The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-10 00:00:00

SOCIETY OF ARTS.

AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS-ITS HELPS AND
HINDRANCES.

Yesterday evening at the ordinary weekly meeting of the
members of the Society of Arts, held in their rooms, John-
street, Adelphi, Mr. J. Chalmers Morton read a paper on
"Agricultural Progress—its Helps and Hindrances." Mr.
John Grey; of Dilston, occupied the chair, and having
briefly opened the proceedings,
Mr. J. CHALMERS MORTON read his paper, of which the
following is an abstract. The author began by giving a re-
suntd of agricultural statistics for some years past, which,
he said, did not in themselves tend to prove that the pro-
ductions per acre of the land under cultivation had been
actually increased, and it would be rather by a collection of
testimonials from land agents and farmers in different parts
of the country of the general condition of the land as to pro-
ductiveness now and 20 or 30 years ago that he proposed to
prove the general progress which had been asserted. Mr.
Morton then read numerous extracts from reports giving the
opinions of practical farmers and land agents of long experi-
ence, all concurrent to the effect that the agricultural pro-
duce of this country is now much larger than it has ever
been before, that the fertility of the land is increasing, and
that both in bread and meat of home produce we are really
better off than formerly, notwithstanding that our imports
of food have also much increased, in order to supply our
better fed and larger population. He then stated what he
believed to be the principal causes of this progress, among
which were better tillage, the better richness of home-
made manures and the greater use made of imported
fertilisers, the more effectual avoidance of weeds, the
adoption of improved rotations of crops, the more ex-
tended use of machinery, and the selection of better
sorts of plants in cultivation. The improved sorts of cattle
bred, and better modes of feeding, had also contributed to
this favourable result. The relations of landlord and tenant
were reviewed, the author pointing out the grounds on
which he had formed the opinion that the granting of leases
to tenant-farmers would benefit agriculture. He then
passed on to consider the influence exercised by the various
agricultural societies, which he thought had been, on the
whole, most favourable. He suggested that the Central
Farmers' Club would do good service by forming a central
office through which every local society would be kept in
communication with all the others, as had baen done by the
Society of Arts with regard to the mechanics' institutes of
the country. The numerous provincial societies had doubt-
less done much good by their annual gatherings, and the
author especially spoke of the influence of the Royal Agri.
cultural Society in stimulating progress. At the same
time he was of opinion that the prime system in the imple-
ment department, as carried out at the annual shows, had
many drawbacks. The judges had not sufficient time given
them for making their awards, the trials were inadequate,
and for these and many other reasons he thought the awards
were often unsatisfactory. He was, therefore, of opinion
that in the implement department the prize system should
now be abandoned, and he believed that the attraction of
the annual shows would still remain undiminished. In
conclusion, Mr. Morton urged the importance of good
agricultural education, and regretted that the Royal Agri-
cultural Society, though this subject was referred to in its
charter of incorporation, had hitherto devoted no attention
to it. He thought it was to the credit of the Society of
Arts that the subject of agriculture was included in its
annual examinations.

The paper was followed by a discussion in which several
gentlemen took part. Amongst them were—
Mr. HENRY COLE, who said they had heard a most ex-
cellent paper from Mr. Morton touching many subjects,
each of which would take them hours to discuss ; but there
was one subject he had omitted, and that was the con-
dition of the labourers. It would not be denied that the
labourer was worse housed and cared-for than the horse,
the cow, or the pig. He was glad to see any attempts to
improve their dwellings, but the great evil arose from the
mistaken notion of landlords warring against the existence
of cottages on their estates. The whole object of that was
to prevent them becoming chargeable to the parish rates.
Having quoted from several authorities bearing on the sub-
ject, he urged landowners to well consider the question
with a view of effecting an alteration in the present state of
things.

Mr. HARRY CHESTER did not agree with the last
speaker that Mr. Morton should have introduced the ques-
tion of the labourers' dwellings into his paper. It was a
subject of such importance that justice could not have been
done to it in Mr. Morton's paper. It was a question that
deserved a paper to itself, and ho suggested that Mr. Cole
should write one on it. (Hear.) He objected to the com-
parison Mr. Cole made between a labourer and a pig, be-
cause there was no analogy between them. The pig was
the sole property of the owner, but the labourer was not
and never would be in this country. (Hear, hear.)
Col. CHALLONER differed from Mr. Morton with regard
to the giving, of prizes, for he believed that they stimulated
the rising hdent of the country.

gr. JOHN FOWLER, jun., as one who had gained prizes,
quite concurred with Mr. Morton, that prizes were not
u
necessary to stimulate agricultural progress.
sug-
gested that instead of holding the shows annually,
and that,'
they
should give a good report of what they sv(
in-
stead of witnessing agricultural operations on a small
scale, the judges should visit farms as they stood and wit-
ness the progress of steam agriculture, and report accord-
ing to the state in which they found them. (Hear, hoar.)
Mr. EDWARD 'HOLLAND, M.P., said that the population
of this country was greatly increasing, and civilisation
of England was nearly at its height. As we rose in the
scale our wants became greater and must be supplied.
Houses were being built in many districts for the labourers