SS2 = 66 
British Agriculture. 
advancement of orphans ; endowment of clergy, lecturers, and 
for sermons ; Church purposes and repairs ; maintenance of 
Dissenting places of worship and their ministers ; public 
parochial uses ; support of almshouses and pensioners ; distri- 
bution of articles in kind and money ; medical hospitals and 
dispensaries. The property which has thus in the past been 
voluntarily devoted by benevolent persons as an endowment for 
Their niagni- charitable objects in England, is equal to more than one-half of 
f^^'P"/"^ that possessed by the Established Church. If we add the amount 
Wltll tnG cost ^ 
of the civil ad- annually expended in the United Kingdom on the relief of the 
ministration, poor and in aid of education, it appears that the annual expendi- 
ture on objects of charity, exceeds the whole cost of the civil 
administration of the country. 
I have now brought to a close this general view of the present 
state of British Agriculture, the preparation of which I was 
invited to undertake by the Council of the Royal Agricultural 
Society ; very inadequately executed, I fear, but with as much 
care and accuracy as a wide experience enabled me to command. 
I have sought to place in a clear light the leading characteristics 
of our various systems as influenced by soil and climate, by the 
progress of population and wealth and its increasing demands, 
and by the distribution of landed property and the relations 
subsisting between the classes engaged in its cultivation. I 
have entered with some minuteness into those special features 
which chiefly distinguish ours from Continental agriculture, in 
order to facilitate comparison with that of other European 
countries. The Papers which are to follow will fully develop 
the several branches of the subject, each being the work of an 
accomplished writer specially acquainted with that part which 
he has undertaken. The state of the law as affecting agriculture, 
the pressure of public and local taxation, the requisite amount 
of farm capital, and the general subject of practical aj^riculture, 
will each be comprehensively treated. The cultivation of fruits, 
vegetables, and hops, will be described. The condition of the 
agricultural labourers will receive special notice. The influence 
of chemical discoveries on modern agriculture will be the theme 
of the distinguished Chemist of the Society, Dr. Voelcker ; and 
a description of the position and widely extended usefulness of 
the Royal Agricultural Society itself, by the Secretary, will 
fitly complete the subject. 
