The Hampshire Down ram sales in the palmy days of farming were
organized upon the same scale of liberality, and while the sale was
proceeding steam was kept up by handing round boxes of sixpenny
cigars, and brandy and water in buckets. It is, of course, good policy
to keep a company of buyers in good humour, but I think it has long
since been recognized that hospitality was carried a little too far in
those times of prosperity, and, in these degenerate if more
business-like days, extravagance is much less evident, though there is
a hearty welcome and abundance for all.
Agricultural shows under favourable weather conditions are always
popular and well-attended. The large exhibitions of the Royal
Agricultural Society of England, the Bath and West of England, and the
Royal Counties, especially attract immense crowds; much business in
novel implements, machinery, seeds, and artificial fertilizers, was
done when times were good, and the towns in which the shows are held
benefit by a large increase in general trade. The weather, however, is
the arbiter as to the attendance, upon which the financial result of
the show depends.
In 1879, the last of the miserable decade that ruined thousands of
farmers all over the country with almost continuous wet seasons, poor
crops, and wretched prices, the Royal Agricultural Society held its
show at Kilburn.
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