MEANING OP AVERAOE CROP. 253 



average produce for every district, by wliich the next 

 year's crop is judged. Thus we talk of a full, or a half, 

 or a three-quarter average, as the produce happens to 

 come up to the calculated average, or fall one-half or 

 one quarter below it. 



Tlie question as to the actual condition of our corn- 

 fields may therefore be put tlius : Has there been any 

 change in the figure whicli at any previous period ex- 

 pressed the average produce of the land, and in what 

 sense ? Is that figure higher now than formerly, or has 

 it remained the same or fallen ? If the figure is higher, 

 this is of course a sign of an improved condition of the 

 land ; if it remains the same, the condition has imder- 

 gone no change ; and if it is lower, there can be no 

 doubt that the condition of the land in tliat district has 

 declined. 



I select for my purpose the statistical data of the pro- 

 duce of the Hessian Rhine district, one of the most 

 fertile provinces of the Grand Duchy of Hesse, with an 

 excellent ^vheat soil, and inhabited by a most industrious 

 and generally well educated population. (' Statistisclie 

 Mittheilungen liber Eheinhessen, von F. Dael, DLL.' 

 Mayence : 1849. Flor. Kupferberg.) 



These data embrace a period of fifteen years, from 

 1833 to 1847 ; they refer accordingly to the time when 

 guano was not yet used as manure in Germany. Tlie 

 use of bone-earth was at that time also still very limited, 

 and hardly worth taking into account. 



A produce of eleven grains of wheat to every two 

 grains sown, of five and a half accordingly, was held 

 to be an average crop for tlie Hessian Rhine district. 

 (20 malters=14 bushels=5120 hectohtres per hectare 

 =2-471 English acres.) 



Taking the figure 1 to ex[)ress an average crop, tlie 



