The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-10 00:00:00

F 0 0 D.

A custom has long prevailed at the close of the
year of taking a wholesome and profitable retros?ect
of our affairs. This habit is not confined t') indi.
vidua!s—large corporations, public and private compa-
nies, do the same thing ; journalists give retrospective
sketches, dwell on their past successes, and abound with
promises of still more meritorious efforts. Our readers
may, many of them, have been employed in some such
useful stock-takings during the past week. We do not
propose on this occasion to endeavour to aid them in
that portion of their important labours ; our business
now is with future probabilities, using merely the results
of past experience as imperfect data on which rest our
in ranfalls. We
per
was this
in
;
)
for instance,
calculation. It is almost needless to search into the his-
tory of prices as a guide ; for in these we have been
commonly at the mercy of the seasons of high or low
mean summer temperatures, or varying i
need only compare the prices of wheat
.the correspond-
ingyears
o the f
different
average
price
centuries
o ft
wheat
hbeea
tcpoery n 1641 ... 57s ld 1741 ... 418 5d 1841 quarter convinced
64s 3d
16501850 68s ld 17Z.0 ... 28s 10d •-• 408 4d
1651 23s id 1754 ... 308 9a 1854 ••• 728 7d
The farmer therefore who, with regard to future prices,
thus looks back upon former markets finds little to afford
him useful information. But then there are other consi-
derations which arise from the statistics of past years that
will probably not be without their use. He will reflect
that the advance of knowledge, and of consequent peace
and security, is leading to vast increase of corn, cultiva-
tion in countries hither too ill-governed for agriculture to
flourish he will not forget that her onward steps are never
found among the wild hordes of the earth—that they are
barely traceable in the lands of the serf. Such an inquirer
too will reflect on the increasing corn cultivation of the
American far west; on the improving agriculture of more
than one portion of Africa; on the opening out of the rich
valley of Armenia by the proposed Euphrates Railway,
and of many other at-present-neglected fields, the certain
effect of a constantly open English market. Then,
again, he will note that whilethe foreign supply increases
the home demand for food is steadily enlarging ; and
this accelerated consumption, be it remembered, is not
to be attributed merely to a numerical increase of the
population. It is to a large extent caused by the great
addition which is now steadily making to the bettor fed
portion of our working classes—a result which is the sure
attendant of an enlarged demand for skilled labour. The
cultivators of our islands, then, are much more deeply
interested in the increase of our manufactures, in the de-
mand for our machinery, and our capital for foreign rail.
ways, than we were once wont to consider. Moreover, this
demand for food is not confined to bread ; the demaiti
for animal food also increases with equal rapidity, The
skilful, well-paid machine-maker is not the man whose
merits or whose means are adapted to a bread-and-cheese
diet; he has better expectations and rights. The demand
for animal food, then, increases, and will probably con-
tinue to do so, as long as England shall go bounding on
in her career. But here we may usefully pause to reflect
that whatever may be the danger to our own farmers
from a foreign supply of corn, there is little or no danger
of a similar price-depressing supplyof imported live
stock, since that supply is to a great extent limited liy
certain obstacles over which t,ele merchant can exercise
little control. In looking forveard, then, to future seasons,
distant market-days, and, the safest principles for our
guidance, we may well conclude that, as a general prin.
ciple, the highest and, the most advanced systems of cul-
tivation will be ever the most likely to withstand all fo-
reign corn competitions, and that to a more than equal
degree the same remark applies to the improved breeding
and feeding of live stock. To the landlord, too, such
reflections may be profitably applied. If he is of opinion
that skilful practice and its handmaid science are the
best securities for a well cultivated farm, a prosperous
and a contented tenant—if he is really satisfied of
that fact—and of another great truth, that °practice and
science are ever steadily advancing hand in hand—then
let such a landowner further usefully and practicsAly
remember that ho is not commonly, even when aided by
a country attorney, the best Mentor to take upon him-
self the direction of that cultivation. P.atlier let Lim
keep his attention to the character and ability of a pro.
posed tenant, and then only to the necessary covenants
as to the state in which he
,shP:i i leave the farm for a sue-
ceeding occupier, Having_ •
oOne this, then let him believe
fervently that the teee:ot will he by far the best judge of
the most advantage us system to carry out.—Jtark lane
Express.

SUICIDAL MANlA.—lnformation has been transmitted
to the coroner for West Middlesex of two determined
cases of self-destruction. In the first case a young lady
named Belinda Batchelor, residing at 17, Camden-roao-
villas, whose age was only about sixteen, committed the
dreadful and rash act by swallowing a large quantity of
corrosive sublimat9 ; while in the next, a master sweep,
residing in Mary's-place, Hampstead-road, destroyed his
life by diving into a large tank of water, the desperate
deed being the result of excessive despondency, arising
from the deceased having run through a large sum of
money, some 11/, or so, during the week,