THE POSSIBILITIES OF AGRICULTURE. 95 



represents in the fourteen months more than fifty-six 

 tons (of green fodder) to the acre." * At Lodge Farm 

 they grow forty to fifty-two tons of green crops per acre, 

 after the cereals, without new manuring. At Aldershot 

 they obtain excellent potato crops; and at Romford 

 (Breton's Farm) Colonel Hope obtained, in 1871-2, quite 

 extravagant crops of various roots and potatoes. t 



It can thus be said that while at the present time 

 we give two and three acres for keeping one head of 

 horned cattle, and only in a few places one head of cattle 

 is kept on each acre given to green crops, meadows and 

 pasture, man has already in irrigation (which very soon 

 repays when it is properly made) the possibility of keep- 

 ing twice and even thrice as many head of cattle to the 

 acre over parts of his territory. Moreover, the very 

 heavy crops of roots which are now obtained (seventy- 

 five of IIO tons of beetroot to the acre are not infre- 

 quent) give another powerful means for increasing the 

 number of cattle without taking the land from what is 

 now given to the culture of cereals. 



Another new departure in agriculture, which is full of 

 promises and probably will upset many a current notion, 

 must be mentioned in this place. I mean the almost 

 horticultural treatment of our corn crops, which is widely 

 practised in the far East, and begins to claim our atten- 

 tion in Western Europe as well. 



At the First International Exhibition, in 1851, Major 

 Hallett, of Manor House, Brighton, had a series of very 

 interesting exhibits which he described as "pedigree 

 cereals". By picking out the best plants of his fields, 

 and by submitting their descendants to a careful selec- 



* Ronna, Les Irrigations, vol. iii., p. 67. Paris, 1890. 



f Prof. Ronna gives the following figures of crops per acre : twenty- 

 eight tons of potatoes, sixteen tons of marigolds, 105 tons of beet, no 

 tons of carrots, nine to twenty tons of various cabbage, and so on. Most 

 remarkable results seem also to have been obtained by M. Goppart, by 

 growing green fodder for ensilage. See his work, Manuel de la Culturt 

 dfs Mais et autres Fourrages verts, Paris, 1877. 



