JUBILEE OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 9378, 30 May 1889, Page 6

JUBILEE OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY.

[by our bnolisii AGRICULTURAL correspondent.]

London, April 5. Last week Her Majesty the Queen, represented by the Prince of Wales, entertained the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society at a banquet in St. James's Palace, to commemorate tho entry of the Society upon its year of jubilee. In reality, under the nam© of the English Agricultural Society, the organisation was started 51 years ago — namely, on tho 9th of May, 1838; but it was not till the 28th of March, 1840, that the body was incorporated under a Royal charter as tho Royal Agricultural Society of England ; and, therefore, as tho " Royal" the Society will not complete its fiftieth year till next March. The Queen is President of the Society for the year, tho Prince of Wales acting as Deputy-President. Since it was announced that the Queen had accepted tho presidency nearly two thousand new members have joined tho Society, making tho total number nearly eleven thousand. The late Prince Consort was president onco, and tho Princo of Wales has filled the position three times. There is no doubt as to tho Society having derived great benefit from the connection of the Royal Family with it. Great efforts have been made to render the present year a notable one in tho annals of the Society, which is now more prosperous and has more members than at any previous period of its history. Its funded property amounts to £30,000, and it is able, with the assistance of the Lord Mayor's fund, to offer £12,000 in prizes for competition at tho great show to bo held in Windsor Park next Juno.

The development of the society's shows has been as remakable as anything in its history. The first show was held at Oxford in 1839, when tho entries of live stock numbered 251, and there wero 23 exhibitors of implements. At the Kilburn International Show in 1879 the live stock entries numbered 2900, and the number of exhibitors of implements, seeds, etc., was 701. In recent years tho entries of live stock have been over 1800, and at Windsor they will probably bo even more numerous than thoy were at Kilburn. Tho implement entries will not come up to the Kilburn level, bocause tho society has been much more strict of late ais to the articles admitted, as the show was becoming too much of a great miscellaneous mart.

The objects of the Society were enumerated in its charter as follows : —(!) To embody such information contained in agricultural publications and in other scientific works, as has been proved by practical experience to bo useful to tho cultivators of the soil ; (2) to correspond with agricultural, horticultural, and other scientific societies, both at homo and abroad, and to select from such correspondence all information which, according to the opinion of the Society, may bo likely to lead to' practical benefit in tho cultivation of tho soil; (3) to pay to any occupier of land or other person who shall undertake, at the request of tho Society, to ascertain by any experiment how far such information leads to useful results in practice, a remuneration for any loss that he may incur by so doing ; (4) to encourage men of science in their, attention to tho improvement of agricultural implements, the construction of farm buildings and cottages, the application of chemistry to the genoral purposes of agriculturo, the destruction of insects injurious to vegetable life, and the eradication of weeds ; (5) to promote tho discovery of new varieties of grain and other vegetables useful to man or for the food of domestic animals ; (0) to collect information with regard to tho management of woods, plantations, and fences, and in every other subject connected with rural improvements; (7) to tuko measures for the improvement of the education of those who depend upon the cultivation of the soil for their support; (8) to take measures for improving the veterinary art, as applied to cattle, sheop, and pigs ; (9) at the meetings of the society in the country, by the distribution of prizes, and by other means, to encourage the best mode of farm cultivation and the breed of live stock ; (10) to promote tho comfort and welfare of labourers, and to encourage tho improved management of their cottages and gardens. Some of these objects havo boon kept steadily in view, though not in proportion to their importance, during the whole life of tho society, while littlo or nothing has been done for tho realisation of tho rest. Tho first and second have not been much attended to, except so far as information collected from various sources has been published in the Journal of the Society. As to the third object, tho Society has in recent years followed tho better plan of carrying out experiments on its own account at Woburn, the lessons derived therefrom having been very valuable. For the improvement of agricultural implements the Society hare done a great deal, directly and indirectly. It has arranged for extensive field trials of implements, giving prizes to successful competitors. Of late this useful method of promoting the invention of new implements and machines, and the improvement of old ones, has been pretty well given up, because it is discouraged by tho leading manufacturers, who, having got to the top of the tree in their respective departments, are not willing to afford now rivals an opportunity of displacing them. It is not creditable that there should be no implement trials at the great Jubilee Show. But by affording the implement exhibitors the best opportunity which ever occurs of displaying their productions before a large crowd of customers, at the annual shows, the Society indirectly helps towards improvements. For the improvement of the plant of the farm the Society has done but little, except by admitting the great seed firms to the annual show; arid it has done next to nothing for forestry. Agricultural education has been helped by tho Society by means of tho scholarships and certificates awarded at its annual examination of students, by the excellent articles published in the Journal, by its field and laboratory experiments, and by tho reports of its departmental committees. A great deal of attention has all along been given to veterinary science, the Veterinary Committee of the Society having been very active, and money having been spent freely, when necessary, to investigate outbreaks of disease, and to promote the sanitary condition of our live stock. Coming to the ninth object, or rather to the latter part of it, we reach the main work of the Society. The best modes of farm cultivation have been encouraged by the annual prize offered for the host managed farm in the district of tho migratory show ; bub in the improvement of live stock the Society has devoted more attention and spent more money than on all the rest of its objects togother. Dairy farming has been comparatively neglected, even dairy cattle, as such, getting very little attention. At tho Windsor Show, all but an insignificant proportion of the £12,000 offered in prizes will go to brooding stock. The working dairy in the showyard has been a great attraction in recent years : but the show of cheese and butter is never creditable to the principal Society of the country. Only £291 in prizes for these products will be offered at Windsor. The Inst object has been ignored, at any rate during the period within my remembrance. Some of the most useful work of the Society is done through the departmental committees above referred to. The chemical department is very useful, especially in analysing manures and feeding stuffs for members at low fees, and exposing fraudulent adulteration. In the same way seeds are examined by the society's botanist, and attacks of injurious insects are attended to by the consulting entomologist. In spite of its shortcomings, the Royal Agricultural Society of England has done, and is doing much, for English agriculture. Now that a crisis in its history has been readied, it may fairly be asked to consider carefully whether it cannot diffuse its efforts more equally in the future than it has done in the past, so as to make the next fifty years of its life more advantageous to agriculture as a whole than its first fifty have been.