306 
Variations of the Four-course System. 
do not take a pessimistic view of British Agriculture, at least as 
to the cultivation of our lands, and the improvement and man- 
agement of our live-stock. The scientific acquirements and 
practical intelligence of the coming race of tillers of the soil will 
carry out the business of production on new and improved lines, 
as regards both cost and increased produce. 
The four-course system is no longer suited to the times. 
The British farmer must turn his attention to the improvement 
of his livestock, and to the production of meat and of milk. 
Let him increase the area of leguminous crops, and, with a cycle 
of low prices, use the cereal produce of the land as food for his 
stock. Let him cultivate pure breeds, which will always 
command good prices and a keen demand from foreign buyers. 
Let him, in addition, direct his attention to the growth of a fine 
quality of malting barley, and, Avith a combination of such results, 
some degi'ee of success will attend his efforts. 
Gilbert Murray. 
; THE TRIALS OF PLOUGHS AT 
WARWICK. 
Considering that the plough is one of man’s oldest implements 
of husbandry, that hardly twenty years have elapsed since the 
Ust trials of ploughs by the Society at the Hull Meeting of 
1873, and that for many years before that date frequent 
“ ploughing matches ” stimulated not only the improvements of 
construction and design in ploughs, but also the ploughman 
in the exercise of his craft, it has been suggested that little was 
to be gained by fresh trials of an implement about which all 
was supposed to be known. 
Some slight foundation for such a statement might present 
itself to the casual observer, even within the limits of this 
country. Nevertheless, a very considerable change has taken 
place since 1873, not merely in modifications of detail, but in 
the nature of the work to be performed by the plough ; and it 
is very interesting to look back to the report by the Senior 
Steward of Implements, Mr. W. J. Edmonds, at the Hull 
Trials, as given in the Journal (Vol. IX., S.S., Part II., 1873), 
wherein an opinion is expressed as to the direction which future 
developments of the plough would take. The following is an 
extract from his report : — 
It appears to me that the plough, of whatever mate, has noio many rivals ; 
formerly it was the chief implement, and the drag and the harrows were its 
