and Yorkshire wheat is 38s.; of Rostock and Wismar, 45s. ; of Pomeranian, 43s.; of Ubermark, 42s.; of Silesian, 408.; of Hamburg, Bremen, Holstein, and Lower Rhine, 40s.; of Brabant and Louvain, 40s.; of Flemish and Zealand, 428.; of French, red, 40s., white, 42s. ;-a sufficiently discouraging result. And be it remembered that the highest-priced Lincolnshire and Yorkshire wheat is probably fresh threshed, whereas all these foreign wheats have probably been some time in warehouse, and have certainly been subjected to a much longer sea-voyage than the English, and are necessarily more stale and in inferior condition. Flour tells the same tale. Both the French and the Americans deluge us with flour of finer quality than any which can be produced by British millers from British grain. Any one who has seen the white breads of the Continent, of Paris, of Turin, and of Florence, and the macaroni of Naples, must be aware that it would be vain to expect such products from British flour; and when he compares the cultivation of those countries with that of England, he may well be surprised at such results. The fact is that the quality of wheat depends much more on climate than on culture. When we look to barley we find exactly opposite results. We quote from the same document. The finest British barley 28s. per quarter; the finest Saal, 258.; Danish, 218.; Baltic, small, 188.; Baltic, large, 21s.; and the only foreign barleys which are quoted as of malting quality are the Saal and some Danish chevalier. The case of oats is similar to that of barley. The finest British oats, 21s. per quarter; the finest foreign, 188. Thus in barley and oats we distance our competitors as much as they distance us in wheat. If you are disposed to experiment in high farming, no grain is so hazardous as wheat. The least extra manuring, or in a moist season even an ordinary manuring, will throw it down. No grain falls so early, is so slow in rising again, or receives so much injury when down. You may bestow manure on barley with much greater confidence of a beneficial result.

If you see a man pass from growing wheat to growing barley, depend upon it he has either improved his culture. or his land has been drained or otherwise substantially benefited. All the least and worst arable farmers in England below the hills grow what they call their "bit of wheat," but barley is quite above them. Many of our neighbours on undrained lands tell us that it is of no use to sow barley, explaining, by true farmer's logic, first, that there would be none, and, secondly, that what there was would be fit only for the pigs. But we have exploded that idea. Three of our neighbours, who have thoroughlydrained and highly-manured land of weak staple, not very free, and lying on a retentive bottom, have grown in each of the last three years between 50 and 60 bushels per acre of barley, weighing 55 lbs. per bushel, and of a quality acceptable to the brewers of Burton-on-Trent. This year, for the first time, we have done it ourselves. Thorough draining will make any land barley-land, unless elevation forbids. The case, therefore, stands thus :-Barley is the grain which is most grateful for high farming-barley is the grain, the production of which, of fine quality, we have the greatest power to extend-barley is the grain as to which we have least reason to dread the number or the power of our foreign competitors-barley is the grain, the consumption of which is limited by a tax amounting at the present time to cent. per cent.-and barley is the grain which is not allowed to be drunk on the producer's premises for the purpose of reproduction unless he pays the tax. We had almost said, indeed, if the editor does not think that it savours of political intimidation, we shall be obliged to him if he will allow us to say, that we will never vote for a county member who does not vote for the repeal of the Malt Tax.

Many persons have expressed an apprehension that the owners of landed property in Great Britain are in danger of being permanently degraded. We do not believe that this can be the case in a country constantly increasing in

population and wealth, which is constantly consuming land by buildings, pleasure-grounds, roads, railways, docks, and cemeteries, and in which the possession of land is a pride and a passion. Nor do we believe that the revenue derived from real property can be permanently diminished. The British landowner never felt himself to be a rich man, as compared to a person deriving an equal income from other sources, because, whatever might be his personal frugality, he has always been subject to the temptation of expending his savings on his property, and it has been quite as often on blunders and fancies as on improvements which added to his revenue. It may be that for a period, now commenced or at hand, he may have to season the pride of his position with somewhat of increased pressure, because he is always in debt. He has been the shuttlecock of those legislatures who have sported with the currency; struck up to a giddy height from 1797 to 1815, from which height he has been let down by successive subsidences to his present depressed condition. Mr. Johnston, in "England as it is," reckons the "indebtedness" of real property in England at one-half of its absolute value, and the annual charge of such indebtedness at one-half of its revenue. But for the circumstance that this debt, both as to principal and interest, is a "fixed amount of money," the statement would amount to no more than this-that the apparent owners of the real property in question only own one-half of it, and that somebody else owns the other half. 'But," as Mr. Johnston justly observes, "when we take into account debts or fixed engagements of any kind, a change in the currency must disturb the balance of justice'; and when the change is such as to increase the value of money, it is a severe measure of oppression upon the weaker and indebted class, while an undue advantage is given to those who are least in need of it." Under this oppression the present race of landowners are struggling; and, on the whole, manfully. A certain amount of change in the ownership of land is always in progress, and is no

doubt salutary to the body politic; but the tenacity of landowners has, under all difficulties, opposed a successful resistance to a sweeping revolution. Any one who looks into Fuller's Worthies, or Sir William Dugdale's Catalogues of Commissioners, or into the indexes attached to Plott's and other county histories, will find the old names attached to the old places to a considerable extent. Our hope and belief is, that, notwithstanding present difficulties, the hereditary owners of land will, by a continued exertion of the energy and prudence which carried those from whom they inherit their possessions through all changes, continue to maintain their social position.

The reproach of British agriculture, that she had no literature, is fast passing away. The works which we have placed at the head of this article would be creditable to any science and to any age. We are not acquainted with the agricultural publications north of Tweed, but we have been told that they have great merit. We constantly see with wonder and admiration the variety and spirit by which the Royal Agricultural Journal is sustained. The Agricultural Gazette, attached to the Gardener's Chronicle, contains almost weekly some practical article of sterling value. The letters of the Times' Commissioner have ably supplied a deficiency which has existed ever since the time of Arthur Young's agricultural tour. They have informed the general body of agriculturists of the varieties of practice which have obtained a permanent footing in various districts, causing each to contribute its quota of knowledge and experience to the general stock of information. In offering our own humble mite we are indeed proud of our fellow-labourers.

Woodfall and Kinder, Printers, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London.

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