OF AGRICULTURE. 99 



she was superseded by America in the Bonanza 

 farms (now disappeared or rapidly disappearing). 

 Again, as regards the fine breeds of cattle, the 

 splendid state of the meadows and the results 

 obtained in separate farms, there is much to be 

 learned from Britain. But a closer acquaintance 

 with British agriculture as a whole discloses 

 many features of inferiority. 



However splendid, a meadow remains a 

 meadow, much inferior in productivity to a corn- 

 field ; and the fine breeds of cattle appear to be 

 poor creatures as long as each ox requires three 

 acres of land to be fed upon. As regards the 

 crops, certainly one may indulge in some admira- 

 tion at the average twenty-eight or thirty bushels 

 grown in this country ; but when we learn that 

 only 1,600,000 to 1,900,000 acres out of the 

 cultivable 33,000,000 bear such crops, we are 

 quite disappointed. Anyone could obtain like 

 results if he were to put all his manure into one- 

 twentieth part of the area which he possesses. 

 Again, the twenty-eight to thirty bushels no 

 longer appear to us so satisfactory when we learn 

 that without any manuring, merely by means of 

 a good culture, they have obtained at Rotham- 

 stead an average of 14 bushels per acre from the 

 same plot of land for forty consecutive years ; * 



* The Bothamstead Experiments, 1888, by Professor W. 

 Fream, p. 35 seq. It ia well worth noting that Mr. Hall, who 



