206 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



question when we learn what has been done. No good cultivator 

 should willingly stop short of what has been reached by others, 

 nor should even this satisfy him. if there is a possibility of going 

 beyond it. 



In statistical works, 26 bushels are put down as the average 

 yield of wheat through the kingdom ; a few years since, 18 

 bushels were named as the customary yield. This would argue 

 a very great improvement. There are not a few who even 

 now insist that 14 bushels are the average product, taking the 

 whole kingdom together. This seems to me much too low. 

 Among all the farms which I have visited, I have not found a 

 single farmer who has rated his product so low. On the other 

 hand, under good cultivation, I have scarcely ever found it less 

 than 32 bushels. I have very frequently found it full 40 

 bushels. In theTens of Lincolnshire, on the redeemed land, 

 I am informed, on the best authority, that the yield is very often 

 from 7 to 8 quarters, that is, from 56 to 64 bushels per acre. A 

 much higher amount than this has been named. One of the 

 best farmers in the kingdom, in the county of Berks, assured me 

 that the crop upon his large farm, in 1844-5, averaged 56 bushels 

 to the acre ; and it is well attested that a crop grown in Norfolk 

 county, in the same year, produced 1 1 quarters 2 bushels 3 pecks 

 per acre, that is to say, 90 bushels 3 pecks per acre the largest 

 crop on record, within my knowledge. 



When I received from most credible authority the account of 

 the last crop, so very extraordinary as it is, I felt the strongest 

 desire to ascertain, if possible, by what means it was pro 

 duced, and especially whether there was any peculiarity in the 

 soil, to which so great a yield was to be ascribed. This desire 

 was felt as strongly by other members of the Royal Agricul 

 tural Society ; and they directed the very eminent chemist of 

 the society, Professor Playfair, to make an analysis of the soil 

 and report it. I shall give my readers this report at large, which 

 has been published in their Journal. 



Two portions of the soil one of the surface, the other of the 

 subsoil were placed in his hands. &quot; I place,&quot; he says, &quot; for the 

 information of the council, the analysis in two forms, one of 

 these giving the actual statement of the analysis, the other indi 

 cating the probable method in which the ingredients are asso 

 ciated in the soil. 



