28 
Some of the Agricultural Lessons o/"1868. 
^lutumnal and of catch-crop cultivation rendered necessary or 
desirable by the failure of spring-sown green crops ; the altera- 
tions of cropping consequent on the failure of the clover-plant ; 
and the means taken to supplement the diminished winter 
supply of food for stock. These, it was believed, were the 
leading topics to which an inquiry intended to elicit the agri- 
cultural lessons of the season should be addressed ; and the 
answers to these questions form the substance of the following 
Report. In one or two instances the reply has been so complete 
a picture of agricultural improvement and experience that it has 
appeared best to give it separate publication; but generally the 
answers have been massed, their substance being extracted and 
arranged under the headings already given. 
Before, however, proceeding with this account of the agricul- 
tural experience of England in 1868, it is proper to describe 
the character of the season out of which it has arisen. Stated 
shortly, the year was characterised especially by a warm spring 
and a hot, dry summer. January was very cold in the early 
days of the month, Avarmer afterwards, but colder, upon the 
whole, than usual. February was a remarkably warm month, 
often more like spring than winter. March was of average 
temperature and rainfall. And then come the months of our 
Tables, for which the reader has to thank Mr. Andrew Stein- 
metz, long practised in meteorological studies and observations, 
who has here, with the assistance of Mr. G. J. Symons's rainfall 
tables, collected the figures for 1868. These are printed through- 
out the Tables in a special type, so as at once to catch the eye. 
The stations selected as characteristic of the several districts 
into which meteorologists divide the. island are given in the first 
column. Then come the greatest, least, and average tempera- 
tures of the month ; the quantity of rain which fell, and the 
number of days on which it fell ; the direction of the wind, and 
the number of days on which it blew from within the four 
quarters indicated. Coupled with the figures descriptive of each 
station are the corresponding figures, giving the average of a 
past series of years, either of the same station or of one as nearly 
as could be selected within the same district. These are printed 
in ordinary type, and furnish the data with which the figures 
of 1868 are to be compared in order to realise the distinctive 
character of its weather. They are taken from tables printed in 
the last edition of Arthur Young's ' Farmer's Calendar,' to which 
they were supplied by Mr. E. J. Lowe, of Highfield, Notts, 
Lastly, it must be added that the following are the divisions and 
the type-stations in England and Wales and Scotland respec- 
tively referred to in the Tables. 
