370 Chronicles of Science. [July. 



Though, however, in these two cases, the process has obtruded 

 itself on public attention, it must not be supposed that it is only here 

 that it has been in operation. Almost everywhere the gradual rise 

 of wages in agricultural districts is in progress. Young men 

 refuse employment at the current rate, and go elsewhere for work, 

 and employers are forced to pay a larger sum to their successors. 

 In this way, we may hope that the improved condition of the 

 labouring class will gradually extend, and better cottages and greater 

 comforts will be offered to retain the hands that farmers need. In 

 some few instances, attempts have been made to introduce the 

 co-operative system into agriculture. Labourers have been offered 

 a share in the profits of the business ; the capital of the employer 

 receiving a fixed annual sum as interest, the labour of the work- 

 man receiving a fixed weekly sum as wages, and the surplus, 

 if any. being divided according to a proportion mutually agreed 

 upon between the two. This system is less likely to gain ground 

 in farming (where so many risks are run, and where the surplus 

 may be sometimes large and sometimes less than nothing ) than it 

 is in trade or manufacture, where the risks being less, the returns 

 are much more uniform. Any attempt, however, to attach to one 

 another the various classes interested in agriculture is praiseworthy, 

 whether it be organized in this way or. better still, be the fruit of 

 personal relationship and friendship between the employers and 

 their workmen, and their families one by one. 



The subject of emigration, hitherto discussed chiefly in con- 

 nection with an over-population of the labouring class, has during 

 the past quarter been the subject of a lecture before the London 

 Farmers' Club, in connection rather with our surplus numbers in 

 the class of agricultural employers. And the Eev. G-. Smythies has 

 thus pointed out to farmers and their families the opening that 

 exists in the L'nited States, in Canada, at the Cape, in Australia, 

 and in the countries adjoining the Eiver Plate — the opportunities 

 for a prosperous agricultural career, where a smaller capital with 

 the necessary industry and skill will suffice to produce a better 

 income than can be obtained from farming here. A work by Mr. 

 Latham, for many years resident near Buenos Ayres. in which the 

 agricultural advantages of that neighbourhood have been impartially 

 related, has been lately published by Messrs. Longman, and it is 

 significant of the overflowing numbers in the upper agricultural 

 class, that the whole edition has met with an immediate sale. 



Among the agricultural publications of the past quarter, we 

 must not forget the volume by Dr. Sellar and Mr. H. Stephens, 

 of Edinburgh, on " Physiology at the Farm in aid of Piearing and 

 Feeding Live Stock" (Blackwoods ), which well deserves to be widely 

 studied by the farmer, as a clear and satisfactory exposition of the 

 Physiology and Chemistry of nutrition, and a description of the 



