ALLIANCE OF SCIENCE WITH PRACTICE 361 



Stephens, Dr. Lindley, and John Chalmers Morton, as Editor of 

 the Agricultural Gazette did excellent service. The school-master 

 was abroad, and the foundation of Cirencester Agricultural College 

 in 1845 was a sign of the times. The need for agricultural 

 statistics, which had long been severely felt, had been emphasised by 

 Sir James (then Mr.) Caird in 1850-1. But it was not till 1866 that 

 the want was supplied. Attempts had been frequently made to 

 obtain statistical information, but without success. Fear of 

 increased taxation closed the mouths of landowners and farmers. 

 In 1855 a House of Lords Committee recommended the compulsory 

 collection of statistics through the agency of the Poor-Law officials. 

 Eleven years later (1866) the Agricultural Returns of Great Britain 

 for the first time supplied an accurate account of the acreage, the 

 cropping, and the live-stock of the country. 



The new alliance of science with practice bore rich and immediate 

 fruit. Science helped practical farming in ways as varied as they 

 were innumerable. Chemists, geologists, physiologists, entomolo- 

 gists, botanists, zoologists, veterinaries, bacteriologists, architects, 

 mechanics, engineers, surveyors, statisticians, lessened the risks and 

 multiplied the resources of the farmer. Steam and machinery 

 diminished his toil and reduced his expenses. His land was neither 

 left idle nor its fertility exhausted. Improved implements rendered 

 his labour cheaper, quicker, surer, and more effective. New means 

 of transport and increased facilities of communication brought new 

 markets to his door. Commodious and convenient buildings re- 

 placed tumble-down barns and draughty sheds. Veterinary skill 

 saved the lives of valuable animals. The general level of agriculture 

 rose rapidly towards that which only model farms had attained in 

 the previous period. Sound roads, well-arranged homesteads, heavy 

 crops, well-bred stock, skilled farmers, and high farming character- 

 ised the era which adopted the Royal Agricultural Society's rule of 

 Practice with Science Cut off from their old resource of increasing 

 production by adding to the cultivated area, deprived of the aid of 

 Protection, agriculturists were compelled to adopt improved methods. 

 The age of farming by extension of area had ended ; that of 

 farming by intension of capital had begun. 



To trace out in full detail one single point in which science has 

 helped farmers would be the work of a separate volume. Selection 

 and outline are all that is possible. Probably the most striking con- 

 tributions which, during the period under review, were made to the 



