218 Chronicles of Science. [April, 



through which a root can penetrate shall contain its share of the 

 application ready as the food which that root requires. 



The recent publication of the agricultural statistics collected by 

 the Board of Trade does not materially alter the conclusions, to 

 which students of that subject had already been led as to the actual 

 and relative areas of the different crops cultivated in Great Britain. 

 The wheat crop in England and Wales was formerly estimated 

 at 3,800,000 acres, it is now declared to be 3,274,000. The 

 total corn crops of the country occupied 7,920,000 acres in 1866, 

 against 8,437,000 at which they were estimated in 1857. And the 

 green crops (food for cattle, &c.) are put at 2,890,000 acres, against 

 about 3,000,000 which was the estimate ten years ago. The area 

 returned as permanent pasture now is 10,255,000; it was formerly 

 estimated at 10,166,000 acres. 



A clever pamphlet by Mr. Heywood, of Dunham Massey, 

 Cheshire, points out to farmers that, as the cultivators of living 

 plants and animals, they cannot do just what they please, as they 

 might if they were the manufacturers or manipulators of merely dead 

 material. Living creatures follow their own natural laws, and our 

 efforts for the promotion of their health and productiveness must be 

 obedient to their nature. Indeed, as stated in the 'Agricultural 

 Gazette ' when reviewing Mr. Heywood's pamphlet, the keeper of a 

 living thing must be its most humble servant if it is to prosper in 

 his hands. The nature of the creature, not the arbitrary will of its 

 master, must determine the treatment it receives. And the fact 

 that animals, and even plants, are not mere machines, capable of 

 producing a double quantity of the manufactured article from a 

 double quantity of the raw material supplied to them, rebukes a 

 great deal of that exuberant and urgent, and often wild advice, 

 which is frequently addressed to practical agriculturists by the 

 amateur. They know by long experience the limits of this kind 

 which are imposed by nature, and against which, or over which, no 

 man ever went uninjured. Within those limits, however, it is the 

 part of a wise and energetic man thoroughly to cultivate the field 

 which is his own ; and thus successful high farming consists in select- 

 in g animals and plants for cultivation which have great natural 

 powers of assimilating food, and in treating them fully up to this 

 their precocious nature. 



The new organization of Chambers of Agriculture, to which 

 reference has been made in previous Chronicles, has gradually de- 

 veloped during the past quarter. Such chambers now exist in 

 almost all parts of the country, and there is a central institution in 

 London professing to act as" a common mouthpiece for them all, 

 through which the voice of the agricultural world may be urged 

 upon the Home Secretary, in connection with any amendment or 

 enactment of law that is desired. The consideration of the Turn- 



