Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1879-07-23
[Fr ON Our Regular Correspondent
London Letter.
LONDON. Julv 9 1870

Nothing was wanting. except the sun
shine, which might so reasonably have
been expected in July. to render the royal
agricultural society show at Kilburn the
grandest and most successful exhibition of
its kind ever witnessed. But summer APP
parently has yet to commence here. The
cold winds and pelting rains. which are
working such mischief all over the coun-
try. have done their worst to mar the
extensive and costly preparations made
for this great gathering, and unless bright
skies and warm winds come-and come
before many more November-like days
intervene-the crops will be ruined and
the agricultural show along with them.
The world has not heretofore witnessed
anything approaching the superb collec-
ton of agricultural implements gathered
at Kilburn on this occasion. Here are to
be seen in one area, with more familiar
and antique appliances of Ceres, those
modern inventions in their utmost perfec-
ton which have revolutionized the labor
of the fields. By nothing has human toll
been so lightened and saved as by these
ingenious appliances, which pillow and
sow, reap and bind and stack, thresh and
wnnow and perform nearly all the most
elaborate operations of the fields by the
Brianean arms of steam. The whole
science of tillage may be studied this week
at Kilburn. from its birth to its perfection,
in tho comparative museum of ancient and
modern farm implements gathered there.
Then there is n vast deal to be learned
from the admirable display of useful stock
animals, not struggling to sustain loads of
artificial fat and flesh, but healthy and
natural-the kline and herds and cart
horses of the farm, the farmers hackneys,
the splendid Clydesdales, the useful
German breeds, the beautiful and docile
Danish cattle, and many other interesting
objects. For the sake of dairy arts alone,
visit to this most valuable display ought
to be made by everybody who has to do
with butter, cheese and milk. Here are to
be viewed at pleasant work the dairymaids
of France and Denmark, Holstein and
Lmburg wing with the well.know
English Kitty that carries the milking
pail" and-given only tolerable weather
the show must have been such a success
as would have sent back the countless
foreigners who have come over to it full
of admiration at the resources and rural
energy of England. The prince of Wales
CALAMITY detied the abominable weather
on Tuesday morning last to give all the
assistance he could to the society of which
he has been president; and Lord Bacons-
field, with British Indifference to the
elements, attended at the yard and in
spected the great collection. There were
not wanting thousands OF votaries CT the
soil and stock yard to support these
influential personages; and ladies, with
the same dauntless fortitude that was
evidenced at Ascot, defied the rain and the
wind, nobly helping at the cost of toilette
and chaussure to sustain the enterprise.
The English manifest great solicitude
in the general efforts which they are thus
prompting TO render the Kilburn exposi-
ton Il success. This is the great celebration
of the farming industries of the nation,
and it no doubt cheers the English faamer
to see that London and the kingdom
generally care more than ever to know
how he is getting on against all the heavy
odds which the elements, the markets, and
foreign competition conspire to create
against him.
An English paper speaking of tho gen.
eral agricultural depression says: " Our
British agrculturist stands really in need
of encouragement. Something happened
on Tuesday last in the corn market which
showed how overwhelming has become
the supply of foreign grain. There had
been wet LIST of July-a good reason
after such weather for rise in prices
and yet so large is the store of food stuffs
now poured into our ports that the price
of wheat hardly improved at all. People
tell the farmer that under such crcum-
stances he should grow roots, hops, grass,
and what not; but these things want labor,
time, and other advantages, and sunshine
above all, of which the foreigner il,
always assured in his brighter clmes."
Mr.. Chaplin is about to move parliament
and her majesty for royal commission to
inquire into the causes of the prevalent
depression of agricultural prosperity. If
such a proposal contains any lingering
idea of a return to protection, Or any other
despairing suggestion all Englshmen OF
clear judgment shake their heads at it.
But this appears out of the question, and
being SO, they are of opinion that an
inquiry into the circumstances of modern
farming, addressed with wise dircctness to
the main points of the problem, such as
rent, rates, tithes, and restrictions upon
the free expenditure of capital on the soil
might be productive Of very considerable
advantages. and would, at all events, heir
! the farmer to know "where the shoe
pinches him." The duke of Cambridge in
a speech on Tuesday lat the Mansion House
said: Agriculture is certainly very much
depressed. Is this, however, the time
when we should sit down and bewail oul
lot, and do nothingp On the contrary, the
spirit Of great nation should be reused
, by such state of things. 1t is the time
: above all others when every one should
, put his shoulder to the wheel, and moi
merely think of the good times gone by
and of the bad times which have come.
7 Let us think that the worst has come, ant
that now at last we may look forward t.
better times. The circumstances of tn,
times will never be better if we 90 OF
despairing and Responding. and the onl,
way to make them better is to accept the
difficulties of the present situation with a
determination to see whether we canno
brinp nbollt an imnrovement