Agricultural Statistics. 
579 
a return of crop and stock to the " relieving officer," the name 
suggested to men's fears that species of relief which would realize 
the grammatical paradox of the ' disjunctive conjunction.' Mea- 
surement of acres, oddmark of crops, estimates of produce, and 
head of stock, very pleasant subjects for an agricultural show, 
are a sort of things which, chameleon-like, depend for their colour 
very much on the point of view from which they are looked at : 
and whatever the future fate of English Agricultural Statistics 
may be, — a triumphant one, as we entirely believe and shall 
presently give our reasons for thinking, — the medium of introduc- 
tion was, to say the least, unfortunate. 
Not such the experience in Scotland. " The Scotch farmers," 
says Mr. Maxwell in his Report for 1854, 
" as a body, at once recognised the importance and utility of the measure, and 
endeavoured to support and fonvard it by readily and faithfully affording the 
information required from them ; and it is due to the small minority by 
whom the policy of the inquiry may have been questioned, or its objects mis- 
apprehended, to state, that they, in general, waived their objections, and 
abstained from interfering wdth the success of a measure approved of by the 
bxrlk of their fellow-farmers. The exceptional instances of positive opposition 
and refusal have been extremely rare, and in but few of these have I experienced 
any difficulty in obtaining authentic information from other som'ces ; the 
schedules still unreturned or unaccounted for do not amount to one-fifth of 
one per cent, of the number issued. I have explained in the interim Report the 
system of agency and correspondence established over the countr\^, by the aid 
of nearly 1100 tenant-farmers, acting as enumerators of districts and as mem- 
bers of committee for parishes ; and I cannot too highly eulogise their energy 
and perseverance, more particularly as, from the inaccuracy of the lists, the 
novelty of the measure, and the objections by which it was at first occasionally 
met, they were exposed to a much greater amount of personal trouble than was 
contemplated or will again be required. Many members of committee, indeed, 
mistaking the extent of their duties, went the length of ascertaining and 
reporting the exact acreage of all the crops in their respective parishes. This 
labour, though uncalled for, was far from being throwm away, as it afforded 
me the means of sometimes testing, and, I am happy to say, of confirming the 
accm'acy of individual returns from the same localities. I am enabled, on my 
o^Ti knowledge, to speak as to the value and corthality of the assistance 
generally rendered by all members of committee, especially in regard to 
reducing the arrear lists, while the enumerators of districts concur in repre- 
senting the pains and anxiety evinced by their committees in estimating the 
averages of the crops," 
It would seem to offer a somewhat mortifying contrast to 
turn now to the different picture presented by the Reports of the 
experiment proceeding meantime in England. " As a British 
farmer I feel myself disgraced " (said a Tenant-farmer, at the 
meeting of the Radnor and Knighton Agricultural Club, in 
October last, in reference to some remarks of its president, the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer), " that the experiment of collecting 
agricultural statistics has been attended with greater success in 
Scotland and Ireland than in England." 
