Lord Carnarvon presided at the annual meeting of the High
Clue Agricultural Association on Thursday, and scolded the successful competitors in ploughing and farm labour for not -having come up to the level of previous years. In his speech, however, he praised the needlework of the year as having reached a very high level of positive merit, and as we conclude it is done by women, it would seem that, in Hampshire at least, the work- ing women are going faster ahead than the working men. He discussed the subject of a good cottage with somewhat different conclusions from those of Mr. Disraeli last week. Mr. Disraeli -thinks the three things to be first insisted on for a Buckingham- shire cottage are a porch, a tank, and an oven. Lord Carnarvon thinks the three things to be first insisted on in a Hampshire -cottage are three separate bedrooms. He himself has provided -all his new cottages with three good bedrooms, and guards -expressly against sub-letting any of them to a lodger. They are for the use of the family alone. Lord Carnarvon was also strong for a garden of good size, and he approves -of the allotment system. He does not believe that it di- verts the labourer's energy from his master's work. On the -contrary, it gives him a fresh interest in his own position., and -consequently makes him anxious to preserve it by keeping his -character as a labourer. Lord Carnarvon lamented the great accumulation of land in single hands, but assured his audience that no system had anything to do with it ; it was all the result -of natural laws and English habits. Does Lord Carnarvon mean that there are no artificial difficulties put by our law in the way of dividing great estates? If he does, we think he is in error.
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