114 SCIENCE WITH PEACTICE, 1845 TO 1873 



Young calculated tlie acreage of England and Wales at 

 forty-six million acres, and Pitt adopted his estimate as the 

 basis of his Property tax. It is now accurately known ^ 

 how many acres are arable or pasture, what are the crops 

 cultivated, and what the livestock which they carry. And 

 the same information, in less detail, is also supplied with 

 reference to our foreign competitors. Of equal, if not 

 higher, value are the reports of experimental agriculture 

 which are from time to time issued from Rothamsted, the 

 most important station connected with farming in Europe 

 or America. No branch of experimental agriculture or 

 agricultural chemistry can be discussed without reference 

 to the investigations of Sir John Lawes and Dr. Gilbert. 

 It is difficult to estimate the enormous influence which their 

 experiments have already exercised upon farming, or to 

 assign limits to the increased productiveness of the soil 

 which England might have witnessed but for the disas- 

 trous period of 1873-87. 



' From these statistics it appears that the total area of England and 

 Wales is 37,319,221 acres, of whicli, in 1887, 27,823,207 acres are under 

 crops, bare fallow, or grass. 



