landlords, who draw many of them from coal and
building land so large a portion of their rents that
to them agricultural operations are a secondary
matter; and, again, partly it is due to the unfavour-
able opinion--a prejudice I think—as to the climate
and soil of this cennty, which possibly prevents
farmers from coming here from other districts.
(Rear.) No doubt w© have a damper soil and colder
climate than in the south ; no doubt the sea wind
does us no good ; no doubt most of our land requires
a deeper and costlier drainage for making it really
valuable; but, on the other side we have great ad-
vantages to set against this. (Hear.) We have an
almost entire freedom from such droughts as at this
moment are causing the great anxiety end alarm
over the south of England. (Hear, hear.) We have
more capital at our doors than is possessed by any
county excepting the metropolitan :minty of Mid..
dlesex ; we have a greater quantity of machinery ;
we can get better machinery, and we can get
skilled men to manage it; and we can, too, get
what is as important -_cheap coal to work with.
(Applause.). The flat expanses of this county are
singularly favourable for the operations of the steam
plough; and, what is perhaps more important than
all, we have in Liverpool and the adjacent district
a market absolutery insatiable, especially for
dairy produce. (Hear.) There ie one thing more.
Whenever our Wise men, who are now a good deal
at sea on the subject, shall settle among themselves
some plan for making the sewage of towns really
useful—and I do think that will come before long—
we shall then be in a position to take bck from
the towns as much as we send to them' (Applause.)
Well, then, what is it that we want here, and that
we can supply ? In the first place I thins we want
a more thorough conviction, especially among land-
lords and tenants, that farming, in order to be
carried oa efficiently, requirt.s both capital and