Welsh Journals

RADNORSHIRE AGRICULTURE SOCIETIES. By W. H. Howse. A FAIRLY intensive reading of the old files of the Hereford Journal, from 1770 onwards, has brought to light much forgotten history of Radnorshire, and its institutions and customs. One of the most interesting "discoveries" has been the existence of a Radnorshire Society as far back as 1790. This society, which was formed in London, had as one of its principal objects the improvement of agriculture in the county. A Radnorshire Agricultural Society was formed in 1809, which carried on the work of the older society. For a short period the two societies worked together. The Agricultural Society may be said to have been the offspring of the London Society, whose year of origin (certainly not later than 1790) puts Radnorshire fairly high on the list of agricultural societies, arranged by priority of date. The' Herefordshire Agricultural Society was not established until 1797. (This disappeared for a time and a new society took its place about 1829.) There are one or two older societies in Wales, notably the important Brecknockshire Society, of which Howell Harris, of Trevecca, was one of the founders in 1755. This was among the earliest in Great Britain. The Glamorganshire Society is the next oldest in Wales. The Radnorshire Society was advertising premiums for the best rams in 1791, the judging to take place at the Crown Inn, Presteigne, on the day of the Midsummer Fair in 1792. After that it concentrated most of its attention on turnips, thus carrying on the missionary work of the second Viscount Townshend (" Turnip Townshend "), the retired states- man of George II.'s reign, who, with Jethro Tull, did so much for the improvement of agricultural methods in the mid-eighteenth century. All the Society's enthusiasm, in fact, seems to have been directed, as Pope remarked of the Viscount's conversation, to that kind of rural improvement which arises from turnips." The Society's turnip competitions were on similar lines each year. Taking 1799 as an example, it offered premiums, to tenants holding farms at a rack rent not exceeding £ 60 per annum, for the four best crops of