EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
The contents of this volume are confined as much as possible 
to the Agriculture of England and Wales ; but the first article 
gives a General View of the Agriculture of the three kingdoms 
which constitute Great Britain and Ireland, and in the articles 
upon Land Law and Taxation it has been impossible to separate 
entirely the English from the Scotch and Irish branches of the 
subject. It has also been difficult to draw rigid lines of demar- 
cation between the subjects assigned to the different authors, but 
care has been taken to prevent avoidable repetition. 
Several causes have combined to give English Agriculture a 
diversified character. The varied character of the soils of the 
country, the inequalities in the climate of different districts, 
and the situation of farms in relation to the large towns, are 
all potent causes of differences in farm-management. Again, 
under the influences of Free-trade, an insular position, and a 
dense population chiefly engaged in manufactures and com- 
merce, England has become a vast Avarehouse and mart for 
the agricultural products of the civilised world. Further, social 
and political considerations, and the natural love of a country 
life, which is one of the characteristics of the English people, 
have led capitalists to purchase land at a price which yields a 
smaller immediate interest for money than any other form of 
investment, while they induce the tenant-farmer to be satisfied 
with a less, and more uncertain, rate of profit from his annual 
operations, than is expected by the merchant, who turns his 
capital over several times in the year, and thus has many chances 
of neutralising an isolated loss. 
i It will be easily understood that the numerous phases of 
u 2 
