The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-23 00:00:00

Course, £3

selves superior to 'their neighbours ; but when by general
emulation throughout the whole country competition is ex-
tended far and wide ; and looking at the immense facilities
given by those extended means of conveyance which now
bring the bulkiest of articles from one portion of this em-
pire to the most distant quarters of it, in an almost incredi-
ble short space of time, the Royal Agricultural Society of
England has at once the power to combine in one spot, to
show in one place, specimens of produce, such as I venture
to believe, it would be very difficult for the world to match,
and show to each Agricultural Society, in their own district
in turn, how much they have to do even to achieve that de-
gree of perfection which has been achieved by their neigh-
bours in other districts. (Hear, hear.) It was impossible
for the most unpractised eye to have visited the show yard
this day, without being struck with the immense superiority
of the stock then exhibited, over any that upon former oc-
casions, many of those whom I have now the honour of ad-
dressing, have, together with me, seen exhibited upon the
spot upon which lam now standing to address you. (Hear,
hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, I would be very far from
saving that this was the main object, that this was the princi-
pal advantage ; upon the contrary, I say it is a very minor
portion, a very inferior object, a very secondary consideration
for the Agricultural Society of England, the exhibition of
stock, and of the improved produce of cattle which they
exhibited in the Shew Yard. One great object. I hope,
may be accomplished by this exhibition. I know how in-
competent I am upon this subject to offer any advice (Cries
of no, no) or opinion, but I know in this neighbourhood—
and I doubt not it is the same in many parts of the country,
that a great and grievous error prevails among the farmers
of preferring, when they are breeding, either horses, or bulls,
or rams, whose services may be obtained at a cheap rate,
rather than choosing an animal of the greatest. merit and
quality. (Hear hear) I would venture to say that a more
fatal error cannot be committed; (Hear) it is the strongest
illustration that I know of the penny wise and pound
foolish." (Hear hear) It is the saving in the first instance
of a few paltry shillings which makes the difference, and it
is the incurring of the whole after expense of breeding, in
reference to which those few shillings are as nothing, the re-
sult of one, being, that after all your expence, you obtain a
worthless, and in the other a valuable produce. (Hear, hear.)
But, gentlemen, I have said that I considered the exhibition
of Stock to be a very second-rate consideration in the objects
contemplated by the Royal Society of Agriculture. I have
said that I believe, in reference to its possible capabilities, to
be yet in its infancy : and I am firmly persuaded that the
man who should at this time form a correct estimate of those
improvements in the capabilites of our productions, which I
believe will be seen within a century hence, would be
deemed not a rational calculator, but a visionary enthu-
siast, and a man who speculated upon impossibilities. (Hear,
hear.) Why, gentlemen, the practice of agriculture, not
many years ago, would hardly have been dignified with the
name of a science. It would have been considered as an
easy sort of matter to obtain a provision, that it might be
taken up and carried on by any upon the good old hum-
drum principles which they had seen adopted by their fathers
and grandfathers, carried on with the rudest machinery,
with the least possible economy of labour and expense, but
producing possibly what it had produced for years and cen-
turies before, arid that what was good enough for their
fathers and grandfathers was good enough for them. (Hear,
and laughter.) Gentlemen, 1 hope a better time has come—
that in the capabilities of the soil, and in the means of
agriculture, what did satisfy our fathers and our grandfa-
thers, will not satisfy us ; (hear, hear,) and if that satisfies
us, it will nut satisfy our children and our grandchildren.
(Applause.) I hold it to be one of the most important
points connected with this great assembly, that it was just
at the period at which the spirit of enquiry and improvement
commenced to take deep root in the minds of the agricul-
tural population—that at that precise and most favourable
moment, my noble friend, the Earl Spencer—(loud cheers)—
whom I now see near me—a name which I perceive that you
agree with me in thinking never could be mentioned without
respect and cordial approbation—(renewed cheering)—in an
assembly of Englishmen who know how to value sound,
practical sense, the most intense and universal benevolence,
and the soundest and strictest integrity. (Cheers.) It was
at that fortunate moment that my noble friend conceived the
project of instituting the English Agricultural Society, and
of extending thereby the benefits of mutual information and
of mutual competition throughout a larger sphere than had
ever formerly been attempted in this country. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, even in our most ordinary farming operations,
is it not a subject for regret upon one hand, but is it not
also a subject from which we may derive hope for the future
upon the other, that though much has been done—and I do
not deny that very much has been done—within the last
twenty years, yet much remains undone, and yet to be
accomplished that in the departments of science as
connected with agriculture much remains yet not only to
be made known, but even to be explored and investigated ?
(Cheers.) Take the very simplest operation—take that
which is the foundation of all agricultural improvement—
take that without which outlay is thrown away, and is better
not laid out at all—examine generally the state of England,
and of these parts, I believe I may say of England generally.
I know I may speak it with regret and shame of my own and
some of the neighbouring counties—l venture to say, that
water courses choked up—drains imperfectly constructed, if
constructed at all—combined with a soil of natural tenacity
and extreme retentiveness, overflowing the whole with a
superabundance of moisture, diminish to an extent that
would hardly be credible the productiveness of the soil.
They extend over a large surface of ground, and contribute,
in my conscientious belief, to alter the very character of the
climate, if not of the atmosphere itself; and while they di-
minish the productiveness of the soil, retard also the produce
of the country, and the quality of the crops when they come
to maturity. Well, gentlemen, we are here not to pay com-
pliments, but to speak the truth ; and have we not in this
acknowledged defect—the very root of the system which is
carried on in this neighbourhood—grounds for regret at the
supineness which formerly prevailed, and at the same time
grounds of confidence in the results that will follow a more
enlightened system? (Hear.) The man would be thought to
have conferred no trifling benefit to this country, who should
add one bushell to the quantity of wheat produced by the
wheat lands of England • yet I am confident I speak within
compass when I say there are hundreds of thousands of
acres which are capable by improved cultivation and atten-
tion to drainage of producing five, ten, or fifteen bushels per
acre more than they do. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, I feel
that in dealing with this subject, I am running the risk
of wearying this vast assembly—(cries of " No.")—who
are more competent upon this subject to instruct me than I am
to speak to them ; and yet it is not of importance that we
should see what may be achieved without any extraordinary
means, but by the ordinary exercise of that knowledge which
if we do not all possess, is within the power of all to acquire.
(Cheers.) lam aware that the process of draining is an ex-
pensive process, which requires an outlay of capital, which,
if we were to take the, total of even a single county in Eng-
land, would strike every man as something marvellous, and
almost appalling; and yet I am satisfied of this, that while
no landlord could expect a tenant to engage in operations
so expensive, without his concurrence and assistance (Cheers)
and without his bearing, let me add, even the :principal
portion of the original outlay. (Cheers) I am also firmly
persuaded of this, thatithere is no bank in the whole country,
no commercial speculation, no investment so safe, so sure,
so profitable, as that in which even borrowed capital may be
eugaged by investing it under the ground of your own soil.
(Cheers) Now gentlemen, the next to drainage, in point
of importance probably would follow the subject of manures.
Upon this subject then, much is there for all to learn. How
much is science gradually adding to our stock of information,
—how much may practice add to the means of composition,
and the advantageous employment of all those substances
which tend to fertilize the earth. (Cheers) Yet gentle-
men, ordinary as this may perhaps seem, how very great
are the doubts, how very many are the problems
which yet remain to be solved, and which require the inves-
tigation of the highest branches of science, which call in aid
of practical agriculture the most refined and philosophical
speculations, in order to ascertain in what manner and in
what proportions—having regard to the chemical affinities
of the soil, looking to the particular time, at their propor-
tions—they should be applied, the manner in which they
must be economised, the mode in which their fertility may
be increased. Let men, then, learn the apparently humble,
but really vital subject of the application of manures to the
lands of this country. (Cheers.) And, gentlemen, if upon
the surface we are yet in some doubt, if even day by day
science is discovering fresh manures applicable to different
soils, and for applying them in different cases under different
rules, if within the last two months a manure wholly new
and hitherto unheard of has been imported into this very
part for the advantage of English agriculturists—if a ma-
nure which is the deposit of sea-fowls in the islands of the
Pacific ocean, has been with advantage and with probable
profit imported to fertilize the fields of England, what
a field does this open for future speculation and further
enquiry ;—(loud cheering,)—if even upon the surface we
have this much to learn, who shall say what fresh investiga-
tions may discover in the relations hitherto uninvestigated and
untried between the various subsoils in this country, and in
their action upon the superincumbent soil above them.
(Loud cheers.) Here is a field wholly new, almost untrod-
den, almost uninvestigated, and yet it is a field which pro-
mises largely in its practical results, thus practically being
extended by the theoretic investigations of men of the most
learning and science in this country. (Cheers.) I pass by
many other topics—ordinary topics—upon which much has
been done no doubt, but upon which how much remains to be
done? (Hear, hear.) The due selection of seeds, the in-
vestigation of those mysterious laws of nature by which not
only a due rotation of crops appears to be carried on, but by
which, after a certain cycle of years it appears evident that
an alteration in the accustomed rotation becomes necessary

- ----- ---- ---
I pass by these topics ; I psss-- by the selection of best seeds ;
I pass by the application of the best manures to the
most fitting soil ; but I ask you again to turn your attention
to the immense advances that have been made, and to the

immense advances which yet remain to be made in the appli-
cation of mechanical power to diminish labour and reduce
expense and facilitate the cultivation of the soil. (Cheers.)
1 hold it to be one of the most encouraging symptoms of the
present day that men of the highest eminence for mechani-

cal genius, and for mechanical talent, are turning their at-
tention, with great and deserved success, to the improvement

of those implements of husbandry, which former times con-
sidered were capable of little or no improvement, but which,
by their improvements, by the saving of labour and of ex-
..

pense I am confident are capable of adding enormously to
the productive powers of this great c,,untry. (Cheer.) Gentle-

. .
men, I, do not speak of those diseases which are incidental
to cattle, a stock of every description, or of the vegetable

productions of the soil; but is there not much to learn in
the history of these ? I can hardly call them less than

plagues —by which the farmers' hopes are liable to be blighted

year after year,—the wire-worm, the fly, and all the various
plagues, which; lifter the best application of industry, may

,
blast and defeat his expectations: I have thus passed 'sum-
warily over some principal topics, yet_see what a field is
...

opened ! Agriculture not a sCieni;el Why, there is hardly
a science that is not handmaid and subservient to the pro-
motion of agriculture! (Cheers.) Zoology, botany, geology,

chemistry, in a most essential and competent degree, mecha-
nical science—all are connected with it, but the great practi-
cal problem which this country has to solve is that of giving
the speediest return to the cultivator, and of producing the
largest amount of produce at the smallest proportionate ex-
pense. But you will say, in what way is the Royal Agricul-
tural Society of England to assist us in this case ? Much in
every way. It collects from every quarter information from
practical and advice from scientific and theoretical men ; and
while there is no man so high in the walks of science who

can think himself degraded by applying his talents and mind
to a subject of such general interest to the country, there is
no man so humble, on so small a scale, or in so low a situa-
tion, who may not confer a signal benefit to the country, if
he will only communicate to the Royal Agricultural Society
of England, fully and entirely, all the circumstances the
results of any proportion of his own practical experience in
his own line. (Hear, beer.) Gentlemen, it is not to be ex-
pected that the writings of scientific men should at once
come into general circulation, and be in the hands of the
farmers of this country ; but fortunately these are farmers—
fortunately for this country there is a class of men of
whom I would speak in terms of the highest houour, a
class of the gentlemen of this country, men of inte-
grity, of education, and of refinement, capable of weighing
the scientific speculations of the wise, and with means, and
the inclination to apply those means, to a practical investiga-
tion of the results of those theories. (Hear.) Whlie you have
such men as my noble friend, to whom I have already re-
ferred—(cheers)—while you have such men in the country as
my noble friend the Duke of Richmond—(loud cheers)—
whose absence from this meeting, and the cause of it, I am
sure will call forth throughout the agriculturists of the coun-
try, and from all the well feeling and the well disposed por-
tion of the community, one sentiment of universal regret,
and the deepest sympathy—(hear, hear)—while you have
such men as my hon. friend the president of this society—.
(hear)—while you have such men as the hon. geptleman
whom I see opposite to me, the president elect orthis so-