296 



THE FxVRMER'S MAGAZINE. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 



Compared with continental countries, tlio Bpitish 

 slands, in their climate, T^resent a remarkable 

 contrast. Whilst in similar latitudes of the former 

 the thermometer ranges annually from low de- 

 grees of winter cold to high degrees of summer heat, 

 in the latter tliis instrument indicates a relatively me- 

 dium temperature, neither descending nor ascending 

 in its fluctuations to any extreme point. On the con- 

 trary, a medium temperature is indicated throughout 

 tlie whole year. In the entire department of meteoro- 

 logical science, there is no subject more interesting or 

 instructive than that which explains the cause of our 

 climatic mediocrity j but it would palpably be out of 

 place to enter on this now. We proceed, however, 

 to remark lurther, in connection with this topic, that 

 to the same physical agencies another important dif- 

 ference is due, namely, that which gives to our insular 

 weather a prevalence of cloud, and a fitful unsteadi- 

 ness unknown in countries placed in dissimilar geo- 

 graphical circumstances. A good English season, in 

 the miud of the English farmer, consists, not in the 

 absence of vicissitude, but only in tliebad turns in each 

 year being relatively less enduring than the favourable 

 ones. Accordingly, influenced by thess circumstances 

 of incertitude, one of the most conspicuous charac- 

 teristics of operative British farming centres on that 

 flexibility in the arrangement of details which enables 

 tlie husbandman to find work for his labourers in the 

 wet or stormy day as well sis in the fair one, and thereby 

 to neutralize to himself and tliem the evil effects of 

 tliis unsledfastness of season. 



Again, in looking back into the meterological annals 

 of this country, the very important fact presents itself, 

 that in taking a tolerably extensive period of years into 

 account, it is seen that not only do secular variations 

 occur in point of season, but also that these changes 

 arrange themselves, so to speak, in combined groups ; 

 insomuch that ten, fifteen, or twenty years together will 

 be found chronicled as continually good, and the next 

 ten, fifteen, or twenty recorded as bad. Indeed the 

 seemingly capricious term of nineteen years' tenure 

 constantly inserted in the Scottish lease originated in 

 the belief that the tenant entering under the malign 

 influences of a then bad epoch, would be sure to reap 

 a corresponding share of a succeeding good one before 

 the expiration of his holding. But, whilst, as has al- 

 ready been remarked, no feature of English farming 

 stands out in more prominent relief than the ingenuity 

 displayed in accommodating the daily operations of the 

 farm to an almost daily variation of weather, it is ab- 

 solutely true that, as respects the alternate cyclical re- 

 volutions to which we have also just alluded, no thought 

 or consideration has ever been given by our husband- 

 men. 



Here, however, the reader may naturally exclaim 



that, until the prognostics of sea'ons arc better under- 

 stood than they are at present, to vary the general 

 yearly arrangement of the farm upon any knowledge 

 so utterly unreliable as that of weather wisdom, 

 would assuredly terminate in ruin and bankruptcy. 

 Granting the proposition as thus put, let us proceed a 

 step further in our argument; and in doing so, we shall 

 enter, though briefly, on that very delightful branch 

 of modern education termed " physical, geography." 

 Now, amongst the teachings of this science is revealed 

 the important natural fact that, in like manner as every 

 species of animal has its prescribed province of habita- 

 tion on the face of the earth, insomuch that beyond 

 that province it will l)e unable either to preserve itself 

 in health or life, or to propagate its kind, so also the 

 self-same law of vital creation which induces this 

 phenomenon in animal being, renders the successful 

 transplantation impossible of any given genus of plants 

 from its natural habitat to one materially different in soil 

 or climate. Unless, that is, an artificial treatment be 

 bestov.ed on it of a kind specially suited to the 

 nature of the removed exotic, and of a degree com- 

 mensurate with the greatness of the topographical 

 change. Thus, for instance, we all intuitively know 

 that somewhere the wheat plant must originally have 

 grown into maturity and ripened its seed, and resown 

 itself from age to age, unaided by human interference. 

 From actual experience wo also know, that in this 

 country no such spontaneous prosperity could exist, 

 and that, left to itself, the plant would speedily become 

 extinct j yet cultivated with a certain amount and kind 

 of tillage appliances, it lives, and brings forth fruit in 

 more or less abundance. But while this is true in the 

 tritest degree, it is no less a physical fact, although 

 one very little reflected on, that to even the most re- 

 condite husbandry is denied the power of indefinitely 

 extending the region of cultivation of this cereal. 

 In every good physical atlas containing a chart de- 

 scriptive of the distribution of the cultivated plants used 

 as food, both Great Britain and Ireland are placed at 

 the extremity of the northern province of wheat culti- 

 vation — several excellent authorities even holding the 

 northern division of this island to be beyond the pale. 

 To what point has this reasoning brought us ? To 

 this : that to grow wheat^in [abundant yield the Eng- 

 lish farmer has to bestow labour and incur expense in 

 order to countervail the great disadvantages of his ex- 

 treme geographical position as a wheat grower, of far 

 greater amount than is required of his agricultural 

 brother in continental countries. But that is not all, 

 for while in scientific determinations such as we have 

 been referring to, in regard to the northern boundary 

 of remunerative wheat culture, it is enough to resort to 

 mean or average data, it is here necessary, in giving 

 the subject a practical application in reference to our 



