8i CJironicIes of Science. [Jan., 



It is, of course, impossible to state in a single page the substance of 

 so full a description of the condition of the Enghsh agricultural 

 labourer as is given in this blue book, and we must be satislied there- 

 fore with commending it to the careful study of our readers, who 

 will find on its perusal not only how much need there is in the 

 facts of the case for earnest efibrt everyw^here on the part of bene- 

 volent men, but also how many benevolent men in all classes of 

 society are earnestly desirous and laborious in the efi'ort that is 

 already everywhere being made. 



No account of the agricultural proceedings of the past quarter 

 is at all complete which omits to mention the efibrts of local agri- 

 cultural societies, and the many instructive lectures, papers, and 

 discussions which are thus published, first locally, and then through 

 the agricultural papers generally. Among those of the past few 

 months, we may specify a capital account by Mr. Scott Skirving; 

 before the East Lothian Agricultural Society, of the natural his- 

 tory of the farm, so far as the birds, which are at once the friends 

 and enemies of the farmer, are concerned ; also a good report, by 

 Mr. Henderson, of Stirhng, before a farmers' club in that neigh- 

 bourhood, of the relations of the sciences of Geology, Botany, and 

 Chemistry to the practice of the farm. To Mr. C. S. Eead, M.P., 

 we owe an excellent report on the improvements of late years in 

 the agricultm-e of Norfolk, read before the British Association at 

 their last meeting ; to Mr. Harding, of Somersetshire, a useful 

 lecture before a Cheshire farmers' club on the cheese manufacture ; 

 to Mr. Everett, of Newbury, a paper on th.e social as w^ell as the 

 directly practical results of small farms and long leases ; to Mr. 

 Saunders, of Watercombe, in Dorsetshire, a good paper on roots as 

 food for stock ; to Professor Coleman, before the Chamber of Agri- 

 culture for the North Eiding of Yorkshire, a lecture on artificial 

 manures ; to Mr. E. Scrutton, of Borobridge, a report on the imple- 

 ments of the farm ; to Mr. Hallett, of Brighton, a history of his 

 own experiments in maintaining the pedigree of cultivated wheat 

 and barley ; to Mr. Startin, before the Midland Counties Farmers' 

 Club, a discussion of the incidence of the poor's rate as afi'ecting 

 the character of cottage property ; to Mr. Mechi, a discursive and 

 suggestive lecture on the undeveloped character of British agricul- 

 ture; and to Mr. J, K. Fowler, of Aylesbury, a very excellent 

 history of the influoncos which railways have exerted in the pro- 

 motion of agricultural improvement. The two last-named lectures 

 were given before the London Farmers' Club. We have not enu- 

 merated a quarter of the subjects which have thus all over the 

 country been made the occasion of vigorous discussion at farmers' 

 meetings, and which agricultural readers find reported at more or 

 less length in the agricultural weekly papers. Certainly, however, 

 the Agricultural Chronicle of the quarter would be altogether imper- 



