The Sun.
London, England, 1853-11-15 00:00:00

AGRICU,

The following letter from the present to the
late President of the Royal Agricultural Sociel of
England will be read with interest :

T ISTi

" Posey, Nov.:/

"My dear Ashburton,—Seeing the interest you t ake
in the success of the present attempt to ascertain n lore
accurately the facts of English agriculture, I trust you
will pardon me for suggesting one or two poin is of
detail, essential, as seems to me, in any complete regis-
tration of our national farming stock.
" Such a survey should not, I think, solely aim at the
tabula' ion of our yearly yield of corn, with a view to, esti-
mate our immediate dependence on foreign suppt-y ; but
should also record and measure that improves sent of
agriculture which began with the present century, and
is strengthening with its advances. It is indi ,ed, this
statistical object or which I am myself chiefly anxious.
"If a census of our husbandry had been con tmenced
with the century, as well as of our population, ti its rural
picture of the last 50 years would have been invaluable.
But, though the blank must stand for the past, one is
glad that it will, at least, be filled up for the future, and
happily the rate of improvement is more rapid than ever.
" The value, however, of the results obtained must
depend on the adoption, from the onset, of the• most
perfect classification. Our decennial population tables
are, I believe, much impaired by successive char: ges in
the heads of enumeration—changes which experieu co has
pointed out, but which, nevertheless, greatly entbArra,s
any retrospective comparison.
" Our object, then, being to record the increasing- pro-
duction of corn and of meat, the accurate estimate of
our corn will, I fear, be difficult, as well from the un-
certainty of seasons, as also from the uncertainty which
must affect the farmer's own judgment, not only while
his crops stand in the field, but even while, though safe
in the rick, they have not yet been subjected to the test
of the thrashing machine.

"The enumeration of our live stock, on the other
hand, will be very easy, and the advantage of that facility
is the greater, because this tangible fact will afford, in
the long run, an unerring clue to the more obscure pro-
blem, the increased fertility of our soil. I mean that if,
since the year 1800, the flock of sheep, for instance, on
one of your up-lying Hampshire farms has been raised
from 300 to 600 head, no practical man could doubt that,
by the new supply of manure, the average growth of
corn will have been augmented in some definite propor-
tion through a more liberal application of capital, which
of course, however, will require also a more liberal re-
turn of profits as the share of the tenant-farmer.
"That our flocks and herds have been so multiplied
since 1800 every one acquainted with the growth of
our population must see, especially as that growth has
occurred chiefly in metropolitan and manufacturing dis-
tricts, where, of course, the addition has been of men
who, in the main, eat, not bacon or cheese, but fresh
meat every day. Now, though the consumers of meat
have doubled, our farmed land has by no means doubled,
and since the foreign supply of fresh meat has been till
of late inconsiderable, the same farms, for the most part,
must have satisfied the new demand by a new supply.
The inference is irresistible, though we should look in
vain for any direct proof of the fact in agricultural re-
rds.

" Still I would call your attention to the point that,
though the general increase of production has been
great, it has been unequal in different counties ; nay,
more, that even if we knew the exact increase in the
number of stock on any particular farm--say as before,
from 300 to 600—we might fall very short of the truth
in assuming that, because the sheep had been doubled,
so also, and no more, had the production of meat been
augmented.

1-‘ As this part of the subject has a direct bearing upon
the forms of return to be adopted, and constitutes, in-
deed, my chief ground for troubling you, I trust you
will excuse me for entering into some detail.
" At the opening of the century, in other words when
you and I were boys, you will remember that five-year-
old mutton was thought right and proper for a gentle-
man's table. If we could learn the truth, I apprehend
we should now find that many a saddle has not sur-
passed one-fifth of that age. In fact, every year mut-
ton is growing younger. What, then, will have been
the real increase of production on a farm that main-
tained, in 1800, 300 sheep, and in 1850, 600 sheep ?
When George 111. was King, the flock of 300 might
consist of 50 ewes, and of their progeny, five sets of 50
sheep, advancing through five winters upon hard keen
to respectable but tardy maturity —5O sheep only being
draughted off each year to market. But in these better
days the flock of 600 sends, perhaps, not 100, but 300
fat sheep every March up to Smithfield. The increase,
therefore, is not twofold, but sixfold. Besides, as we
know that it is fatting stock, especially forced stock,
which strengthens the productive powers of the land,
the action of the stock upon the crop will likewise have
been far more than doubled.

" I trust, therefore, you will agree with me that, un-
less great care be taken in classifying our tables, we
shall have made inadequate provision for doing justice
hereafter to the progressive energy of our farmers.
" It would clearly be desirable that we should at least
distinguish between the females intended for breeding
on the one hand, and the remainder of the flock on the
other ; and, again, that among this remainder there
should be a distinction between those which are and
those which are not being prepared for the butcher. A
minute registration of age, however interesting, might
be too troublesome, while this triple classification of
breeding, store, and fatting stock, though easily made,
must afford very important results to those who may
examine 10 or 20 years hence the progress of our diffe-
rent counties.

" There is one other matter which we might certinly
hope to investigate. The excellence of our leading breeds
of animals is now fully recognised. But, though they are
paid for so highly and exported so widely by foreigners,
we do not know how far they have succceeded at home
in displacing our own unimproved breeds. I would,
therefore, strongly recommend a column in which the
name of the breed should be entered. The advantage
of such a record would not be confined, I believe, to the
breeds distinguished by prizes at our public shows.
Besides these aristocratic families, there are doubtless
other races of plainer features but great intrinsic excel-
lence (your own Hampshire downs are a case in point),
which might thus become better known and more justly.
valued. In short, we want such a map of the distribu-
tion of our breeds of stock as ethnography has given
us on a larger scale for the migrations of the human
race.

" Should you think it worth while to lay these sug-
gestions before the Statistical Committee of the Aires-
ford Union, I trust that they will excuse me for thus
endeavouring to bear a part in the furtherance of a na-
tional undertaking, which, from our inexperience, seems
at present to admit of any assistance, however slender,
but which, when brought to perfection, must place the
English and the Scotch farmer in the position they are
entitled to hold among the husbandmen of all nations.
"Believe me, my dear Ashburton, most truly yours,
"PHILIP PIISEY."

SHIPPING INTELLIGENCE.

CUSTOM HOUSE, Nov. 12.

ENTERED INWARDS.—The Kron Prins Oscar, from
Skelleftea ; Jeanie, Dantzic ; Ceres, Stettin ; Courier,
Riga ; Europa, Dantzic ; Juno, ditto ; Fredericke, ditto ;
Hannibal, ditto ; Caledonia, ditto ; Vreindschaft, ditto ;
Experiment, ditto; Clunie, ditto; Cuba, ditto; Inge-
borg Caroline, ditto ; Von Nagler, Memel ; Johanne,
ditto ; Clara and Hermann, ditto ; Water Witch, Arch.
angel ; Archive, Riga ; Ariadne, Rostock ; Harriet and
Jane, Stettin ; Gluckauf, ditto ; Oran, Nyborg; Phoenix,
St. Petersburg ; Danneborg, Aalborg ; rklovered,
Copenhagen ; Melona, Cronstadt ; Marie, Odense ; Haa-
bert, Swartwick ; Surprise, Marseilles ; Aspen, Pillau ;
Alida Margaretha, St. Petersburg ; Tucker, Cronstadt ;
Lord Stanley, ditto ; Overhardne, Riga ; Rival, Oporto ;
Jonge Marie, Randers; Dido, Wifstawarf; Julius Ros-
stock ; Governor Maclean, Cape Coast Castle ; Tellus,
Soderham Familien, Flobroe ; Messenger, Archangel ;
' Falcon, ditto • Adler, St. Petersburg ; Acastus, Riga ;
Scud, Denia ; Ceres, Riga ; Skillida, ditto ; Regulas, ditto;
Rival, Terceira ; Johan, Hapurandef ; Anne Catherine,
Aalborg; Marie Elise, Logstoer •, Dorthea Elizabeth,
Bogense ; Oceane, Assins ; Ellen, Christiania ; Ingeborg,
ditto ; Ida, Dantzic ; Allan, ditto ; Mary Ogle, Rcw-
tock ; George and Elizabeth, St. Malo ; Venice, Charente;
Helene, Riga ; Victor, ditto ; Brothers, Wyborg ; Tramp,
Memel ; Hermania, ditto ; Cecilia, Madras ; Queen Victo-
ria, Swartwick; Talleyrand, Riga; Warren Packet, Me-
mel; Gesina, ditto; Agnes, Landscrona ; Assiduous, Got-
tenberg ; Wanderer, ditto • Witham, ditto; Thomas and
Hannah. ditto; John Wickliffe, Nyland; Leander, Ant-
werp ; Rebecca, Memel; Era, Dantzic; Felix, Stettin; Chris-
tine Marie, Thisted; Richard, A arhuus ; Marie,Od en se ; Wm.
Wells, Mogadore • Reliance Gottenberg ; Hoppet, ditto ;
Globe, Memel : &Nan, ditto ; Thea, Gravelines ; Jane
Freeman, Stettin ; Elizabeth, Riga ' • Florde Porto, Opor-
to ; Hebden, Cronstadt ; Victoria, Lules ; Albion, Skel-
liftea ; Johana Christina, Landscrona ; Eva Wallace,
N.S. ; Era, Leghorn ; Oline Cecillie, Assens ; Sirocco,
Dantzic ; Isaac, ditto ; Confidence, ditto ; William, ditto;
Petilla, ditto ; Romulus, Swartwick ; Ceres, Stathelle ;
Ocean, Leghorn ; Strelem, Welcher, New York ; Ann
Peal, Pillan ; Wanderer, Gothenburg ; Witham, ditto.
ENTERED OUTWARDS FOR LOADING.—The Allerdine,
for Antwerp • Sumatre, Port Philip; Jongo Johannes,
Hamburg; Elizabeth, Boulogne ; Arenm, Jamaica ; Actio,
Stettin ' • Johannes, Stettin ; Persian, Melbourne ; Marl-
borough, Port Philip ; Gloriane, Kingston, Jamaica, and
Calcitta.

CLEARED OUTWARDS WITH CARGO.—Ttie Norelhavit,
for Grinastadt ; Furst Borrian Third, Rostock ; Senor Bil-
bor, San Sebastina ; Speedwell, Antwerp ; Elizabeth and
Mary, Dunkirk ; Allertina, Santa Cruz ; Trientze, Leer ;
Lily of the Valley, Dunkirk ; Gratitude, Valencia ; Robert.
Konigsberg.