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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



know how they were to increase the supply of meat according 

 to the consumption. If they were to kill stock of about three- 

 quarters of the weight they did formerly, at the present ccn- 

 sumption they must increase the supply somehow. No doubt 

 they were very short of stock : the probability was that meat 

 would be very dear, and that very soon. They must endea- 

 vour to make up the deficiency. No doubt the turnip crop 

 had had a very considerable effect this year, but they had their 

 mangolds to resort to. This was the time of the year to think 

 of this, and he wished to remark that they had land and acres 

 enough to grow much more than they did at present. He 

 knew farms, heavy lands, which it used to be thought would 

 not grow beet ; but they had learned how that heavy lands 

 were as adapted to grow mangolds as turnips. He was quite 

 sure it was for their own interest, and for their country's in- 

 terest that they should grow more roots and have no clean 

 fallows, and produce more meat, or they would have very high 

 prices, 



Mr. E. Cook, another speaker, said he took credit to 

 himself for having been the first to introduce long-woolied 



sheep into the neighbourhood seven years ago. It wes a 

 gratification to him to see crosses from that stock increasing at 

 these shows, and not only so, but generally that the sheep in 

 the neighbourhood — not only from his stock but from Mr. 

 Mnmford Sexton's and others— were much improved. There 

 was no better way, be thought, in which mutton could be 

 procured than by the cross he h^d adopted. He ventured 

 to stiy that the cross from the Cotswold and a good black- 

 faced ewe was one of the most productive that could be, both 

 aa regarded wool and meat. It had been said that it was a 

 waste to produce more meat, but the consumption was, as 

 Mr. Rand had said, daily increasing, and the manufacturers 

 were in such a state that they would require more wool, and 

 there could not be better. He had sold hoggets for nearly 

 £3 out of the wool, and had cut 141bs. of wool at la. 6d. per 

 pound, and such sheep were therefore a profitable sort to 

 adopt. 



Altogether, it will be seen that the company derived in- 

 struction as well as amusement from the proceedings of 

 the evening. 



ORIGIN OF SPECIES. 



Sir, — The theory of Nature's law of selection and 

 origin of species as explained in Mr. Darwin's late 

 vrork having met with some opposition, I forward the 

 following remarks respecting it, with some notice of 

 hostile reviewers. 



The great law of nature in organic life is competition, 

 with a variation-power in accommodation to circum- 

 stances : a law not fitted to earth alone, but I have no 

 doubt extended to the whole of the orbs of space that are 

 in a condition to support material life. Perhaps the fol- 

 lowing brief account of this law (extracts from my vol. 

 " Naval Timber and Arboriculture ") may be interest- 

 ing to those who have not seen Mr. Darwin's work. 



"There is a law universal in nature tending to render 

 every reproductive being the best possibly suited to its 

 condition that its kind or that organized matter is sus- 

 ceptible of, which appears intended to model the physi- 

 cal and mental or instinctive powers to Ihcir highest 

 perfection, and continue them so. This law sustains 

 the lion in his strength, the hare in her swiftness, and 

 the fox in his wiles. As nature in all her modifications 

 of life has a power of increase far beyond what is 

 needed to supply the place of what falls by Time's 

 decay, those individuals who possess not the requisite 

 strength, swiftness, hardihood, or cunning, fall prema- 

 turely without reproducing, either a prey to their na- 

 tural devourers or sinking under disease, generally in- 

 duced from want of nourishment, their place being oc- 

 cupied by the most perfect of their own kind who are 

 pressing on the means of subsistence." * * 



" This principle is in constant action, it regulates the 

 colour, the figure, the capacities, and instincts ; those 

 individuals of each species whose colour and covering 

 are best suited to concealment or protection from ene- 

 mies, or defence from vicissitude and inclemencies of 

 climate ; whose figure is best accommodated to health, 



strength, defence, and support ; whose capacities and 

 instincts can best regulate the physical energies to self- 

 advantage according to circumstances — in such im- 

 mense waste of primary and youthful life, those only 

 come forward to maturity from the strict ordeal by 

 which nature tests their adaptation to her standard of 

 perfection and fitness to continue their kind by repro- 

 duction. 



" From the unremitting operation of this law acting 

 in concert with the tendency which the progeny have to 

 take the more particular qualities of their parents, to- 

 gether with the connected sexual system in vegetables 

 and instinctive limitation to its own kind in animals, a 

 considerable uniformity of figure, colour, and character 

 is induced, constituting species ; the breed gradually 

 acquiring the very best possible adaptation of these to 

 its condition which it is susceptible of, and when altera- 

 tion of circumstances occurs, thus changing in charac- 

 ter to suit these, as far as its nature is susceptible of 

 change." It is against this principle of selection that 

 college-taught, closet-bred critics cavil, but which we 

 think every sensible farmer who knows something prac- 

 tically of the subject will at once admit. 



In the fields of nature we have economy in the highest 

 possible degree. From the plastic quality of life, no 

 space of earth's surface, not even the hardest perpen- 

 dicular rock, is left vacant of life ; including also the 

 ocean, and even the atmosphere. It is, indeed, proba- 

 ble that the atmosphere had been inhabited before the 

 crust of Uie earth or the ocean had become sufficiently 

 cooled and stable to be habitable.* Wherever moisture 



* There seems to be a vacuum around all solid bodies, on 

 account of the air not coming quite in contact, which in 

 very minute bodies is BufBcient to float them : instance the 

 motes in the aunbeamB and the suspended stesmer-smoke 



