449, Chronicles of Science. | July, 
sumption of increased cattle food tends to the increased fertility of our 
arable lands, and in this way corrects the effect which would follow 
the apportionment of more acres to the growth of grass and green 
crops ; and it is quite possible largely to increase the growth of green 
food without diminishing our extent of green crops. Nowhere does 
liberal management more certainly produce a greater growth than in 
the case of grass. 
Italian rye grass in particular seems to yield a crop which is 
limited only by the quantity of manure applied, and it is through 
this crop, doubtless, that the sewage of our towns will yet yield to 
that “cleanly manipulation,” which is to convert it into milk. 
This subject is again brought under public notice by the appoint- 
ment of a Committee of the House Commons, to inquire into the 
engineering difficulties in its way. What the result will be when 
these are overcome, and the liquid refuse of our towns is spread over 
fields of grass at some distance from the population, is plain from the 
instances of Edinburgh, Rugby, and Croydon. Near the latter town 
we walked the other day over Mr. Marriage’s farm of 300 acres, almost 
wholly under sewage and Italian rye grass, where 30 to 40 tons of grass 
per acre are mown annually, and sold at 12s. to 15s. a ton on the 
ground, and 20s. to 23s, a ton in London. 
On these particular departments of the agricultural field, and espe- 
cially on the great question of the national food supply, in which they 
all unite and culminate, there is great lack of trustworthy information, 
and it must be stated with satisfaction, as strictly within the scope 
of a scientific record, that an additional attempt has just been made by 
Mr. Caird, M.P., to urge on Government the duty of collecting the 
agricultural statistics of the country. 
‘“‘ The need of authoritative (because accurate) published intelligence 
regarding the extent and prospects of our several food crops, in the in- 
terests of consumers and producers no less than in that of commerce 
generally, is becoming more and more admitted. The county police, the 
relieving-officers, and the tax-collectors, have all been suggested as the 
agency by which the information sought might be most easily obtained. 
Mr. Caird now suggests, as a new agency, the engineers employed upon the 
Ordnance Survey. He proposes not that the whole country should be 
mapped out and allotted, but that certain characteristic plots, typical of 
the larger districts of similar soil and climate, should be selected. He sup- 
poses that Great Britain might be divided into 15 districts, and that 
100,009 acres in each district might be taken as characteristic of it. These 
100,000 acres would be laid down on the Ordnance Map, and subjected to 
an exhaustive inquiry. And the 1,500,000 acres thus investigated being 
about one-tenth of the cultivated land of Great Britain, would furnish the 
acreage and yield of their several crops, which, multiplied by ten, would sup- 
ply us with trustworthy information of the gross agricultural produce of 
the country. 
“Mr. Caird points out that there have been three objections hitherto 
urged to the colleetion of agricultural statistics :— 
Sale) heicost; 
“II, The inquisitorial character of the inquiry. 
“ IIl. The difficulty of obtaining accurate returns. 
