Country Life and Sport
150 YEARS QF FARMING.
THE worse the plight of the farmer, the better the agricultural show—that is the feeling produced by visiting the first of the great shows of this year—the Bath and West and Southern Counties. The prize money is the largest sum in the annals, and the entries of pure-bred stock and produce have no parallel. If we compare this year's show, which celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Society, it would seem to represent infinite improvement and abounding prosperity in com- parison with the petty little affair of 1777. Yet that was the opening of the golden years of British agriculture. Coke of Norfolk had been in control of his half-derelict estate for a year. Kings, landlords and politicians were all more or less agriculture-mad. " Farmer George " thought in terms of stock—and of Arthur Young. Burke chaffed the Duke of Bedford about his farming zeal, but himself experimented with carrots. Even Fox was a live-stock zealot. Lord Ernie, who admirably sketched the period in his English Farming, tells a delightful tale of a rector rebuked by his Archdeacon because the churchyard was prepared for turnips. " This must not occur again." " Oh no, Mr. Archdeacon, it will be barley next year." The expert in rotation must have been thoroughly shocked at the supposed suggestion of his spiritual superior !
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