24 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



ever, liaJ not been published, though Cavendish 

 had undertaken a tour of verification. 



The association of certain organic remains with 

 certain strata, was a discovery peculiarly his own, 

 which has given an entirely new direction to geolo- 

 gical investigations, and has placed the science on 

 a sure and permanent foundation. The same may 

 said of his distinction between these regular strata 

 and those superficial deposits to which he gave the 

 name of " diluvium." The more extended study 

 which these deposits have of late years received has 

 confirmed the soundness of the distinction, though 

 it has furnished a refutation of the transient nature 

 of the aqueous action to which he ascribed them. 

 This department of geology is that which most de- 

 mands the attention of the agriculturist, in conse- 

 quence of the extensive distribution of the superfi- 

 cial deposits over the British islands, and in many 

 cases their great depth. It was their fragmentary 

 character, arising from the denudation to which 

 they have been exposed during the conversion of 

 the bed of the glacial sea into land, and to the 

 reconstruction of the denuded materials along the 

 lines of drainage, which caused them to be attri- 

 buted to the transient irruption of the sea, instead 

 of a long-continued action beneath a sea of peculiar 

 characters. 



To these deposits, and to another and subse- 

 quent deposit, characterized by a different group of 

 fossils, formed by some hitherto unexplained and 

 anomalous aqueous action, and formed after the bed 

 of the erratic sea had been reconverted into dry land, 

 and had continued dry land for a long period, it is 

 that the variations of soil upon every geological 

 formation mainly depend. 



As regards the rocks themselves, it is on the 

 general mineral characters of a group consisting of 

 many alternating strata that the agricultural rela- 

 tions of a district chiefly depend. Upon every geo- 

 logical formation, however, we have soils of every 

 quality, from the best to the worst, arising from the 

 depth and composition of the superficial deposits. 

 As regards mineral characters they vary not only 

 vertically from alternation of deposits of different 

 composition, but horizontally from changes in the 

 same bed in different parts of its course. Of none 

 of these changes do our geological maps take cog- 

 nizance. The time has come, as Professor John- 

 stone said, many years ago, when agriculture re- 

 quires geological maps of her own, which shall 

 show both these variations. The construction of 

 such maps is not the proper work of the State, for 

 the benefit of individuals. To the State belongs 

 the construction of general maps of classification. 

 The construction of such detailed maps as agri- 

 culture requires is the proper work of each land- 

 owner for his own property. Such maps, con- 

 structed by properly-qualified persons, would repay 

 many times over the cost of construction, by the 

 undeveloped resources which they would bring to 

 light. They will be the work of a future genera- 

 tion : they are too much in advance for the present. 

 Landowners in general are very eager for geological 

 information respecting their property, but because 

 there are amateur geologists and government geo- 

 logists, neither of whom can give the information 

 they require, they think they are to have it for 

 nothing, and have not yet learned in this respect 

 that the labourer is worthy of his hire. 



THE MEAT MANUFACTURE. 



The conversion of vegetable substances into the 

 structure of animals is one of the most interesting, 

 and certainly not the least important, of those 

 regular and gradual manufacturing operations in 

 which the agriculturist is engaged. It is, to a cer- 

 tain extent, the finishing point of all his labours— 

 the ultimate design of all the mental and manual 

 agencies which are called into action by the daily 

 requirements of his very intricate vocation. For 

 this end he studies the nature of the soil upon 

 which he operates, the means which are best calcu- 

 lated to increase its productiveness, the plants which 

 he grows, and the cultivation suitable for each 

 variety ; the distinguishing properties of the diflfer- 

 ent breeds and varieties of our domestic animals, 

 and their adaptation to the particular circumstances 

 in which it is intended to place them ; the house 

 accommodation' requisite for their use, and the most 



economical modes in which their food may be pre- 

 pared and consumed. 



It must be owned, however, that, in common 

 with nearly every department of practical agricul- 

 ture, the rearing and fattening of our domestic 

 animals are too often looked upon as being some- 

 thing of which everyone naturally possesses a 

 sufficient amount of intuitive knowledge to enable 

 them at once, and under any circumstances, to 

 become proficients, without the formality of previous 

 study, or that acquaintance with the subject which 

 in any other profession would be considered indis- 

 pensable in order to ensure even a probability of 

 success. To this cause we may trace most of the 

 failures which we meet with, the imperfect state in 

 which what ought to be the finished article is fre- 

 quently offered for sale, and the consequent dis- 

 appointment as to results we often hear expressed. 



