176 



Tltc Iiiflucncc of tlic 



mation supplied by Members of the Council of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society of England." 



Table I. — Eainfall at 15 Stations in England and Scotland^ 

 recorded in the ' British Eainfall,' conii)iIed by G. J. Symons,. 

 Esq., F.M.S. 



Stations. 



Authorities. 



1870. 



1871. 



1872. 



Greenwich 

 Rochford . . 

 Lewes 

 Gloucester 

 Alcester . . 

 Oxford 

 Nottingham 

 Hull .. .. 

 Durham . . 

 Alnwick . . 

 Dunbar, N.B. 

 Stirling . . 

 Perth 



Aberdeen .. 

 Lawrencckirk 



J. Glaisher. Esq., F.E.S. 

 A. H. White, Esq. .. 

 Mr. J. McLeod . . . . 

 J. G. Hayward, E^q. 

 A. Winkfield. Esq. .. 

 Rev. R. Main, F.K.S. 



C. Paget, Esq 



J. Smith, Esq 



J. L. Plumraer, Esq. . . 

 F. W. Collingwood, Esq. 

 A. Buchan, Esq. 



Mr. Gorrie 



Dr. Miller, F.R.S.E. .. 

 Rev. A. Beverly . . 

 A. Buchan, Esq. 



30-02 

 31-80 

 43-48 

 42-12 

 41-62 

 29-47 

 34-26 

 36-50 

 48-47 

 50-87 

 50-50 

 51-40 

 44-74 

 45-44 

 49-63 



A careful examination of the replies received showed that, 

 unfortunately, only a few of them could be fairly used for com- 

 paring the work done in different years. It was, of course, 

 necessary to reject returns that were stated to be imperfect for 

 any one of the three years, nor could those be fitly included in 

 which any considerable alteration had been made in the tackle, 

 such as using engines of different powers in the different years. 



For the first return of this sort I am indebted to Mr. Carey, 

 of Rochford, who, in the summer of 1873, not only afforded me 

 every facility for inspecting in the fields the effects of work 

 done, but also placed at my disposal the whole of his accounts 

 for 8 double-engine sets of Fowler's tackle employed constantly 

 at hire work in the Eastern Counties ; from these I selected the 

 returns of work done by 5 sets under similar circumstances in each 

 of the three years (Table II. p. 177), and found, to our mutual 

 surprise, that not only was there no marked deficiency in 1872, 

 but that the work done in that year was slightly in excess of that 

 of the two previous years. The reason of this appears, in part, to 

 be that Avhile there were many stoppages from wet weather in 1872 

 these were very frequently employed by the men in cleaning the 

 engine and boiler, and .in doing such necessary repairs as in the 

 finer years often had to be done in dry weather. Thus, in 

 the wet season, no fine days were lost. Besides this, more work 

 was done per day in 1872, because the ground was never in^ 

 that indurated state that hinders the cultivation of undrained 



