The Sun.
London, England, 1851-07-15 00:00:00

ROYAL AGRICUL7 URAL SOCIETY.

The annual meeting of tete important society ekes
place this week in the Heine park of Windsor. halt
surrounded by ancestral trees, and look, d down upon
by the north terrace of the R. tyal Castle, the encamp-
ment of agriculture presents an unusually striking and
picture,que ippearanee. Close at hand is the station of
the Soutti-Western Railway, of erding every facility for
the arrival and departure of visitors. Never before has
the society had a site better adapted (or its purposes, and
never before has it presen,ed itself before the public
under a more favourable and encouraging aspect. BY
arrangements early adopted in connexion with the great
Exhibition, the show yard is relieved of the implement
department, the contents of which occupy a conspicuous
place in the Crystal Palace. Yet it appears little, if at
all, curtailed of its usual proportions, and the space
which has hitherto been devoted to agricultural machines
is now filled with a magnificent display of live stock.
Instead of ploughs, scarifiere, portable steam•engine`s
and such like, we have an enlarged exhibition of breeds
in all the divisions, and a greatly increased entry of stock
for c tmpeution. The society have extended the number
of their classes, and have, with becoming spirit,
harmony with the year 1851, given a wider scope and
character tonumber of beasts
their show. Toe and in
exhi-
bited is 1,267, an altogether unprecedented a-noant, the
entries last year being only about 700. Then an im-
proved arrangement of the classes has been adopted,
which gives more distinctuess and value to the whole
display. Formerly, in cattle, for instance, it was cus-
tomary to distribute the animals into four dirisions,—
one for short-horns, a second for Herefords' a third for
Devons, and a fourth for mixed breeds. Under this
latter head cune a confused gathering of every kind of
13,414 reeteed a-0m the three favourite descriptions, and
thus attention was diverted from those peculiar excel-
lences which several kinds of stuck possess, and which
entitle them to the regard and eonstderationof the egri
culturist. Now teis is changed, and there is no longer
a miscellaneous grouping recognised. Instead thereof,
we have the lone-horns, the Sussex, the Channel Islands
breed, the horned and polled Sc,:tch the Welch and
Irish, all properly cleseifierl. Foreigners who visit the
show may collect there with pert*, cc ease
a correct
idea of the various kinds of cattle with which the
United Kinder)] is supplied. They may estimate fairly
their various qualities, and the manner is which they
are adapted to fulfil their different uses in our agricul-
tural system. For the first time .since i.s annual shows
began the society presents the public with on epitome of
British stock. Until this, eventtul year,
they appeared
reluctant to pa,s beyond the Tweed for illustrations of
Scotch breeds, though these were eaten the favourites of
the eastern counties' graziers, and in the same way the
peculiar advantages of the Channel Islands' cows for
d dry purposes wets almost entirely ignored. Now we
have all sorts represented in the Home Park of Windsor,
and it is to he boped that our agrtculturists will profit
by an occasion which brings prominently before their
notice descripiens of stock the, merits of which they
may have previously overlooked or undervalued. Nature,
Islet n in her bounty she supplied our favoured country
with a variety of breeds adapted to its climate and boll,
did so for beneficent and woeful ends It is, therefore,
our duty to further and fulfil her intentions, by en-
couraging in each class, without favour or preference,
those excellences of shape or size upon which their
merits reap ctivuly depend..
Thus in the completeness and in the extent of the
shoe" made by it, the Rsyal Agricultural Society pre-
sents itself this year to the public under the most fa-
vourable and hopeful aspect. From its organization
poliice are rigidly excluded, and in the conduct of its
business no member, however influential, can enter upon
that debateable territory without being immediately
snubbed for his audacity. Yet to those who stand
without its pale observation and comment are open, and
it certainly is a most remarkable circumstance that while
the Lauded interest are represented as suffering from an
unexampled and hopeless depression, the Royal Agri-
cultural Society should come forward so buoyant, so
full of increased strength and of future promise. The
force of events is always superior to the influences of
party, and while Protection bemoans the uselessness of
improvements which can never be remunerative, the
Royal Agricultural Society
.day by day becomes a more
powerful
machine for securing to the people the bles-
sings of untaxed food. It revives by its action that
confidence iu the land which perverse lamentations over
the repeal of the cora-laws tend to destroy. By its
journal it is constantly supplying fresh streams of
acientific and practical knowledge to the farmer,
and by es annual shows it stimulates to increased excel-
lence and increased production—our only true protec.
non ageing competition, whether it comes from home
or from abroad. As an example of what British agri-
culture is capable, and as illustrating the impoit ince
which is te teched to superior breeds of stock, we may
mention a fact which came within our cogiozance yes-
terday when visiting the show-yard. Mr. Jonas Webb,
who, it will be seen from the list appended, is a winner
of seven prizes for his Southdown sheep, has, at his
usual annual letting this year, received as hire for the
use of a ram, which,
though exhibited at Exeter, was
not successful there, the sum of. 99 guineas. Our great
breeders now have their flecks eagerly sought after by
foreign purchasers. So much is this the case, that at
an agricultural show recently held in
,France all the best
animals exhibited had been imported from England, and
at the pre.. nt meeting an extensive cornmaebiou "3 been
given by Prince Deaudoile the owner of the malachite
ornaments in the Crystal Palace, to have a good breed-
ing stock bought f eim, which he intends bending out
to Russia. such is the estimation.m which our breeds
of live` stockare bald by the' foreigners, whom.competi.
tion ec; alarm the faiußiestied humor.