This festival, established by T. W. Coke, Esq. forty-three years
ago, commenced on 10th July last.--Among the company present
this year were, his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex, Princes
Potemkin and Trabetzkoy, (Russia,) the Marquis of Downshire, Earl
of Albemarle; Lords Waterpark, Erskine, Anson, Ebrington, Lynedock,
Delaware;--Hon. Mr. Keppel, Hon. Geo. Walpole, Hon. Gen. Fitzroy,
Hon. Mr. Thellison, Sir John Sinclair, Bart. Sir Wm. Hoste, Bart. T.
W. Coke, jr. Esq. M. P.; G. W. Hall, Esq. Thos. Gay, Esq. (Herts,)
Robert Patterson, Esq. (Baltimore,) C. Deering, Esq. (Middlesex,)
Mons. Petit, Esq. (Paris,) Thos. B. Beevor, Esq. J. Ellman, Esq.
(Sussex,) and many eminent agriculturists from Norfolk, Suffolk,
and various parts of the kingdom. This festival, instituted for the
improvement of agriculture, assumes, at every anniversary, a greater
degree of interest and importance.
Among the sheep exhibited there was an Arabian, and one from New
Zealand; likewise a half-bred Zealand lamb, from a Southdown ewe.
The Arabian sheep is a large animal, covered with a close coat of
hair, like our pointer dogs. The colour of the one exhibited was
white, with a black head and neck. The tail is very singularly
formed--a large piece of loose flesh projects from the rump, above
which grows a tail, about four inches in length, exactly resembling
that of a young pig; the sheep has also a large pouch under the jaw.
A simple but most effectual method of preventing rats and mice from
injuring corn stalks, was recommended by Mr. Gibbs. of Quarles, a
tenant to Mr. Coke. The cost is not more than 6s. or 7s. per stack;
and it has been found by several gentlemen who have made the trial,
to be a complete bar to the depredations of those destructive
vermin. The stack is cut round, and merely plastered with common
lime and hair, about three feet high; and when properly done, it
will be found that no vermin can possibly make their way into the
stacks.
Mr. Coke pronounced the _grubber_ to be one of the most useful
implements upon his farm, and pointed out its superiority over the
scarifier, which cuts the roots of the weeds in pieces, and thereby
multiplies them; instead of which the grubber forces them up in an
entire state, and even their finest fibres are destroyed. Alluding
to his own farms as a proof of what a better mode of husbandry would
effect, Mr. Coke observed, with respect to what was frequently said
of the injury accruing from the introduction of machinery, that he
employed more hands with the machinery than he could any other way.
Of the mode of _driling_, he said, it should be from north to south,
instead of from east to west. This might appear of trivial moment,
but he could assert that it was worthy of attention.
About 500 persons each day sat down to dinner in the noble mansion;
when a scene of hilarity and cheerfulness, intermixed with valuable
information from the gentlemen whose healths were drank, was
exhibited. Mr. Coke, at the close of the meeting on Wednesday
evening, delivered the prizes to the successful candidates in the
various classes.