266 Statistics ajfecting British Agricultural Interests. 
to alter the physical condition of the soil. This is being done, 
not only at the Pot-culture Station, but also on the field scale 
at a farm in the vicinity, where the soil is a heavy clay. 
Lastly, in connection with the inquiry of the Royal 
Commission on Sewage Disposal, a large number of experi- 
ments have been carried out at the Pot-culture Station on the 
comparative value of different sewage sludges. These were 
commenced in 1907, and will be continued in 1908. 
J. Augustus Yoelcker. 
22 Tudor Street, E.C. 
STATISTICS AFFECTING BRITISH 
AGRICULTURAL INTERESTS. 
The information compiled in the tables printed on pp. 274- 
288, in continuation of those given in this Journal in previous 
years, is taken from the official publications of the Board of 
Agriculture and Fisheries, and other Government Departments 
as noted below L The data have been brought up to date, 
wherever possible, by the inclusion of the figures for 1907, 
and in certain cases changes have been made in consequence 
of revisions effected by the Board of Agriculture in the form 
of the official returns. 
Before summarising the general remarks on the distribution 
of acreage and the number of live stock in the year 1907, 
furnished in the prefatory report to the first of the four sections 
into which the single volume of Agricultural Statistics is now 
divided, it may be interesting to notice that with the issue of 
this section of the returns the forty-second statement of these 
statistics is laid before Parliament. First appearing in a pre- 
liminary and less complete form in 1866, the British public 
had in 1867 a complete official picture of the distribution of 
the cultivated surface of Great Britain, such as had been avail- 
able for Ireland for some considerable time before ; and the 
continuous presentation of these statistics, year by year there- 
after, has enabled all engaged either in the practical, the 
scientific, or the political aspects of agriculture to trace the 
movements of an epoch of peculiar significance and importance. 
In the first of the general tables which follow these notes 
there will be found a summary for the United Kingdom. 
In this is included the separately collected data for Ireland, 
the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islands, for the details of 
* Agricultural .Statistics for 1907, Yol. XLII., Part 1. ; Agricultural Statistics 
for 1906, Yol. XLL, Parts I., II., and III. ; the preliminary statements as to 
produce of crops and yield per acre for 1906 ; the Annual Statements of the 
Board of Trade ; and the Trade and Navigation Accounts for December, 1907. 
