290 



THE POPULAE EDUCATOR 



These analyses show that phosphoric acid and sulphate 

 of lime two important chemical substances in the 

 growth of crops greatly predominate in the cornbrash, 

 and are in excess in the great oolite above the inferior 

 oolite. The yield of corn, in bushels, of a fair average 

 crop grown upon an acre, will be seen to be proportionate 

 to the amount of these chemical substances in the soil ; 

 the one containing the largest amount of these salts 

 affording regularly the largest crop : 



The average of rent, which may be gathered from the 

 following table, varies in accordance : 



Inferior Oolite 

 Great Oolite 

 Cornbrasb 



7s. to 20s. the acre. 

 14s. 25s. 

 20s. 40s. 



IV. Comparison between other Countries and parts of 

 Great Britain. 



With a geological map before him, the reader will 

 now be able to infer from the physical features presented 

 by any country the industrial pursuits of the people 

 occupying it. We present a few examples : 



Since the rocks of Normandy and Picardy are identical 

 with those of our midland and southern counties being 

 of oolitic and cretaceous age we should infer that the 

 inhabitants are agricultural, the chalk traces being occu- 

 pied by pasturage, the limestone of the politic strata 

 forming arable soils, whilst its clays are growing a 

 variety of crops. 



Belgium is an equivalent to South Wales or to the 

 Staffordshire district, its four southern provinces being 

 constituted of rocks of the carboniferous age, and pre- 

 senting an association of coal, iron, and limestone, such 

 as we have ascertained to prevail in the English areas 

 now mentioned. The aggregate of all mining and metal 

 industries recorded for 1860 was 10,751,000; the prin- 

 cipal products of its mines are iron-ore, bleiide, calamine, 

 galena, and coal. 



Switzerland, the mountain country par excellence of 

 .Europe, with its metamorphic rocks, might be inferred 

 to be a repetition of the phenomena which obtain in 

 North Wales; but it is otherwise, for these granitic 

 and gneissic rocks are but metamorphosed oolitic and 

 newer strata ; and as we have shown that deposits of 

 these formations are usually unproductive in minerals, 

 Switzerland, if our generalisations are correct, can never 

 be a mining country, and, from its mountainous cha- 

 racter, it can only be a pastoral one. 



Saxony presents, in its rock masses and its mineral 

 wealth, similar conditions to those which prevail in 

 Devon and Cornwall. 



Norway, from an agricultural point of view, , is to 

 Northern Europe what the Highlands of Scotland are 

 to Great Britain; its rocks, however, contain some of 

 the richest deposits of iron ore in the world. 



GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE MINERALS RAISED AND METALS 

 PRODUCED IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND IN 1867, EX- 

 TRACTED FROM THE "MINING RECORDS." 



Total Value 



31,929,076 



GENERAL SUMMARY OF COAL EXPORTED FROM THE UNITED 

 KINGDOM IN 1867, DISTINGUISHING THE COAL-FIELDS FROM 

 WHICH EXPORTED, AND THE COUNTRIES TO WHICH SENT, 

 AS COMPARED WITH THE TOTAL EXPORTS FOR 1866. 



