on the Climate and Afp-iciilture of the British Isles. HO 
desirous of following up and porfcctln";- that inquiry hy adding 
to the results of my earlier lal)()urs the deductions which I have 
drawn from tliis additional matter. 
It may be said that this is rather a philosophical inquiry than 
a practical subject suitable for the pages of an agricultural journal ; 
but it must be remembered that " climate beats culture," and that 
in order intelligently to adapt our course of culture to the climate, 
we must understand the nature of the elements with which we 
have to deal. Men may sometimes blunder on success, but pains- 
taking knowledge is the only sure road to real advancement. 
The subject is so practical, that whether we understand it or 
not, it will force itself on our attention, control to some extent 
our farm operations, and regulate our daily labours ; indeed, 
the productive powers of our soil will never be fully developed 
until the system of cultivation and the nature of the produce 
be brought still more fully to accord with the peculiar capa- 
bilities of the climate. 
How great and varied these capabilities are — how much we 
owe to the protecting influence and genial warmth of ocean cur- 
rents — we yet but faintly comprehend. The British Isles lie 
between the same parallels of latitude as the dreary coast of 
Labrador, of which Cartwright draws this melancholy picture : — 
" Of all the dreary sights which 1 ever yet belield, none ever 
came up to the appearance of this coast The spots where 
any verdure was likely to appear were covered with drift banks 
of snow ; the shore was barricaded with ice seven feet thick ; most of 
the best harbours were then not open, and all the rest had so much 
loose ice drifting about with every wind as to render it difficult 
to anchor therein ; all towards the sea was one uniform compact 
body of rough ice, which extended fifty leagues at least." * 
The two countries in the same latitude present the contrast of 
eternal winter and perpetual spring — of a snow-covered land, with 
abject poverty and the greatest amount of misery which human 
nature can endure, and the emerald green of our winter, our abun- 
dant resources, and abounding comforts — and for these contrasts 
we are indebted to the influences arising from the genial warmth 
of an ocean current. 
In further investigating this subject the materials now at my 
command are as follows : — 
1. Daily observations on sea temperature, taken for me at various 
X^arts of our coast lino, at the Scilly Isles, and at Shetland. 
2. The monthly means of the sea temperature around the coast of 
Ireland, from the Transactions of the Eoyal Irish Academy. 
* Cartwright's ' Sixteen Years on the Coast of Labrador,' vol. ii. p, 83. 
