91 
ON THE AGRICULTURE OF THE WEST RIDING OF YORKSHIRE 
CONSIDERED GEOLOGICALLY I 
2nd. on the MAGNESIAN lilMESTOXE DISTRICT. 
It has been truly said, that " there is no profession which 
can be compared in importance with that of agriculture, for 
to it belongs the production of food for man and animals ; on 
it depends the welfare and development of the whole human 
species; the riches of states, and all commerce." But a 
rational system of agriculture cannot be pursued without the 
application of scientific principles ; for such a system must 
be based on an exact acquaintance with the means of growth 
and nourishment of plants, the comparative value of their 
produce as food, the action of different manures upon them, 
and the influence of soils in their development. It is then 
to physiological Botany, Chemistry, and Geology, to which 
both the theoretical agriculturist and the practical farmer 
are to look for aid to supply the practical principles on which 
the art depends. In the two former branches of science, 
little has been done since the time of the immortal author of 
Agricultural Chemistry, until very recently Professor Liebig, 
of Giessen, justly celebrated as the first organic chemist in 
Europe, has endeavoured to follow the path marked out by 
Sir Humphrey Davy, and we have now before us a series of 
facts of the highest interest, and such that, by their adop- 
tion. Dr. W. Gregory predicts a new era in agriculture is 
about to commence. 
At our last meeting, I had the pleasure to describe the 
agriculture, in its chemical and geological relations to the 
soils of a portion of the new red sandstone series, extending 
over the country from Cantley, Doncaster, Arksey, Owston, 
Askern, Womersley, to the river Aire and Calder ; and it 
is now purposed to extend the same observations to the 
magnesian limestone formation, commencing in the south of 
