82 Chronicles of Science. [Jan., 



subject of detailed discussion, and the following are the figures 

 arrived at as true of the last sixteen years : — 



Average Acreable Prouvce of Wheat. 



England and Wales 285 bushels per acre. 



Scotland 278 » » 



Great Britain 28^ „ „ 



Ireland 23^ „ „ 



Uuitcd Kingdom 28^ ,, „ 



Among the other facts to which this elaborate jmper leads we 

 may quote the following : — That the average annual consumption 

 of wheat per head of the population is about 6^ bushels in 

 England and Wales, scarcely 4:\ bushels in Scotland, and only 

 about 3^ bushels in Ireland; or for the whole of Great Britain 

 about 6 bushels, and for the whole of the United Kingdom about 

 5-|- bushels per head. Taking the population of the United 

 Kingdom to be about 30,800,000, and the average consumption 

 of wheat to be bh bushels per head, this gives a present require- 

 ment of rather more than 21,000,000 quarters annually. And with 

 a reasonable theory both of the increase in population and of the 

 gradual increase of consumption per head, the requirements of 

 the country may be no less than 23,000,000 quarters annually five 

 years hence. Unless, then, the home produce of the country shall 

 largely increase, there will be required over the next five years an 

 average importation of between nine and ten million quarters of 

 wheat per annum. 



We may mention as illustrative of that change of cropping to 

 which Mr. Lawes in his discussion of this subject had adverted, that 

 the practice of taking barley in immediate succession to wheat upon 

 the land is gradually increasing ; being justified, first, of course, by 

 the fact that good crops are thus obtaijiable, but also, as compared 

 with what was thought good practice years ago, by the increased 

 facilities both of eflicient tillage and lil)eral manuring which English 

 farmers now possess. By the aid of steam cultivation, thorough 

 autumn tillage is noAv of easy accomplishment ; whilst, though the 

 wheat crop taken after beans, and still more after clover, which 

 itself succeeds a grain crop, very often leaves a stubble foul and 

 needing fallowing, yet in ordinary seasons there is anijde oppor- 

 tunity for a thorough cleansing of the land before the winter ; and 

 as regards manuring, our guanos and superphosphates enable the 

 farmer to keep the land stocked with fertilizing substances, however 

 it be cropped. Thus Mr. C. S. Bead, M.'P., at the Norwich 

 IMeotiiig of tlio British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, declarod : — "I have this j'car, with a dressing of 1 cwt. 

 of guano and 2 cwt. of superphosphate per acre, grown on a wheat 

 stubble that had been dug 12 inches deep with the steam-cul- 



