and in that of land.

forty-six to two hundred and sixty millions sterling, a gain of one hundred and fourteen millions.

It will be subsequently shown, when treating of the value of land, that within a somewhat shorter period the increase of the land-rent of this country, when capitalised at thirty years' purchase, shows an increased value of three hundred and thirty-one millions sterling. When we add to this the increase of farm capital, through the rise in the value of live-stock, one hundred and fourteen millions, there is the amazing sum of four hundred and forty-five millions sterling as the gain to the agriculturists -the landowners and farmers—and, in higher wages, to the agricultural labourers of the United Kingdom, from the improvement of land and the general prosperity of the country. I may, perhaps, be excused for quoting the concluding words of my volume, written in 1851, at a time of great agricultural depression, when I stated that I believed the landlords and tenants of England possessed energy and capacity sufficient to meet and adapt themselves

RISE IN VALUE of Live-STOCK AND LAND. 31

to the Free Trade policy, "which, in its extraordinary effect on the welfare of all other classes of the community, would, sooner or later, bear good fruits also to them."

CHAPTER III.

SOIL, CLIMATE, AND CROPS.

Extent of THE total extent of the United Kingdom is

the coun

try and

proportions of various crops,

76,300,000 acres, of which 26,300,000 are in mountain pasture and waste, and 50,000,000 in crops, meadows, permanent pasture, and woods and forests. Of the crops, one-fourth is in various kinds of corn, one-eighth in green crops, one-eighth in grass under rotation, and onehalf in meadows and permanent pasture. About a thirtieth of the whole surface of the kingdom is in woods and forests. These proportions show the prevailing system of husbandry, and reveal the cause of its increasing productiveness. Three-fourths of the whole are green crops, which feed and clean, or grass, which rests and maintains the fertility of the remaining fourth in corn. This preponderance of restorative over exhaustive crops greatly exceeds that of any

other country, and is very much due to the climate.

The climate of the eastern side is drier than

that of the west, the fall of rain at equal altitudes being as 25 inches in the east to 35 in the west. The drought and heat are greatest in the east, centre, and south-east in spring and summer. The whole western side of the country is comparatively mild and moist, and specially adapted for green crops and pasture. The east, having generally a deeper soil, and greater heat in summer, is best suited to wheat and barley. It produces 64 per cent. of all the wheat and barley grown, and 74 per cent. of the pulse-crops. The west, on the other hand, contains more than twice the extent of permanent pasture, and produces nearly double the number of cattle. The waters of the Gulf Stream envelop the British Islands. Their vapours, carried over every part of the kingdom by prevailing west winds, temper the cold of winter and the heats of summer. This favours the growth, on the west especially, of succulent herbage and green crops, and we are free from

D

as influenced by climate,

and rainfall.

the extremes experienced on the Continent. Grass and green crops flourish in all parts of the country, and both in the low lands, and on the mountain pastures of the west and north, sheep feed unsheltered and unhoused during both winter and summer. Beasts of prey are

unknown.

The annual rainfall in the lower parts of the country varies from 25 to 35 inches. In the mountainous districts these figures may be doubled. But, limiting our consideration to the cultivated lands, it must be obvious that an annual rainfall, upon an acre of land, in the one case of 2,500 tons and in the other of 3,500 tons, accompanied by corresponding humidity of atmosphere, will greatly modify the respective systems of husbandry practised. Accordingly, the eastern half of the country may be correctly described as the corn and fattening region, and the western half as the dairy and breeding region of the kingdom. The winter temperature is more severe in the east than in the west, and that of the summer warmer and more sunny, and better suited to the ripening of wheat,