( 510 ) [Oct., 



CHRONICLES OF SCIENCE, 



|iukbin0 % ^prombhujs of Jtanub Societies at Home auo gibroab ; 



mib Hotbs of t §twd Sdnxiiht ^iterate. 



1. AGEICULTUEE. 



The dronglit of 1870, though not so utterly destructive of succu- 

 lent growth during the summer season as that of 1868, has been 

 more injurious on the whole. Beginning earlier and ending later, 

 it has spoiled both the hay crop and the aftermath ; and the wheat 

 crop too, generally so able to withstand a dry summer, has materially 

 suffered. The returns from the correspondents of the ' Agricultural 

 Gazette ' declare the wheat crop to be below an average : and all 

 other grain crops, except barley throughout Scotland, and perhaps 

 the pea crop throughout the country generally, are still more below 

 an average. Neither in its return of food for man nor in its pro- 

 mise of food for beast, does the harvest of 1870 compare favourably 

 with its predecessors. Mr. Lawes, of Eotharusted, who has for 

 twenty-seven years subjected the wheat crop to specific treatment 

 of many different kinds, reports upon the other hand his produce 

 to be this year above the average. There has been, he says, a 

 splendid seed-forming and seed-niaturing season, acting however in 

 many cases upon an insufficient amount of plants, and it is probable 

 therefore that some of the heaviest and some of the lightest crops 

 ever known in England have been grown this year. 



Among the leading agricultural events of the past quarter are 

 the great annual meetings of the Royal Agricultural Societies of the 

 three kingdoms. The English Agricultural Society at Oxford and 

 the Highland Society at Dumfries have had capital meetings. The 

 Irish Agricultural Society was less successful. One of the most 

 interesting circumstances of ihe Oxford meeting was the award of 

 a valuable prize to the best-managed farm of the district. It has 

 been somewhat of a surprise and perhaps a disappointment to the 

 agricultural optimists of the day, that the very competent jury ap- 

 pointed by the Society to examine the competing farms should have 

 placed highest upon the list one which owes but little to the im- 

 proved stock and implements whose use and introduction the 

 Society has fostered. It is a somewhat old-fashioned style of 

 management which has been thus decorated. The four-course rota- 

 tion of wheat, turnips, barley, and clover in succession is the crop- 

 ping of the farm ; the live stock is inferior, and comparatively few 

 modern implements are in use. The visitor who in the morning 



