and the Cattle Census. 415 



forces itself more and more upon our attention. With advancing 

 civilization the demand for an increased quantity of animal food 

 to enable men to maintain the physical vigour necessary for the 

 arduous battle of life, is everywhere apparent, and the augmented 

 prices of to-day warn us that the supply must be increased, or 

 the cost will be higher in the morrow of the future. Probably 

 no European nation consumes yearly so large a proportion of 

 meat per head of its population as do the artisan and hard- 

 working middle-classes of this island, and it is fortunate that our 

 continental neighbours have appetites which are satisfied with 

 less substantial fare, and so they are able to spare us of their 

 superabundance. 



Whether or not our own soil can be made more productive in 

 live stock is a matter worthy the attention of agriculturists of all 

 classes, and it may be safely left in the hands of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society to ponder over the problem and to find its 

 ultimate solution. 



With regard to the practical results likely to flow from the 

 attempt now first thoroughly made to get reliable statistics of 

 one branch of agriculture, some have been already developed, 

 and more are in embryo ; for it appears from a statement recently 

 made by Sir Stafford Northcote in the House of Commons that 

 in two months hence the result of a cognate inquiry into the 

 statistics of the several kinds of crops, &c., will be made public. 

 We shall then have an approximation to a complete Return of 

 the Agricultural Statistics of the United Kingdom for the pre- 

 sent year, and it will be a lasting disgrace to us as a nation if 

 we do not follow up so good a beginning. 



We have it on the highest authority that " sweet are the uses 

 of adversity," and no one who has watched the current of public 

 opinion in the last twelve months will doubt that to the calamity 

 which has recently befallen our flocks and herds is due in 

 great measure the present favourable disposition of farmers as a 

 body to contribute for public use information which but a short 

 time ago they had strong objection to divulge. There can be 

 no doubt that it is in the power of the better educated and the 

 more intelligent farmers to do the commonwealth good service 

 now and hereafter by endeavouring to remove the mistaken 

 doubts of the weaker brethren, who see in schedules with many 

 columns only the trap of the Government, or the local Exchequer. 

 Their own example will be most telling, but they may further 

 point out, that if increased taxation were the concealed motive of 

 the Government, it would hardly rely upon a mere voluntary 

 system of returns. 



VOL. II.— S. S. 2 E 



