THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



51 



THE YEAR'S PROGRESS. 



The approaching year brings round the appointed 

 decennial period for taking the Census in the kingdom ; 

 and it will be an interesting feature to notice what has 

 been the progress made by the agricultural class— what 

 relative position it now bears, as to numbers, to the 

 other industrial occupations of the country, and what 

 are tha marked features of advance or decline in im- 

 provements of land, cultivation, machhiery, livestock, 

 and other heads. It is premature, perhaps, to enter 

 into anything like an inquiry, particularly when 

 founiled upon mere estimates or imperfect and incom- 

 plete data. This inquiry, however, will come at a most 

 .interesting period, because we shall be able to institute 

 a comparison of agricultural progress with our brethren 

 on the other side of the Atlantic. The American Census 

 has just been taken, and will be much more full and 

 complete in all its heads of inquiry (judging from the 

 nature of the forms) than we can expect to obtain in 

 this country. But whether, looking at the machinery 

 employed, and the vast field of inquiry to be covered, 

 that it will be half so accurate as our own, is quite 

 another matter. By attempting too much, the American 

 Government will fail to ensure that uniformity which 

 is so essential in such official investigations. 



Another reason why the Census returns of 1861 will 

 be of interest, is, that in the following year we are to 

 have another International Exhibition ; and it will be 

 well to be able to show our friends and visitors what 

 has been done here in national improvement as regards 

 the cultivation of the soil, the comparative yield, the 

 rearing and increase of stock, the economy of labour, 

 beneficial modes of cultivation, and harvesting our 

 crops ; approved novelties in machinery, and the 

 general results attained from improved skill and 

 chemical research. In all that relates to agricultural 

 improvement, by comparison with other nations, and in 

 friendly competition, let us be able at least to hold our 

 place, even if we do not — as we ought to do — excel. 

 While we have been sending forth to every part of the 

 world improved agricultural implements and steam- 

 engines, and improved stock, let us show that we have 

 gone on improving year by year, and that ten years' 

 skill, capital, and experimental research have not been 

 thrown away. The field of inquiry over such a pe- 

 riod, and embracing so many subjects, is much too 

 wide to do justice to in one article. 



If we glance at the improvements in agricultural 

 implements and machinery, we shall find a very great 

 progress has been made, and attended with vast eco- 

 nomy of time and money, whether it be in the more 

 general adoption of cultivators, scarifiers, &c. — three 

 and four times the breadth of ploughs, over the old 

 system of ploughing — the more general use of horse- 

 hoes, gowing-raachines, and drills. Field steam- 

 engines, too, have superseded the old horse-thrashing 

 xpftchines, at el Veduetion of time aod expense of fully 



one-third. There are now from 20,000 to 30,000 

 steam-engines employed on the farms of the kingdom, 

 and this number is being every day added to, with 

 consequent advantage of increasing the labour-power 

 and performing the work more quickly. What should 

 we have done, in many instances of late, without the 

 reaping-machines, which have been so useful ? Some- 

 thing has been done, toi, with steam-ploughs and trac- 

 tion-engines, with endless rails and other contrivances ; 

 although much yet remains to be done in this direc- 

 tion, and in the more general adoplion of steam to 

 farm-culture and farm operations. Portable combined 

 thrashing machines witJi finishing dressing-machines, 

 and many other novelties, are evidences of the prac- 

 tical skill of our machinists, and of their appreciation 

 and adoption by the farming interest. The increased 

 demand for oilcake-breakers and bone-mills marks an 

 era in the use of these important aids to the farmers. 

 Ten years ago, oilcake as an article of import was 

 scarcely mentioned, either for feeding or manure . 

 now our imports exceed 95,000 tons, besides what is 

 made at home : and of b(ines we also obtain foreign 

 supplies to the extent of 85,000 tons. So with nitrate 

 of soda, largely used for the soil, our imports have 

 doubled in ten years, reaching now 48,250 tons, of 

 which probably one-half is employed as a fertilizer. 

 Our guano imports have also doubled. Coprolites were 

 scarcely known ten or twelve years ago; and now 

 30,000 tons are raised annually (according to Mr. 

 Robert Hunt's statements) from Cambridge and Suf- 

 folk, besides others imported from France and Bel- 

 gium. Indeed, in nothing has there been a more 

 marked advance than in the extended manufacture and 

 general use of artificial manures, which have had so 

 beneficial an efi'ect on the increase of our crops. 



The impi'ovements effected in drainage, in ma- 

 nuring, and in more skilful cultivation and cropping, 

 it would be most difficult to fully appraise. But those 

 who have had opportunities of traversing the country 

 can best estimate the remarkable improvements thus 

 effected. 



It is by means of these improvements in tillage 

 and implements that, with an increased population of 

 3,000,000 souls, we have yet been able to meet their 

 food wants, with scarcely any addition to our foreign 

 imports. The foreign supplies of wheat in 1850, in 

 round numbers, were 3,739,000 quarters, and of flour 

 3,820,000 cwts. In 1859 the imports were, wheat 

 4,000,000 quarters, and flour 3,328,000 cwts. And it 

 should be remembered that the manufacturing indus- 

 tries draw somewhat largely upon wheat supplies now 

 to what they did then, in the increased demand for 

 starch for laundry purposes, for stiffening fabrics, for 

 gam-labels, &c. The consumption of starch cannot be 

 less than 30,000 or 40,000 tone 8-year, priqcipally from 

 wheat, wWqU iayolvw a large consumption of grain, 



