166 
Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 
British islands (not including our mountain ranges) ; but the 
average proportion falling in the summer quarter of the year is 
only 4 per cent., instead of nearly a fourth as with us. A waving 
line drawn across the map of Europe through the countries men- 
tioned, and including the north coasts of the Black Sea, would 
define the limits of those " occasional droughts," which have 
been referred to as such great drawbacks to the agrriculture of 
France and South Russia. The annual rainfall on the coasts of 
Spain is 25 inches, and in some spots 35 inches ; while on the 
table-lands of the interior, surrounded by mountains which 
precipitate the rain-clouds, the annual rainfall is only 10 inches. 
The annual rainfall of central and eastern Europe, Moravia, 
Poland, and Russia is 15 inches. In the west it rains twice as 
many days as in the east of Europe. Ireland and the Nether- 
lands are the culminating points of precipitation for the rain- 
clouds of the Atlantic, drifted hither by the prevailing westerly 
winds. The rainfall decreases eastward and southward. The 
effects of this abundant moisture are seen in the " emerald " 
green even of the topmost hills in Kerry, and in the rich pasturage 
of Holland. 
The moisture of our climate is indispensable to natural 
pastures and to turnips. South of Paris, turf and turnips do not 
thrive. Spain is only famous for sheep and cattle through the 
extent of its unploughed land ; they pick up a living by ranging 
widely and migrating according to the season. England is 
the land of turnips, and of the farming that follows them ; 
and the Mediterranean is the land of dates and grapes, figs 
and olives. Corn and cattle farming do not find a home under 
the clear skies of the south ; consequently, the countries of the 
Mediterranean import corn, and, in proportion to their wealth, 
will continue to arrest the supplies sent westward from the Black 
Sea or from the rising corn-port of Trieste. 
Irrigation is the first step of agricultural improvement in 
these dry countries. The benefit of carrying off the surplus 
water from heavy land is as nothing compared with that of 
leading on water, on dry soils, in a hot climate, because they are 
absolutely sterile without it. Egypt, without the Nile, would 
immediately become a desert of sand. When the river rises only 
a few inches less than usual, the lean kine appear at once. The 
abandoned works of irrigation are among the traces of departed 
greatness, so frequent in the countries of the Mediterranean. In 
Syria, where the scanty population of Turks and Arabs is often 
visited by famine, " the country, reticulated with canals " for 
irrigation, shows by what means a teeming population was once 
supported. Arabia Deserta is a dreary waste of sand, because 
there are no rivers to fertilise the soil. It was by irrigation that 
