MECHANICS AXD USEFUL ARTS. 



131 



ent circumstances of soil and climate, and applying it, in due proportion, 

 as a multiple to the acreage already published. A really accurate census 

 of the harvest is, I believe, impracticable, at least within the period which 

 would alone make it valuable for present use ; and the approximation 

 which I have suggested would, I conceive, be adequate to the purpose." 



CURIOSITIES OF THE ENGLISH CENSUS. 



The English census of 1851, it is well known, by a most careful and 

 pre-arranged method, was taken over the whole kingdom, during a single 

 day and evening, viz., that of the 30th of March. The complete returns 

 furnish much information of a curious as well as useful character. The 

 total population of the kingdom was found to be as follows : 



The census illustrated this 21,000,000 of people by an allusion to the 

 Great Exhibition. On one or two occasions 100,000 persons visited the 

 Crystal Palace in a single day; consequently 211 days of such a living 

 stream would represent the number of the British population. Another 

 way of realizing 21,000,000 of people was arrived at by considering their 

 numbers in relation to space : allowing a square yard to each person, they 

 would cover seven square miles. A further illustration ; if all the people 

 of Great Britain had to pass through London in procession four abreast, 

 and every facility was afforded for their free and uninterrupted passage for 

 12 hours daily, Sundays excepted, it would take nearly three months for 

 the whole population of Great Britain to file through at quick march, four 

 deep. The excess of females in Great Britain was 512,361, or as many as 

 would have filled the Crystal Palace five times over. The proportion be- 

 tween the sexes was 100 males to 105 females, a remarkable fact when it 

 was considered that the births during the last 13 years had given the 

 reversed proportion of 105 boys to 100 girls. The annexed statement ex- 

 hibits the population of Great Britain at each census from 1801 to 1851 

 inclusive : 





