The Sun.
London, England, 1854-10-03 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIA TION.

The selection of Liverpool for this year's meeting
of the British Association may be regarded as an
indication that our aavans are sensible of the close
ties which bind together Science and Commerce. On
the services which the latter renders to the cause of
human knowledge, by familiarising its votaries with the
varied productions of every soil and clime, it is unne-
cessary to dwell. Nor, on the other hand, do we need
to be reminded, in this age of steam, gas, end electri-
city, how effectually science has repaid to commerce all
that it has received. Learning, after all, has no
more beneficent function than as the minister to man's
necessities. The practical, if not the ultimate, end of
Science—at all events in the sense in which it is under-
stood by the British Association—is to supply, or to
anticipate, the material wants of mankind, and to
improve their material condition ; and the learned
body which has just closed its labours at Liverpool
c mid not have chosen a fitter seat to symbolise its true
purpose than that great emporium of trade. In coin•
mon with the rest of the world we have watched the
proceedings of the association with more than a merely
speculative interest. Their experiments on the laws and I
phenomena of optics may, possibly, eventually lead to
our enjoying in our midnight labours as white, and al-
most as cheap, a light as the sun gives at mid-day.
Prom Colonel Sabine's researches on terrestrial magne-
tism we may perhaps learn to bring more completely,
under our dominion that mysterious agent which is al-
ready our courier. And there is no saying what useful
moral lessons the world may not have derived from Pro-
fessor Owen's lectures on Anthropomorphous apes, al-
though, perhaps, a disquisition on Semiamorphous An-
thropoi might have been more immediately interesting
to the ethical student.
While, however, there is no portion of the labours of
the Association which may not be subservient, directly
or indirectly, to the industrial and social progress of the
nation, it is to the statistical section that we more espe-
cially look for the diffusion of useful information and
enlightened views on subjects of immediate practical in-
,terest. There is one topic, in particular, of vital mo-
ment to all classes of the community, to which the at-
tention of that section has, we are glad to perceive,
been already directed ; and we trust that it will be
earnestly followed up in future years, until its
importance shall have been practically recognised by
the Legislature. We allude to the question of
Agricultural Statistics, on which an interesting dis-
cussion took place a day or two ago. It cannot
be necessary to urge, either on the merchants
of the second town of the kingdom, or on the
members of the British Association, the great value of
statistical information in general ; and we may naturally
expect that they will be among the first to recognise the
national importance of agricultural statisties, and to
regret the utter want of all such information respecting
the produce of Great Britain. This question is not, in-
deed, altogether new, for the attention of Sir Robert
Peel was already directed towards it while the sliding
scale was still the law of the land. But his retirement
from office suspended its further progress, and it re-
mained, for a while, apparently forgotten. Subjects of
so much practical importance, however, cannot slumber
long in oblivion in a country like this, where commer-
cial enterprise and the diffusion of knowledge advance
rapidly hand in hand ; and it may be safely anticipated
that, at no distant day, we shall possess a body of agri-
cultural statistics worthy of an age of scientific pro-
grass.
It is true that objections have been urged to the col-
lection of such information, not merely on the ground of
the difficulty or expense of the process, but also upon
general principles. It has been sometimes asserted, for
instance, that we are better without any accurate know-
ledge of the amount of our annual supplies of food, be-
cause ignorance on the subject, by increasing the risks
of agriculturists and dealers, stimulates their enterprise.
Such reasoners would scorn a reconnaissance before a
battle, and if they had steamed into Sebastopol with
Sir George Brown mid General Caurobert, they would
have obstinately kept their eyes closed to the
ships in the harbbur and to the guns on the forts.
According to them, the allied generals would
he lamentably hampered by an accurate knowledge
of the dangere they had to contend with, while the
success of their plans would be much promoted if they
were based upon a gross exaggeration or a contemptuous
depreciation of the enemy's forces. With the public at
large, however, as well as with those who produce and
thoss who trade in corn, cattle, and other agricultural
produce, such views will scarcely find much favour.
Steadiness of price is far more beneficial to all those
classes than the "enterprise" which is thus strangely
advocated; and that steadiness can only be attained by
procuring accurate information of the amount of the sup-
ply which can be brought into the market. The specu-
lator might not, indeed, under such circumstances, make
as brilliant coups as he does in the existing state of things,
but he would not meet with as terrible reverses. The
farmer would neither rush to market in a panic, and
thus aggravate the evil of falling , prices from which
he seeks to fly ; nor, on the other hand, would he be
tempted, by exaggerated reports of deficient crops, to
heard his produce in the vain hope of fabulous profits
which are never realised. But it is upon the labouring
classes of the community that faithful agricultural sta-
tistics would confer the greatest benefit. To them
steadiness in the cost of the necessaries of life is a mat-
ter of vital interest. A high price puts them upon short
commons ; and as their appetites cannot contract and
expand with the ri-e and fall of the market, no succes-
sion of surfeits, atter a series of fastings, can compensate
them for the want of that moderate supply which they
might have obtained steadily, all the year round, if the
price had not materially oscillated on either side of the
average point.

It is obvious that, for the purposes here alluded to,
an account of the animal and vegetable productions of
the soil which are already consumed would be useless.
The information that is needed is that which relates to
the growing or housed, not to the devoured and for-
gotten crops, and to procure it in a satisfactory and use-
ful shape a double process would probably be found
necessary. The extent of land under tillage, and the
nature and probable success of the crops sown, might be
ascertained in the spring ; and these particulars, together
with the favourable or unpropitious state of the weather,
and consequently of the soil, at seed-time, would
form tolerably fair data for an estimate of the quan-
tity of produce which would be gathered in the autumn.
But the experience of the late harvest teaches
that this estimate would, at best, be but rudely ap-
preximative towards the troth. It is well known that
the failure or success of a harvest often depends upon
the state of the .weather during the two or three weeks
before the maturity of the crops. For instance, a fort-
night before the wheat was ripe this summer, fears were
entertained, in many parts of the country that the
crop would be below the average ; and those gloomy
anticipations would unquestionably have been realised
if hot weather had not set in at that critical period, and
filled out the ears which bore such meagre promise. A
second survey, taken at this turning point in the fate of
the harvest, would therefore be requisite fa- the pur-
pose of ascertaining the actual yield ; and there is no
reason why the people of the United Kingdom should
not know, even before the sickle has ceased its labours,
what store of food they will have at their disposal
for the coming year. Those who possess the most
thorough and practical acquaintance with the sob-
jsct are the most confident in asserting that this
information might pe procured, not only with the
requisite despatch, but also with the requisite ac-
curacy. Every person who has had much experi-
ence in the valuation of crops knows how closely
the calculations of independent and uninterested sur-
veyors approximate on such occasions; and similar accu-
racy might be carried into the more extensive valuation

required by the nation. Into this part of the question,
however, it is unnecessary to enter further. As soon as
the intrinsic importance of trustworthy agricultural sta-
tistics shall be generally felt and admitted, there will be
no practical difficulty in devising machinery for collect-
ing them, or in finding funds fur setting that machinery
in motion.—. Morning Chronicle.