312 
Agricultural Meteorology. 
to Ills countrvmen as a man of science, an accurate observer, and 
a practical agriculturist; a combination so rarely met with as to 
render the results of his studies on a subject which had been the 
main occupation of his life more than usually interesting. 
With one remarkable exception (the breeding of stock,* which 
he does not consider as necessarily connected with the profession 
of the husbandman) the range he treats of is very comprehensive, 
embracing the various questions of the limits, economical, sta- 
tistical, agricultural (properly so called), and the meteorological, 
or those depending on climate. The first imply an examination 
of the mean amount of produce, the price it will command, and 
the necessary expenses of cultivation. 
The second regards the adequacy of the indigenous population 
to gather in the harvest of the crops which it raises, and which 
cannot be omitted from the consideration of the agricultural 
capabilities of a country. In large cultivation on an extended 
scale the resident ordinary labourers are insufficient : in the north 
of France, where there are still some large farms, troops of Bel- 
gians come in to secure the harvest. In the south the moun- 
taineers, while their own crops are ripening, go down to reap the 
earlier ones of their neighbours in the plains; it is the same in 
great part of Italy; and there is a similar migration of the Irish 
into England, and of the highlanders from the Oberland in 
Switzerland. The French harvest requires 2 men and 2 women 
for every 2J acres, while the usual proportion of hands to the 
corn land near Paris is one labourer to every 59 acres. So that 
the state of the population may forbid certain cultures. Vines if 
cultivated by hand require, as do hops with us, very great and 
constant attendance. Yet in some parts of Languedoc, where 
the plough is substituted for manu.al labour in the vineyards, 
they require no greater number of labourers than the ordinary 
tillage land, except during the vintage. 
Much again will depend on the tenure; for if the occupier has 
no certainty of remuneration by means of a sufficient term, he 
will necessarily grow only the crops which bring him in an imme- 
diate return. 
Lastly comes the question of meteorological influences; the 
action of heat and cold, humidity, drought, and light — all those 
circumstances and elements whose combinations produce what we 
Ctall climate. 
The book is illustrated with a map of the western part of the 
* In justification of Gaspai in's omission, it may be observed that in 
this country the breeding and rearing of horses, particularly of those for 
the turf, is quite distinct from agriculture: that of poultry tends to become 
so. The great feeders of cattle in the south seldom rear them; and the 
flockmaster of Wilts and Hants is mostly distinct from the party who 
supplies the butcher. 
