Light Railwaijs. 
667 
that in many parts of the country cheap railways could be built 
so as to be a moderate financial success. The business at 
present before us is to induce Parliament and the Board of 
Trade so to modify the Acts and Orders affecting the subject 
that cheap railways shall, for the first time, become a possibility. 
When that is done the localities which think the experiment 
worth trying for themselves will try it, and we shall be able 
to see the results. It may be, of course, that the future of 
English agriculture is hopeless, and that the agricultural inter- 
est here will derive no benefit from that which undeniably has 
benefited it greatly in every country on the Continent. But, at 
least, those who hold a contrary belief are making no excessive 
and unreasonable demand when they ask that, at any rate, they 
shall be put in a position in which they can test the point. 
47 St. George’s Square, S.W. "W . M. ACWORTH. 
ANOMALIES OF THE GRAZING SEASON 
OF 1894. 
The anomalies of a grazing season can seldom have been so 
pronounced as were those of the season of 1894. In striking 
contrast to the state of affairs in the dry season of 1893, there 
was an abundance of grass, which was of good quality and 
of weight-producing nature, and yet to the grazier it proved 
a disappointing year. Second-class land has shown a decided 
advantage over land of higher feeding capacity, and dairying 
and store land has been productive to even a greater extent still. 
The period of the growth appears to be dependent on the 
altitude of the land ; and I think it is undoubtedly a fact 
that the greater proportion of grass in the Midland counties 
this year has been grown upon land lying at an elevation of 
from 300 to 600 feet (Ordnance level), and the least amount on 
what is usually the most forward land, that is, on land lying at 
an elevation of from 150 to 300 feet. 
There are, of course, considerations other than elevation 
which regulate the forwardness or backwardness of certain 
fields. Such are aspect, the nature of the subsoil, and the 
treatment the land receives ; but, apparently on account of the 
fact that the weather was more propitious for growth at the 
period when the later land was growing than it was when what 
is termed the more forward land usually puts forth its greatest 
energies, the occupiers of land at an elevation of from 300 to 
