Influence of the Wet Season of 1^2 on Steam Cnltivatiov. 173' 



certainly looks as thouo:li the fault did not lie in the nutritive 

 power of the food, but rather in its beings not sufficiently palatable 

 to induce the pi^fs to consume it largely. If, by the addition of 

 some highly-flavoured condiment, the pigs could have been 

 induced to eat half as much again of the food, it seems probable 

 that they might have fattened even more rapidly than those at 

 Rothamsted, and the profits in that case would have been very 

 much increased. This, however, is only a surmise, but may be 

 worth testing by direct experiment. It is of course open to- 

 doubt, on the other hand, whether the limit of consumption was 

 not fixed rather hy the crudeness than by the unsavouriness of the 

 food, for palm-nut meal and malt-dust contain fibre in a digestible 

 and an indigestible form in larger proportion than many of the 

 foods commonly giving to fatting pigs. The results obtained by 

 Mr. Lawes in his most valuable and elaborate feeding experi- 

 ments will alwavs serve as a standard by which to test the 

 results of isolated experiments. But for such a test, the pecuniary 

 result of this experiment would not of itself lead one to suspect 

 any great defect in the yield of flesh from the food consumed. 



V. — The Influence of the Wet Season of 1872 on Stcain-cultiva- 

 tion. By C. G. Roberts, of Haslemere, Surrey. 



Within the last six years the agriculturists of this country have 

 had to contend wdth exceptional difficulties caused by two years 

 of extraordinarv drought in 1868 and 1870, and one year of 

 excessive rainfall in 1872. Seasons that thus differ from our 

 ordinary experience are usually unfavourable to the agriculture 

 of the countrv ; and though each farmer may remember some 

 crop that was benefited by an extraordinary season, there are 

 probably few men who can look back with much satisfaction upon 

 the general results obtained in the years 1868-72. 



In agriculture, however, as in other arts, the history of our 

 failures is often more instructive than that of our successes ; 

 and he whom experience teaches may, from past losses, gather 

 material for future gains. " Some of the Agricultural Lessons 

 of 1868 " have been drawn out by Mr. J. C. Morton, in a 

 former number of this Journal,* while Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert 

 have described the " Effects of the Drought of 1870 on some of 

 the Experimental Crops at Rothamsted." f 



In the following paper an attempt has been made to gather 

 together, for comparison, observations and experience from many 

 quarters on a single department of farm practice. The general 



* Second Seriei, vol. v., p. 27, 1869. f Hid., vol. vii.. p. 91, 1871. 



