TRANSACTIONS OF THE SKCTIONS. 698 



task, but that they have returned to it with a manifest increase 

 of accomplishment for eveiy part of its performance. 



Three numbers of the work ah-eady published are now pre- 

 sented to the Association. Without specifying any portion of 

 the statistical results which they have established, it may be 

 noticed generally that the accounts are so uniformly complete 

 on certain essential points, as to have furnished a set of tables, 

 representing in every parish the quantity of cultivated and un- 

 cultivated land ; the amount of agricultural produce ; the dif- 

 ferent descriptions of the population ; the ecclesiastical state of 

 the parishes, as indicated by the various numbers of the several 

 religious denominations, with the provisions for their respective 

 clergy; the state of education, as shovvn by the number of 

 teachers, and of the young in the course of receiving instruction ; 

 the immber of the poor, and the amount of the provision made 

 for them from the different sources of voluntary contribution, 

 endowment, and assessment. At the same time, these are but 

 the items which admit of being presented in a tabular form, and 

 there is besides in each account a great variety of interesting 

 notices on the several branches of natural and civil history. 



Remarks on the Statistical Reports regarding Agriculture, 

 By Earl Fitzwilliam, F.R.S. 



The expediency of furnishing more minute details with respect 

 to the agricultural part of statistical reports was suggested in 

 these remarks. The statements ought to show not only the 

 total amount of land in cultivation, but also the quantities allotted 

 at the time of the inquiry to the various kinds of produce, the 

 number and value of agricultural implements, the immber of 

 draught and other cattle, and similar details. Lord Fitzvsdlliam 

 stated that he had succeeded in obtaining such returns for some 

 parishes in his own neighbourhood, and observed, that accurate 

 and minutely detailed information for only a small number of 

 places would furnish more safe grounds for correct inferences 

 than could be obtained from a more widely extended, but less 

 precise inquiry. 



The Rev. E. Stanley undertook to prosecute such an inquiry 

 in his own parish (in Cheshire), and to furnish the results at the 

 next meeting of the Association. 



