39 
Economy in Cultivation . 
the drill likewise ; and I shall at once try the American Massey- 
Harris Cultivator (hoping to find in that implement a sub- 
stitute for drags or harrows), on which the driver can ride, 
believing as I do that in dry, hot weather especially, when clods 
are hard and dust abundant, I shall get much more work done 
than at present. Another possibility occurs to me in connexion 
with this plough. I see no difficulty in attaching a light 
drill to drop the seed corn into each furrow, and so ploughing 
and drilling would go on simultaneously ; the extra strain would 
be a mere trifle, as there would be no coulter cutting into the 
ground. I think a better system of planting than that of 
“ under the furrow ” cannot be devised, and the mode I have 
suggested seems to combine economy with efficiency. 
Feeling very strongly that more economy must be practised 
in arable land farming, I venture to offer these experiences of 
mine, together with the foregoing general ideas, for the considera- 
tion of my brother-farmers, in the hope that if agricultural 
salvation cannot be found here, at all events the question of the 
more economical cultivation of the land may be fully considered, 
with the result that God may “ speed the plough.” 
R. Stratton. 
The Duffryn, Newport, Mon. 
THE CENSUS OF 1891 AND RURAL 
DEPOPULATION. 
I. Introductory Remarks. 
With the publication of the fourth volume of the Census , 1 con- 
taining the General Report and the Summary Tables, it becomes 
possible to establish from the material which the Registrar- 
General has collected conclusions of some interest respecting 
that section of the population which is engaged in agricultural 
industry. The interval which has elapsed between the previous 
census and that of which the completed results are now given 
to the public has been one of prolonged, if not of intensifying, 
depression for English agriculture. It is true that the last two 
seasons, which have proved so disastrous to large districts of the 
country, have not come within the scope of the present census ; 
but it may be argued with probability that those seasons only 
1 Census of England md Wales, 1891, vol. iv. 
