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POLITICAL GOSSIP.

THE ARTS, LITERATURE, &o.…

SPORTS AND PASTIMES. J

Outfed Cattle. ?

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Outfed Cattle. ? The council of the Royal Dublin Society have found a class of cattle in the country to which justice has not been done, which has not received sufficient en- couragement to grow fat—namely, outfed cattle that is, cattle fed on grass in the field, without the aid of artificial food of any kind. Hitherto they have stimulated competition only among the owners of stall-fed cattle—generally men of wealth, with whom the owners of grass-fed cattle could not compete, though they supplied the market with the greatest number of animals for slaughter. Beef and mutton are very dear. It is very desirable to have them pro- duced in greater abundance and of better quality. There is little demand for agricultural labour in the country, and it can only be increased by increasing tillage, and the question, therefore, is, how to render tillage more profitable. The grain which Ireland can produce best is oats, but oats are now only one half- penny a pound, or 7d. a stone. The crop would never pay the farmer at that price. Time was when our distillers used a large quantity of oats, and if it were damaged by a wet sea-son, it still served the purpose of the whisky manufacturers. Many of the distille- ries; however, have been shut up by Mr. Glad- stone's equalisation of the spirit duties between the two countries, and their once wealthy owners have been reduced to bankruptcy. The "wash and grain" of the distilleries—the refuse that remained after the getting the spirit out of the corn—served to feed cattle as an auxiliary to grass. Owing to these circumstances and the cheapness of foreign corn, tillage, is going more and more out of use. The country in many districts looks deserted and desolate, even in spring and harvest time. The traveller no longer sees busy groups of workers in the nolds; few human beings are visible out of the towns. Eve the corn is mowed down by machinery, and it must 1 so in order to have it saved economically in due time, and to be made quickly ready for the market. A few days ago a gentleman from this city went over a demesne of some hundreds of acres in the South, the property of a wealthy baronet who resided in another part of the county. On that large tract of rich land the only person he found employed was one man break- ing stones. The owner gets X2 ap acre from a grazier I and is content. Ifc was found that a hundred persons had emigrated from the neighbouring village, but an intelligent resident said that those who remained were no better off since their departure, and that they were elad to get emnlovment at SR. or 6s. a week. If, then, farmers with second-rate land. who are not i able or willing to compete with the wealthy owners of t prime land in stall-feeding, can be induced to supple- < ment their grass feeding with oats, oilcake, and other 1 kinds of artificial foed, they would produce a greater 1 quantity of beef and mutton of better quality, they 1 would employ more labour, they would encourage ] tillage, they would improve their own circumstances, and increase the prosperity of the country; 1 Such is the gist of the considerations pressed upon the attention of a meeting of gentlemen interested in J agriculture, which was held at the house of the Royal Society in Dublin last week. The chair was occupied ] by the Earl of Longford, and the objects of the meeting were set forth by Mr. C. Cannon, the hon. secretary, Mr. G. Woods Maunsell, Sir Percy. Nugent, Mr. Garnett, Mr. Ganby and others, who advocated the system of "mixed feeding" proved successful in England and in some parts of, Ireland. Ultimately a resolution was adopted to the effect that the meeting approved the sug- gestion to add to the prizes already proposed to be awarded at the next winter show of the Royal Dublin Society the following prices for outfed. cattle and sheep, and, if means be forthcoming, that the following prizes be awarded by the judges of the society —. £ 10 for the best three oxen, = £ 10 for the best three cows, =810 for the best three heifers, £ 5 for the best ten wethers, and X5 for the' best ten hogget wethers. As prizes are necessary to induce people to do what is best for their own interest and, for the country, and, in some instances, what is their manifest duty, it would bo well if prizes were devised for land- lords who give the greatest number of leases tb>their tenants, for capitalists and large farmers who employ the greatest number of agricultural labourers, and pro- vide for them the best lodgings. Irish, proprietors, as well as English, might reflect with advantage upon a passage in the introduction to the speeches of the late Prince Consort:—' I "That with a large breadth of lands of Great Britain I; partially tilled, or scarcely cultivated at all, the British nation should not unfrequently have to expend twenty or thirty millions of monay on foreign corn, is a re- j P,roachagainst our practical sagacity, in which the Prince, at least, can have no share of the blame."

Hints for the Gardener. 1

,Flower oardn,and Plant Houses.'

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