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XII. — Our Climate and our fVheat-Crops. By J. B. Lawes, 
LL.D., F.R.S., F.C.S., and J. H. Gilbert, Ph.D., F.R.S., 
F.C.S. 
Introduction. 
I. Seasons of High and of Low Productiveness (p. 175). 
II. The Season of 1878-9, and the Experimental Wheat-crops 
AT Rothamsted (p. 195). 
Introduction. 
Since the publication of our Paper, " On the Home Produce 
Imports, and Consumption of Wheat," in this 'Journal' in 1868 
(vol. vi. S.S., part 2), more than eleven years have passed away, 
— years during which the agricultural interests of these islands 
have experienced a transition from a state of great prosperity to 
one of great depression, — years during which the worst features 
of our climate have been exhibited in unusual frequency, and 
which have terminated with a season, not only by far the worst 
for the wheat-crop since the commencement of our experiments 
on the continuous growth of the crop in 1843-4, but probably 
the very worst that has occurred since observers have furnished 
us with records of temperature and rainfall, and with other 
weather statistics. 
It has been remarked that, so far as climate is concerned, the 
British Isles are outside the zone favourable to the growth of 
wheat, and that its successful cultivation is due to the skill of 
the farmer in contending against adverse meteorological con- 
ditions. It is true that the area under the crop is rapidly 
diminishing, and that its continued growth appears to gravitate 
to those districts where the climate, or the soil, or the combina- 
tion of the two, is the most favourable. But the great decline 
in area cannot be attributed to any general change for the worse 
in the characters of the climate. Indeed, Mr. Glaisher has 
recently called attention to the fact that, dividing the last 108 
years into six periods of eighteen years each, there is even a 
slight progressive increase of mean temperature from the first 
to the last of those six periods. It is to the greatly increased 
production of wheat in other countries, at a lower cost than in 
our own, and to low rates of transport, by which it is brought 
into our markets in quantity and at a price much reducing the 
value of the home-produce, that the reduced area under the crop 
is chiefly to be attributed. 
