The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-13 00:00:00

we could no longer consider Rotterdam and Ham-
burg as the ports from which only Dutch or North
German stock were brought here but they had be-
come the termini of a great network of railways, at
the other end of which lay the great steppes of
Eastern Europe, from which the rinderpest was
rarely absent. Imported store cattle were few, and
efficient quarantine would be easy, and the slaughter
of fat cattle at the ports of disembarkation would
conduce to the interest of both importer and con-
sumer. In winter the animals could be slaughtered
at the continental ports, in summer at our own.
Even now fresh meat was becoming an article of
daily importation, and a return from the Board of
Trade showed that in October 3,428,0001 b. of meat,
salted and fresh, were imported, the greater portion
being fresh mutton. Referring to scarcity of labour
in certain districts, and a noble lord's suggestion
that the co•operative system might be applied to
agriculture, he said the labourer could not share the
farmer's profits in good seasons without sharing his
losses in bad ones, which he would be clearly unable
to do; but labourers might be made partners in
farms if they had sufficient grass land to enable each
to keep a cow, the allotments to be the reward of
industry and sobriety. He had for some years
watched two modes of carrying this out—one plan
being to lot each man a separate field of two or
three acres, which is much preferred by the men ;
the other being to devote two fields of considerable
size to a number of men, who use one in common as a
summer pasture for their cows, and mow the other
for hay, the separate holdings being marked out by
a post at each corner. The latter method was suit-
able for large farms on which it might be difficult to
find Or to form a sufficiency of small fields for sepa-
rate allotment. Both plans work well. The cost
to the farmer was trifling, as the cottagers were
always willing to pay a fair rent for the land. To
labourers with families the advantage of keeping a
cow could not be overrated. The effect of the cattle
plague on the supply of milk to large towns was re-
markably illustrated by the quantity of milk now
conveyed by railway for the supply of the metro-
polis. The percentages of increase in the quantity
carried in 1866, compared with 1865, by five out of
seven of the great railway companies are 86, 120,
352, 560, and 560. There are now more than 220

stations sending milk to London, by passenger or
speoial milk trains, from distances varying from
seven to 190 miles, for a charge varying from a mi-
nimum of a id. to a maximum of 2d. per gallon
for the whole distance. In the last three months,
Sept., Oct., and Nov., 1866, which are the worst
months in the year for the milk trade, no less than
1,652,000 gallons of milk have been brought into
London by rail, showing that we should probably
underrate the total quantity carried for the year
1866 if we state it at 7,000,000 gallons. It was to
be hoped this large introduction of country milk
would improve the mixture hitherto sold as London
milk. (" Hear, hear," and laughter.) The clear
climate of the eastern counties was especially
adapted for the growth of first-rate barley ; but the
landlords did not make full use of their advantages.
Mr. READ, M.P., in opening the discussion, said
they were deeply indebted to the chairman for hav-
ing, by the delivery of so able an address, redeemed
the routine character of their proceedings. (Hear.)
He would remark that it was impossible, with the
present restrictions upon barley, that the growers of
it could do as they wished. As to giving labourers
an interest in farms, by appropriating to them a
certain amount of pasture land, he did not see how
that could be done in the eastern counties, where ,

he farmers were so badly off for pasture land that

they could not find food enough for cows, and
therefore kept very few. The way to deal with the
labour question was to have more task work and
less day work. There were certain classes of work
which required men's heads as well as their arms,
and for such work wages must be paid according to
the ability demanded. It was a mistaken system
to try to bring all men down to one level by pay-
ing all so much a day instead of endeavouring to
raise sonic to a higher level by appropriating those
abilities which task work would develope.

Mr. SYDNEY thought the time had arrived when the
sJciety, with the influence and the means it possessed,
might accomplish what was attempted by Si rJ. Siuclar
many years ago. There were thousands of mem-
bers of every class—noblemen, landlords, practical
farmers, and implement makers ; and all were alike
capable of giving and willing to give useful informa-

tion. If the council would consider the best means
of obtaining this information, he believed it would
form a number of sub-committees, one for live stock,
another for cultivation, a third for manur4 a fourth
for mechanical improvements, and so on ; and these
committees would frame series of questions, and
they would divide England into agricultural dis-
tricts irrespective of counties. The essays in the
journals came out year by year, but they glanced
at the position of only one county or district at a
time. The inquiry he suggested would give valu-
able and authentic information. The work was not
of a kind to be undertaken by private individuals,
because it could not be made remunerative, and it
was the duty of such a society to undertake works
which could not be made profitable to private enter-
prise. It was extraordinary that intellectual men
should still assert that the agriculturists had asked
for compensation for the compulsory slaughter of
cattle in order to put money into their own pockets,
instead of regarding that compensation as an as-
surance for the security of the future supply of
meat. If such a report as could be obtained in two
years were published, although its cost would be
great, it would add greatly to the reputation of the
sttoihocani
teatliyf
a,
iutabnsde
riitb
ewr
so t. dd bring a large number of addi-
Dr. c Rwiseproepcpaorsried opposed thoeutstuhgegessotciioenty, on the b
ground
were
with a chaotic mass of information in which
the wheat could not be easily separated froni the
chaff. As regarded quantity, the members certainly
now got enough information for their money. This
society, however, had been the greatest obstructive
in the way of the progress of agricultural science. It
had prevented the Government doing what it ought
to do; and until Government tporookgurps-ieici etih w equestion of
agricultural education and
professors
snoor
st
have a good and efficient spite,.
Ne
indirectly,woulat
£9,000,000. e
were appointed by the State to devote their time ex-
clusively to the a progress
d b
as is of
_
made, but not until then. He estimated the losses
from
plague,subject,
directly some
and
0
merely
certain theloss t he cattlel l
animals, but the confiningof stock to
tricts and the
suspension of breeding. To show the
Government taking up the matter, he
necessity for
referred to the fact that the two commissioners ap-
pointed by this and the Scotch and Irish Societies
reported that the cattle plague could not possibly
reach our shores, because it would have to pass so
many military cordons. Without reflecting upon
matter had been them, he would say that if the
ma-
naged by the Government we should probably never
have had the cattle plague, orit would not have ex-
tended as it did. It was impossible that this country
could continue to supply the people with the re-
quired quantity of animal food. The question arose
how it could be obtained, and he prognosticated that
before many years it would be imported in large
quantities from South America, Canada, and Aus-
tralia. It was important to look at the farmer's ex-
posure to the importation of disease along with
cattle. Within the last few years we had had pleuro
pneumonia, foot and mouth disease, cattle plague,
and smallpox. Recently a number of sheep affected
with smallpox had been brought from the Continent
to a place near Harwich, and the consequence was
the disease was distributed in the neighbourhood.
When a farmer had smallpox among his sheep he
was compelled to confine them to certain districts,
and to submit to various other restrictions, and he
got no compensation. Unless a different system

were adopted, or animals were killed at the port of
landing, disease would prevail among slie2p and
would be concealed, and indeed he believed that not
half the number of cases had been reported.
Sir M. LOPES, M.P., said that 12 months' restric-
tions had got rid of the foot and mouth disease, and
that showed. the importance of maintaining those
restrictions.

Mr. PELL attributed the excessive price of labour
to many causes, including one which had ceased to
operate, viz., the law of settlement. In his district
it had driven people away, and now cottages were