1870.] Agriculture. 243 



building, and drainage. And the Eev. J. Stratton calls attention 

 to the social circumstances of the agricultural labourer, and the 

 possibility of a comfortable maintenance for him without the aid of 

 the poor law. 



Among other subjects which have occupied the attention of 

 farmers, both in agricultural periodicals and at the meetings of agri- 

 cultural societies, have been — the management of grass lands, 

 discussed before the London Farmers' Club ; the influence of the 

 moon on weather, plants, and animals, which was very fully discussed 

 (the prevalent idea on the subject being shown to be mere delusion), 

 before a Dorsetshire farmers' club ; the impolicy of the game laws, 

 and especially of the reservation of hares and rabbits on the part of 

 the landowner ; the need of some acknowledgment of tenant-right on 

 the part of landowners in England as well as in Ireland, where the 

 principle is fully acknowledged in Mr. Gladstone's Irish Land Bill ; 

 the prevalence of pleuro-pneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease 

 among cattle, which has been very unusual both as to extent and 

 as to severity ; and the policy of improving the means of education 

 for the agricultural labourer. The introduction of a Government Bill 

 on elementary education — by which local authorities are required to 

 enforce the attendance at public elementary schools of all children 

 under twelve years of age who have no reasonable excuse for their 

 absence — is a matter of great agricultural importance. Such a mea- 

 sure cannot fail to tell most beneficially upon the next generation of 

 both labourers and their employers. 



The agricultural statistics of the country for 1869 have been 

 published during the past quarter. They indicate a considerable 

 reduction in the number of farm live-stock. There were 70,000 

 fewer cattle, 350,000 fewer pigs, and no less than 1,110,000 fewer 

 sheep in 1869 than in 1868. The horse stock has been this year 

 for the first time enumerated, and we now learn that we have 

 1,141,996 farm horses at work in England, 1,561,061 altogether 

 in Great Britain, and close on 2,000,000 in the whole United 

 Kingdom. Turning to the crop reports, about 340,000 more acres 

 are returned as being in the hands of English farmers in 1869 than in 

 1868 — 23,370,639 acres in England, and nearly double that amount 

 in the United Kingdom. There is an increase in England in the 

 area of all grain crops amounting to 20,000 acres of wheat, 84,000 

 acres of barley, 22,000 acres of oats, 14,000 acres of rye, 45,000 

 acres of beans, and no less than 100,000 acres of pease. The clover 

 crop was less in 1869 than in 1868 by no fewer than 365,000 acres, 

 that being no doubt the extent which was ploughed up and sown 

 chiefly with pease, but also with other crops, in consequence of the 

 failure due to the drought of the year before last. 



