"The Health of the Earl of Carlisle, and Prosperity to Ireland."

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF LEINSTER, Chairman, said :—

MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,

It gives me very great pleasure to rise to propose to you the health of His Excellency the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. My Lords and Gentlemen, I have had the honour and pleasure of his acquaintance during many years, and a more amiable nobleman does not exist. Since he first entered public life he has had, I know, the interest of this country at heart; and I am sure you will most cordially join me in drinking "The Health of the Lord Lieutenant, and Prosperity to Ireland."

MY LORD DUKE, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN,

I beg to return you my sincere thanks for the distinction you have been pleased to confer upon me in coupling my name with a wish so near to all your own hearts as that of "Prosperity to Ireland." It is an honour that I am fully sensible is due to the position which I have been appointed to fill, but which, you will allow me to say, is very largely enhanced by the cordial manner in which it has on this occasion been conferred. I am not by any means a stranger to agriculture, on a large

scale, in my own country of England; but this is the first time I have had the opportunity of assisting at the annual gathering of the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society in the provinces of Ireland. I believe that this Society entered upon its career-its most important and auspicious career-at the period when my first official connexion with. this country came to a close; but not before I had the opportunity of conferring upon the subject with one whom you will all admit to have been one of its most public-spirited and efficient promoters, if I may not call him entirely its founder-I mean the late Mr. Peter Purcell. To prove how far it has since proceeded and prospered, I have only to refer to the large dimensions, the excellent arrangements, the quantity and the quality that have been this day displayed upon the verdant banks of the Barrow. Since the period to which I have referred the period of its birth-allow me to cast a brief retrospective glance upon its prominent operations in the subsequent interval. This Society wisely resolved to encourage affiliated societies, and I learn that there are at this moment upwards of seventy such branch societies established in Ireland. By this method, and by holding its annual meetings in the principal towns of Ireland in succession, it has carried its own experience through every district, each in its turn, and has thereby tended to fuse together the knowledge of the best specialities of each, whether in tillage or in pasture, in cereals or in green crops, or in the breeding and fattening of cattle; and I have little doubt that, without slighting other most weighty influences which have been at work upon the social condition of the Irish people-some of them of a mingled character-without slighting the due weight to be attached to these influences, I have little doubt that the Royal Agricultural Improvement Society of Ireland has greatly assisted the extension and improvement of agriculture which has so largely marked the last twenty years in the annals of your country. For example, let me just mention that I find, by the late official returns, that the quantity of land under cultivation in Ireland in 1841 was 13,564,300 acres; in the year 1851 it had amounted to 14,802,581 acres; and then, as to the value of live stock, it was in 1841 computed to be £19,399,000; and in 1851 it had reached the figure of £27,326,000; in 1853 it had further increased to £31,844,000; and in the last year, 1854, it is computed to have reached £33,508,000. But, observe, this does not give even the quite accurate measure of in

crease; because, for the sake of forming a comparison, the same prices were affixed to the relative number of cattle in each of the two periods, whereas, I take it, the true increase has been in the better description of stock; and that, as the quality has improved still more than the quantity, we may assume, without fear of exaggeration, that the value of the live stock of Ireland now may at least be put at double the amount that it was worth when your Society began its career. Again, one of the most important operations of this Society must have been to make it manifest for what species of production the soil and climate of Ireland were most suited, and for what species of production the different parts of Ireland itself were most suited. I believe of late years it will be found that the growth of wheat has diminished, but that of oats and barley has increased; but the increase is still more striking with respect to green crops-turnips and mangel-wurzel; for I believe it is true. that in 1841 there was one acre of green crops to every two of corn crops; even so far back as 1847 the proportion had shifted, and there was an acre of green crops to four-to two-and upwards of corn crops. I beg pardon that there is now, in 1855, an acre of green crops to every two acres of corn crops; and no longer ago than 1847 the proportion of green crops was one acre to four and upwards of corn crops. Then, with respect to one of the agricultural productions, and a very important one it is-the flax crop-for which the climate and soil of Ireland have been thought particularly suited, and to the growth of which the present war with Russia has given great additional importance-now, the flax crops in 1849 occupied 6314 acres; but in the year 1853 they occupied 174,379 acres. Chiefly, I believe, the amount of flax grown is confined to the North of Ireland; but there are not wanting now many enlightened proprietors in the West and South to make the experiment; and I have no doubt that, if it be found remunerative-which, I beg to remind you, is the sure and sound test of every production-if this be the case, I have no doubt their patriotic example will be largely followed. But the crop of flax is too bulky in proportion to the fibre to bear the cost of carriage, without the aid of scutch-mills. I find that the scutch-mills last year amounted to 1100. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that this important article of produce is being largely cultivated. Then, you must not forget, while the productions of Ireland have increased, that it is true to some

extent that your population has diminished. Therefore, the condition of the remaining portion of the population, I take it, has been benefited in two ways; and, so far as their means of command over the necessaries of life and the chief articles of sustenance are concerned, not only has the amount of food at their command been increased, but there has been also a marked improvement in the soundness and nutritive character of that food. Then, my Lords and Gentlemen, if such has been the continued progress, despite the blight of famine, and the drain of emigration, and the more frightful calamity of war, altogether, whether we refer to the productiveness of the soil, the enterprise of the proprietors, or the general condition of the people, may not our hopes for the future-sobered, indeed, by reliance upon the inscrutable will of an allruling Providence-but may not our hopes for the future be most encouraging and sanguine? If such is the general improvement in Irish agriculture, and the social condition of the Irish people, let me add my earnest hope that this Society-the Royal Irish Agricultural Society itself-may long continue to witness and to develope those inestimable advantages under the honoured auspices of your Grace; and that gathering still increasing support from all classes, and all orders-from those who represent the most ancient lineage and the largest wealth of the country-from those whose hard-working and honest industry and labour support the wide basis of our social fabric, borrowing all new lights from science, applying all such new methods, and perfecting all such old ones as experience may approve-this Society may long continue to work each future year, as it has done each past year of its valuable existence, and find its best reward in the acknowledgments of new advantages conferred upon a peaceful, a prosperous, and a grateful people.

The EARL OF CARLISLE again rose, and said :—

MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN,

I feel I shall best embody the sentiments I ventured to express concerning the Royal Agricultural Society, by now calling on you to do honour to its distinguished President. The obligations of this Society to the Duke of Leinster, and his discharge through life of every public and private duty, amply entitle him to such distinction. Long habits of personal intercourse, and the memory of frequent kindnesses received,

make it especially agreeable to my own feelings to propose it; but if I were to say all I think, all that you think, and all that his country thinks of the Duke of Leinster, standing in his near neighbourhood, I should almost be afraid of some personal violence; therefore, I have only to call on you to fill full glasses to the good health, the long lifeand when I mention his own health, and his own life, he will know all besides I mean and include when I add, to the uninterrupted happiness of the Duke of Leinster.

ROYAL AGRICULTURAL IMPROVEMENT SOCIETY

OF IRELAND.

THE GREAT ANNUAL CATTLE SHOW-ATHLONE.

[AUGUST 13TH, 1856.]

THE BANQUET.

I

TOAST:

"The Health of the Earl of Carlisle, and Prosperity to Ireland.”

MY LORD DUKE, MY LORDS, AND GENTLEMEN,

HAVE to thank you very sincerely for the demonstration of loyalty which you have made in receiving this toast, and for the great personal cordiality with which you have drank it. It is indeed very agrecable to me to have been able to pay this second visit to the annual meeting of this great Society; and it seems to me that in very many points of view the Royal Agricultural Society could not have selected a happier or more appropriate spot as the scene of its annual gathering than here at Athlone. Seated as it is on the greatest river of our island, upon the central point of that river-and its site in itself nearly the centre of Ireland; and, as if not content with that gleaming liquid high