1864. ] Agriculture. 315 
The following are the imports of Linseed and of Linseed cakes 
during the past six years :— 
Linseed . «% qrs. 1,017,844 1,270,911 1,330,623) 1,160,270) 1,088,472'1,104,578 
| 1858. | 1359, | 1860. | 1861, 1862, 1863. 
| 
| | 
Oil cakes. . tons ele gas 
1oss26 113,725 101,156 88,566 
On the other hand there is a growing conviction of the extent of 
fraud by adulteration, to which the purchaser of these cakes is liable. 
The consequence is a probably unprecedented consumption of home- 
grown grain; and to this the low prices of barley and of wheat have no 
doubt contributed. Whenever the price of grain or whole meal is one- 
eighth, or thereabouts, that of meat, it is profitable to use it as food for fat- 
tening stock. And of course there is a great additional advantage besides 
. the mere sale at a good price of inferior grain which is derived from this 
method of their disposal. The enrichment of the manure which is thus 
affected is an additional profit of great value. To how large an extent 
this is made use of, let the following example suffice to show. It relates 
to a farm on the edge of Woking Common, over which we lately walked, 
where the soil is naturally extremely poor, but made wonderfully pro- 
ductive by a large consumption of purchased food for fattening stock. 
On about 500 acres of this poor sandy land, close on the edge of what 
may be called the dreariest waste in the island, a herd of 50 to 70 cows 
is milked for the London market ; a dry flock of Hampshire Downs, 
varying from 200 to 400 head, is fed; and hogs, ranging in number 
from 1,500 to 2,000 per annum, are fattened up to 10 or 12 scores a 
piece. All this is done so long as meat and bacon are at ordinary prices, 
with a small profit; but the principal advantage no doubt is, that the 
naturally poor soil of the farm is thus made capable of growing 5 
quarters of wheat, 5 or 6 of barley, and 30 to 40 tons of mangold-wur- 
zel per acre. The swine, bought at 5 to 7 score a piece, are kept till 
10 or 12, making meat at the rate of rather more than 1 Ib. a day, and 
receiving half a peck of meal daily upon an average, viz. one-half barley 
meal, and the rest wheat, Indian corn, lentils, peas, beans, buck-wheat, 
or whatever else is cheapest. 
Of course, with such a great quantity of stock to feed, purchases of 
food are very large; 500 up to 1,000 bushels of grain are used weekly ; 
and the annual return of meat—12,000 lbs. of mutton, 150,000 Ibs. of 
bacon, and about 40,000 gallons of milk—equal in all to 200,000 Ibs. 
of meat per annum—amounts to a manufacture of 400 Ibs. of meat per 
acre — which is, we believe, quite unparalleled. 
The effect is seen in the high artificial fertility of this naturally 
poor land. The large quantity of rich manure, deep cultivation, and 
sheep-treading, are the three agencies employed, and their success, 
unaided, as in other pure sandy districts, by any possibility of marl- 
ing or claying the land, has been unequivocal. No contrast is so 
great as that existing between the luxuriant growth of the fields on the 
