failure of certain principles; and, in the second case, want of activity or strength. For the exhaustion of the land the cultivator found a remedy in manure, for fodder, he sought a medicine, or, as for a lazy horse, a whip. "What will be the end of agriculture," cried these practitioners, "if we must manure fodder plants as we do cereals? The farmer can scarcely produce enough manure for the cereals, and where would he get it for other crops?" The practical cultivator had neglected to get intelligence in his practice: he had worked as a shoe-maker exercises his trade; but he had not seen what the shoe-maker does see-that his quantity of leather is constantly exhausting. He had treated his fields as a piece of leather without end, which if one cuts at one end it sprouts at the other. The manure was to him only the means of lengthening out and softening the leather, so as to make it cut more easily. He treated it as if God had worked a miracle for him-not for the preservation of the human species, but to save the cultivator the trouble of thinking of the sources from whence flow the blessings of the Creator. In the schools of agriculture they had taught him that the true talent of the cultivator consisted in cutting from the immense quantity of leather, which the land supplied, the greatest possible number of shoes in the shortest time, and at the least expense, and that the best masters appeared to be those who carried to the farthest that art. There was no lack of voices that raised themselves in defence of that doctrine, and one of the greatest evils that it caused subsequently was that the cultivators were quite content with occasionally obtaining from their land heavy crops, which sustained itself, and which even increased as well as enriched them, and gave colour to the belief that they owed to their intelligence and ability what was only traceable to their land, which gave them, without trouble, what others could not obtain from theirs with the greatest efforts. To the evident fact that the harvests diminished upon an infinite number of lands, these happy cultivators opposed their own local experience to prove that the doctrine of agricultural equilibrium was correct, and pretended that if the others would only decide upon following the same mode of culture which had been so successful with them, there would be an end to all their difficulties; that all lands were of the same composition as theirs, spoke for itself, and therefore, conformable to their experience, the conditions of fertility should be with them inexhaustible. It was in reality conformable to true experience, that the fields of these happy cultivators still gave some large crops; but how many times more they would give them, was a question which no one was prepared to answer. The tradesman, or as they say in agriculture the practical man, did not trouble himself with such questions; but, nevertheless, he would perhaps have been wiser, had he taken them into consideration. What was most opposed to his thoughts was the doctrine itself; it had become an article of faith that the soil is inexhaustible; for if it had been exhaustible, the system of culture had had no more foundation, and to doubt its exactitude would have appeared a wilful refusal of truth. After some years, difficulties of every kind multiplied in culture, and still farther was felt the want of manure. Some by exerting all their powers could not succeed with the means at their disposal in increasing their produce of grain and meat. Others, in many places, appeared scarcely to avoid diminishing their produce. It is evident in this embarrassed state agriculture could not satisfy the wants of a growing population. During that time, amongst the natural sciences chemistry had made sufficient progress in her own reconstruction to enable her to take part in the develop. ment of other sciences; and while chemists laboured to search out the phenomenon of life in plants and animals, they found themselves in connexion with agriculture. The chemist had begun to study plants in all their parts-he examined the leaves, stems, branches, the roots and fruits; he pursued the phenomenon of the nutrition of animals; he sought to discover what the aliments became in their bodies; in short he analyzed the lands of almost every country in the world. He recognised that plants absorbed certain parts of earth, which aided the formation of their bodies, and that it returned under the form of ashes after the combustion of the plants, and that these ashes are for the nourishment of other plants, just as bread and meat are for man, and fodder for cattle; that a fertile soil contains much, and an infertile soil very little of these nutritive principles-that if they are increased, the poor soil will become fertile; that good soil would speedily become infertile when by the production of plants, and gathering them from the fields where they had vegetated, the provisions of the land had become lessened; and in order that the soil may remain fertile he must completely restore what was taken from it: if the restitution was not complete, he could not reckon upon the return of the same harvests; and it was only by giving to the soil more than he took from it that the produce could be increased. The chemist showed further (to serve as a comparison), that the aliments of men and animals operated in their bodies as in a furnace where they are burnt. The urine and solid excrements are the ashes of nourishment, mixed with soot and the produce of imperfect combustion, and the good effects that they produce upon fields are easily explained, because they supply to the land what was taken from it by the crops grown there; but with stable dung, produced on the farm, he cannot cultivate for many years together, because it returns nothing to the land, of all its produce, which had been transported into the towns. The farmer should then endeavour to draw from other sources the fertilizing principles which are wanting in dung, and it is only by using artificial manures that he can render fertile the exhausted land. The task of the cultivator does not consist in producing, at the expense of his land, large crops of what impoverishes the soil; but he should, on the contrary, try to produce good harvests without diminishing, but rather increasing its fertility from year to year. In this manner science showed what was the real productive force of the soil, and fixed its laws of culture; it showed that the system of culture proposed by Thaër, would have had very different results if that eminent man had known the true productive force of the soil, and had been able to base upon it his doctrine of agricultural equilibrium, or if, whilst his doctrines developed themselves, agricultural instructions had fallen into the hands of men of science, instead of tradesmen. It is true that in the schools of agriculture they had taken care to teach natural philosophy, chemistry, and other branches of natural history; but the knowledge that the pupils acquired in these sciences was not applied by the professor, completely ignorant of the science of practical culture, and skilful only in taking the land. Young men thought then that natural sciences only served as ornaments to trade, and that they were introduced into their studies merely to torment them. In Germany the directors of these schools had succeeded in keeping them in the country, in some cloistered isolation, far from the scientific movement, which had then penetrated into all classes of the population, for in that way alone it was possible for them to ensure a certain duration to their system of instruction, and to their position. wiser. The history of natural sciences shows how little this is the case. At the time of Thaër, analytical che ashes of plants, the alkalies, phosphoric acid, &c., had not been discovered in land, so that naturalists then believed them to be the produce of animal life, analogous to iron in blood, or lime in the bones of animals. In countries where, as in England and France, the élite of the better portion of the agricultural population were not poisoned by erroneous teaching, the develop-mistry was little known; the constituent parts of the ment of the new doctrine followed its natural course. The principles in themselves were recognised as unimpeachable; only upon the manner of applying them, and how far their application might be extended, there were discussions which lasted several years. It was for the cultivators of England and France the time of study, in which they learned to know principles, and apply them judiciously. On the contrary, in the eyes of teachers and upholders of the general system of culture followed in Germany the new doctrine seemed to be unjust pretensions. Destitute of all knowledge of the natural sciences, they could not comprehend the connexion which existed between the innumerable analyses of soils, plants, and manure, and the sciences themselves; they could not see that the new theory was only the expression of the facts themselves. They had been accustomed to designate by the word theory what they had by chance observed, and what had been explained to them of the phenomena of culture, and they knew that the theory one man formed was of no use to another; it was further admitted in principle, that the practitioner ought not to be guided by these theories, but should conform himself to the circumstances in which he is placed, and to the evidences by which he is surrounded. They were not aware that these circumstances and evidences are natural laws, for they could not comprehend what science had to do with practice, and that its object was to throw light upon the facts and evidence which served for its rules. Not only did the new doctrines appear to the school of agriculture in Germany as without foundation, but they considered it as a personal attack and an offence, because if the new doctrines were true, the old ones must be contrary to all reason, and those who taught them, far from promoting progress, prepared the future ruin of agriculture. If, in fact, all operations of the cultivators are subject to imperious new laws, it was absurd of him to think that he possessed the least power over his land, or that his labour, experience, and ability had the power of obtaining a good crop from a plant that did not suit the composition of the soil which ought to produce it. It was not he, but the land that should choose the plant suited to it. He only put the plants into the ground, and his penetration consisted in interpreting what it told him. What depended upon will, and what constituted his art, reduced itself to finding out what was wanting in the land, in supplying it, and in removing the obsta cles which hindered his fields from paying for the care that he bestowed on them. All that certainly was in the new doctrines, and more than that; for in the transition to scientific practice, agriculture lost its ancient character. It could no longer be the innocent pastime of the country gentleman. The German cultivator had long misunderstoood the source of the strength, well-being, and riches that flowed from it. The idea of making artificially in all its constituent parts stable dung, for which a living organisation was necessary, appeared at first to cultivators an idea quite impossible to realize, and the first artificial manure caused a general laughter amongst the farmers; and when the first trial of it failed, there was quite a jubilee amongst the learned agriculturists; the farmers rejoiced to see that the means destined to diminish their labours, and aid them in future, were not successful. It would be unjust to suppose that the false and erroneous opinions of cultivators, now and formerly, are peculiar to their profession; or that men of any other profession whatever had come into the world, abler or A hundred years before, practical metallurgists thought that the extraction of metal from a mineral was the result of a chemical operation; that the metal was not s distinct body, but the result of a chemical experiment. Then, again, they believed that everything depended upon the mode of procedure, or even the form of the fur. nace. Ability, or as they said again experience, determined the extraction of much or little of the metal. One obtained 30 per cent. of lead, and 0.2 of silver; another got 40 to 50 of lead, and 0.3 of silver, another, again, 60 per cent. of lead, and still more silver than the preceding ones. Then, as they could not comprehend that the ability of a man or his experience limited him, they went further, and ended by believing that not only all lead ore could be changed into lead itself, but that other substances which contained no lesd could be changed into it. The ideas of the cultivator were, as regarded his fields, precisely those of the metallurgist of the last century. He also thought his labour and ability produced the crops, and that it only depended upon possessing a good method of culture to produce fine crops upon any field whatever. The metallurgists of our time know, by chemical analy sis, what they themselves have learned to practise, that lead ore contains from 80 per cent. of lead, and not more; that the rest is sulphur, and that their ability consists in separating the sulphur from the lead without losing any of the metal. The object of the metallurgist is still the same-obtaining lead, but in a different manner. That to which he directs his attention is, not the lead, but the sulphur, which retains the lead, and prevents it from appearing what it is; and whilst his great care is to separate the sulphur, he obtains more lead at a smaller cost. In the same manner chemical analysis proved to the cultivator that his soil, down to a certain depth, contains only a limited quantity of the conditions for the growth of plants; it showed him what forms of alimentary substances are necessary to serve for the nutrition of plants. It thus made him see that stable dung, though excellent in itself, is not sufficient to keep the land from diminish. ing in fertility; that the use of dung alone, produced upon a farm, will not increase the quantity of alimentary substances contained in the earth; that it only puts them in movement, and displaces them; that with dang they could only give to the surface of an exhausted wheat field what had been taken from it under the form of fodder plants; that it can give no more to a field than what was taken from it, to the impoverishing of another; that the revenue of one who uses nothing but stable dung is like a life-interest, with which he exhausts his capital. The term artificial manure is not altogether exact, for art cannot produce that manure: it only reunites the constituent parts of dung, and mixes them in a manner suitable to the wants of each plant. The state of agriculture now can be described in a few words. What cultivators thirty years ago thought impossible is now not only possible but has come into general use; they thought it was impossible to manufacture anything that would take the place of stable-dung. It will suffice, with reference to this, just to glance at what the Duke of Argyle said in his lecture at the opening of the Society of Naturalists in Glasgow that in 1854 already 60,000 tons of artificial manure had been made in England, and that in the preceding year the farmers of England, France, and Germany had used in their fields more than ten million metrical quintals of this manure. As one quintal of that manure increases upon an average the produce of a field three quintals of rye or its equivalent, so a field gives that quantity more than it would have yielded with stable-dung; it is easy to calculate what a mass of alimentary substances we have enriched ourselves with by the use of this manure. A single chemical preparation, that of superphosphate of lime, has been known in England as of so much importance in the cultivation of turnips and fodder, that it is calculated the produce in meat and grain has increased since the introduction of this manure in the same proportion as if the extent of cultivable land had been increased one-fifth. We can form an idea of the consumption of this article if we consider that it is prepared with sulphuric acid, and that the preparation of sulphuric acid in England, already immense, has been nearly doubled since the use of superphosphate of lime. Still, however, the production of alimentary substances, and the wants of the populations in Europe, are far from being in a state to inspire confidence. The equilibrium between production and consumption resembles a balance, where a slight increase of weight occasions not oscillation, but a complete fall of the scale. Thus the failure of one crop, that of potatoes in 1847, has made, in spite of a good grain harvest, enormous prices in bread, and caused a famine in Ireland, Silesia, and Spessart. The importations of corn and flour from countries out of Europe have, until now, sufficed to maintain a sort of equilibrium; but it is certain that a maritime war which would not be of very long duration, but which would hinder the arrival of corn and flour, guano, and other manures, would extend over all England a famine in its most horrible form. This rapid glance at modern agriculture serves to show how and in what manner science has made itself generally useful. Recently the proposition was made and adopted by the Chamber of Deputies, Bavaria, of addressing to his majesty the king that he would give to our Academy a direction more useful to the kingdom of Bavaria. That proposition is remarkable, because it shows how little extended are right ideas of the mission of a learned corporation. Our academy certainly is not science itself; but each member in his sphere, and according to his strength, takes part in the solution of the scientific problems of the age, and exercises a certain influence over legislation, commerce, trade, and manufactures. Those who profit by the discoveries of science are rarely in a position to know in what manner science has increased their strength or fortune. If chemistry gave to the farmer good receipts for manure for every field, or a remedy for the potato disease, a means of destroying moles and mice, or preventing the laying or rotting of corn, the practical man would no longer be in ignorance of the sources of these ameliorations. But science does not occupy itself with things useful only to individuals; it seeks to discover what will be useful to all, and those ideas that rule and guide the actions of men. It seeks to discover whether these ideas are conformable to the laws of reason and nature; it rectifies false views, and puts the perfect in the place of the imperfect. Science is only useful so far as she rectifies the ideas of men. But all intellectual progress takes a long time to develop itself; and often many generations succeed each other before one old error generally believed gives place to a recently-discovered truth. As the roots of a plant only take just what is necessary for its nourishment from a large sheet of water, and as it is killed by too much nourishment; as it is necessary that the light and heat of the sun should give their aid to the germ before it can develop itself and become a vigorous tree, bearing fruit; so the development of men's ideas is governed by similar natural laws. The abstract idea, though fruit in itself, is not the tree full of fruits; it is the germ of that tree, which needs heat, care, and nourishment extremely diluted, before it is able to bear fruit. There are some ideas which, for a time, disturb a whole population, and then disappear without leaving traces of their existence; they perish, as the branch of a tree from another climate, put into water, throws out leaves and flowers, but bears no fruit, because it has no roots. The fruits of progress which we of the present time enjoy had their roots in generations which have passed away; and the new discoveries which we make now will only be profitable to our children. Even the smallest improvement in a trade took a long time to work its way into the masses. The idea of using phosphorus in the manufacture of matches originated in the middle of the last century. More than fifteen years were necessary for obtaining useful results from the experiment of igniting powder in a closed space; and now to those very experiments we owe all the improvements in firearms. A prevailing error-which is much more difficult to destroy than the majority of men believe it is not the sole cause of the long time which elapses before a scientific truth comes into general use; the routine, the want of being able to think deeply, the dislike men have to use their reason, are not the less obstacles. The most ignorant peasant knows that the rain which falls on his dung-heap reduces it in value, and that it would be to his advantage if he could have upon his fields what infests the streets of the village and poisons his wells; but he sees it with an indifferent eye, just as his father did before him, because it has always been thus. It is the same in large towns: the municipal authorities spend large sums in carrying away and putting out of reach of the cultivators the excrements of men and animals which amass themselves, and which would be sufficient to reproduce bread and meat for hundreds of millions of men. This the farmers see with as much indifference as the citizen. They think it is of no importance to the public welfare, when they are obliged to bring from America, a distance of some thousand leagues, the very same matter. The way of seeing more justly and correctly, which raises the intellectual power of a man, requires a long time to develope and extend itself; intelligent application abridges the time, but the mass cannot perceive so readily. If the populations are not prepared by education to receive the instructions of science, which tells them to try and adopt what will better them, then all efforts to render these instructions generally useful will be fruitless. If in such a country science went from house to house offering its services, those most in want of it would, in their senselessness, shut the door against it. He would say that he did not want its help, it was of no importance to him; that he had enough instruction, and that there were other things which he wanted. We have often seen the farmers refuse to try the experiment of using artificial manures upon their lands that the agricultural societies offered them at half the trade price. They wanted to get them for nothing, and then be thanked for taking it from them; and, in fact, when they got it for nothing, they would not make use of it. All these circumstances are only transient, for no population can for ever shut itself up from progress, and renounce the power and riches that science procures. For these populations there is always one source of consolation left-that truth and goodness are indestructible, and that in a suitable time God will cause the seeds to ripen. But, again, in the countries where scientific results have been favourably received, as a rule, those to whom mount the obstacles which oppose themselves to the obtaining of every great result, if that disposition did not become in a few a powerful passion, which expands and increases their powers. All these labours are entered into without regard to profit in the individuals, and without a claim to gratitude. Those who accomplish them seldom live long enough to see their discoveries usefully applied. What they have laboured for they cannot convert into money in the great market of life: it is merchandise that fetches no price-that can neither be ordered nor bought. The most powerful action of science upon the lives and minds of men is so slow, so void of all noise, and so little apparent to the eye, that it is altogether impossible for a superficial observer to see how it works, or even that it works at all; but those who see the groundwork of things know that in our time progress in the world without science is impossible, and that the reproach of their not being generally useful ought to be addressed to the populations, and not to scientific men, who each in his way follows his aim, suffering nothing to lead him astray from it, and without thinking of the future utility of his labour either to himself or to one The greater proportion of men have no idea of the difficulties that attended the labours by which the domain of science has been enriched. It may even be said that that innate disposition in a man to search out truth would not be sufficient in itself to cause him to sur-country only, but to the whole human species. SECURITY TO THE TENANT FARMER. TO THE EDITOR OF THE MARK LANE EXPRESS. SIR,-I have been very much interested in perusing your editorial remarks in your journal of this week on the important question of tenant-right, for which I consider the appropriate term should be "security to the tenant farmers who find the capital for cultivating the land which is not their own." I have long viewed this question as one of national importance not only to the landlords, the tenants, and the labourers, but also the nation at large, consequently benefiting in a greater or less degree all classes of Her Majesty's subjects. You report certain observations made by Earl Lichfield at the Rugeley Society's dinner, which are very appropriate indeed; and I am pleased to find that several noble landlords and others have entertained the question with liberal views towards their tenants. I find the noble Earl is rather adverse to leases; but he has not any objection to let his farms on agreements, which his lordship considers should be mutual between landlord and tenant. This is certainly just and reasonable, as the one is the owner of the land, and the other of the capital and skill which are requisite for its proper cultivation. Indeed, I consider them co-partners in the produce of the land, both being entitled to a reasonable profit. His lordship is desirous that a premium should be offered for the best-drawn agreement. He also considers that security should be given to the tenant, on giving up the possession, for all unexhausted improvements in the land. With such an understanding, he entertained the firmest conviction that the land throughout the country would be better cultivated. In this idea his lordship is quite correct; and we have great proof that such would be the case from the judicious agreements of the Earl of Yarborough and Mr. Tollemache, member for Cheshire, with their numerous tenantry, to whom they give security; consequently their land is highly cultivated. Indeed, it is unreasonable to suppose that a tenant-at-will, with the uncertainty of being ejected by a six months' notice, will invest that capital in the land, so requisite for its proper cultivation, without security by an improved tenure. In reviewing collectively the question of security to the tenant-farmers, it will clearly show that it is a question of the greatest magnitude, benefiting either directly or in directly all the inhabitants of the United Kingdom. By fall into such a state of dilapidation as is usual on the such an improved system, the land would not be allowed to expiration of a lease or agreement in which there is not any provision to be paid for unexhausted improvements. Whe can blame the out-going tenant? The ruinous effect proshown that land neglected for three years before the expireduced by such neglect is truly alarming, when it may be tion of a lease will take four years to restore its fertility, consequently a considerable portion of the capability of the land is lost to the nation for at least seven years. You will, sir, I am persuaded, view this loss as a very serious item, showing a very great deficiency in the produce of the land, with our rapidly increasing population, which is one great cause of our buying such large imports of foreign corn, that might, by superior cultivation, be grown in our native soils no doubt for several years, and thereby raise a newly created source of wealth from the land, benefiting the landlord and tenant in the first place, but ultimately all classes, by the circulation of the large amount of specie usually sent from this country to purchase foreign corn. I trust that the owners of the land will consider the inportant position they hold in the state, as possessing the only real source of wealth a nation can call its own: all other property may vanish, but the land must remain. They are also the responsible agents which are expected to hold out every encouragement to their tenantry to facili tate the improved culture of their land, in order to supply the inhabitants with food, instead, as before hinted, of sending out a large amount of specie to purchase foreign cora, enriching the foreigner, and eventually making us “poor indeed." I have not hesitated to be candid in my remarks, having leases the whole period: I have witnessed many cases of been a farmer fifty years, occupying one farm under renewed great injustice towards the tenants holding under the insecure tenure of a six-months' notice during my experience. I must now, sir, apologize for entering so fully into the subject; but as I deem it a question of the utmost national importance, I scarcely know when to stop my pen. I am, sir, yours most respectfully, Court Farm, Hayes, Oct. 31. CHAS, NEWMAN, IMPORTANT EXPERIMENTS IN SHEEP FEEDING, SIR,-The members of this club having brought to a close their second experiment in summer grazing, the following different breeds of shearling sheep, for the purpose of ascertaining with an equal or given quantity of food the class most profitably adapted to their locality, comply with the wishes of their friends in again publishing the result. It may be remembered, by parties interested in the relative values of the different breeds of sheep, that the members of this club commenced an experiment in 1861 in the neighbourhood of Garforth with the cross from the Teeswater, the cross from the Cheviot or Banffshire, called North sheep, the improved Lin coln, South Down, Shropshire Down, Leicester, and the Cotswold. To this experiment one very forcible objection had been urged, viz., that the sheep were not brought to the test in equal condition. The members admitted that their experiment was open to criticism, and that first trials were rarely satisfactory; in fact, they had considerable difficulty in procuring sheep representing fairly the several classes, but the trial had been so far satisfactory to show that the Cotswold was not the sheep adapted to this county, the cross from the Teeswater a too limited class, and the South Down, though good thrivers, perhaps did not afford sufficient wool to again induce the members to include these classes, In order to climatise and bring the sheep to an equal condition, Mr. W. G. Preece, of Shrewsbury, was commissioned, without limit of cost, to buy Shropshire Down lambs; Messrs. Smart and Furniss, the Leicester; Messrs. Kirkham aud Macendar, the improved Lincoln; and the cross from the Cheviot or North sheep were from the tops purchased at Saint Boswell's fair. The lambs were wintered together and alike until the 20th May, clipped and brought to pasture, 12 of each class, and upon about 2a. 1r. of seeds equally alike and without cake. It is to be observed that the North sheep and the Lincolns were the greatest consumers, i. e., they were the soonest at the top of their food, the Leicesters being the less eaters, but they fairly finished up their pasture. Reference to the following tabular statement will show when the large consumers became short of a full supply of food, and monthly comparisons may be made to suit the theory of different parties: Class of Sheep. Wt. of wool clipt when brought to test. Shrop. D's. 66 Lincolns : Increase or Decrease. 20th 20th 20th 20 h 20th June. Jly Aug Sept Oct. lbs. st. lbs. st lb st lb st lbst lb'st Inst. lb st. lb. North Sheep 96 109 9 21 36 184 111 180 434 8 144 8 It is to be borne in mind that this experiment has not been made with a view to ascertain what sheep may be brought to, but the acreable produce. Should reference be made to our tables published in the Mark Lane Express, Bell's Weekly Messenger, or Saunders' Daily News in Ireland, in October, 1861, it will appear that the second experiment verifies the first, in showing the leading propensity of the Shropshire Down to gain weight, and then the Leicester, but reverses the Lincoln and North in 1861; but there the first experiment failed. The Lincolns upon that occasion came to test having been pampered to the highest extent to take the lead at Lincoln fair, whilst the North were in a going state. We may state that the information now gained is satisfactory to ourselves, and prepared us when to dispose of the stock to our advantage. The great question of wool must be proved in the winter eeeding by weighing the food, which we again resume. Parlington, Nov., 1862. THOS. J. Fox, Class one, for the best ploughman, foreman, other hired servant, or labourer: first prize to J. Shaw, foreman to Mr. B. Nicholson, Stourton Grange: second, to G. Dean, servant to Mr. W. Atkinson, Barrowby Hall; third, T. Robinson, foreman to Mr. Simpson, Park House. Thirty competitors in this class. This was a most exciting contest, J. Shaw having won the prize last year amongst fortytwo competitors, G. Dean being second. Shaw now retires, in consequence of having won two years in succession. Class two, for the best ploughman under 22 years of age; first prize to John Heaton, servant to Mr. Simpson; MATCH. second, to J. S. Leech, servant to Mr. Woodward, of Huddleston Hall. Twenty competitors. Class three, for youths under 18 first prize to J. Gibson, servant to Mr. Smart; second, to C. Tollaston, servant to Mr. William Atkinson. Fifteen competitors. The ploughing, upon the whole, was an improvement services to the club, were Mr. T. Taylor, of Darrington, upon former years. The judges, who kindly lent their able and Mr. Carr, of Pateley Bridge, whose decisions gave general satisfaction. A new feature was added by the indefatigable agent, Mr. Fox, viz., a prize for the best slashing of a hedge, which was won by J. Walker, labourer to F. C. F. Gascoigne, Esq. After the labours of the day, an adjournment took place to the hospitable residence of Mr. G. Smart, where numerous creature-comforts were amply provided, the company, as usual,. being most ably presided over by Mr. Fox, the president of the club, who, along with the landlords (Earl of Ashtown and F. C. F. Gascoigne, Esq.), takes the liveliest interest in the well-being of both tenant and labourer upon this much improved estate. |