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

B 0 0 D.

A custom has long prevailed at the close of the
year of taking a wholesome and profitable retrospect
of our affairs. This habit is not confined t? indi.
viduals—la,rge corporations, public and private compa-
nies, do the same thing ; journalists give retrospective
sketches, dwell on their past succeeseJ, and abound with'
promises of still more meritorious efforts. Oar readers
may, many .of them, have been employedin some such
useful stock-takings during the past week. We do not
p'ropose 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
calculation. It is almost needless to search into the his.

tory of prices as ag4de7isrin these we have been
commonly at the mercy of the seasons of high or low
mean summer temperatures, or varying rainfalls, eye
need only compare the prices of wheat in the correepoud-
ing years of different ceatuiies to be convinced of this ;
for instance, the average price of wheat per quarter was in
1641 ... 57s 1d 1141 ...41s 5d 1841 ... 643 3d
16S0 ... 68s id 17s0 ... 28s 10d 1850 ... 40s 4(1
1651 ... 23s id 1754 ... 303 9.1 1851 ... 72s 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 inerease3
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.
mend 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 demand
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 out own farmers
from a foreign supply of corn, there is little or no danger
of a similar price-depressing supply of imported live
stock, since that supply is to a great extent limited by
certain obstacles over which the merchant can exercise
little control. In looking forward, then, to future seasons,
distant market-days, and the safest principles for our
guidance, we may well conclude that, as a general prin.
cip le,
Ihe highesteh 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 ie 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 practically
remember that he is not commonly, even when aided by
a country attorney, the best Mentor to take upon him-
self the direction of that cultivation. Rather let him
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 shall leave the farm for a suc-
ceeding occupier. Having done this' then let him believe
fervently that the tenant will be by far the best judge of
the most advantageous system to carry out,—Marklane
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-road-
villas, whose age was only about sixteen, committed the
dreadful and rash act by swallowing a large quantity of
corrosive sublimate) ; while in the next, a master sweep,
residing in Mary's-place, Hampstead-road, destroyed his
life by div.ng into a large tank of water, the desperate
deed being. the result of excessive despondency, arising
from the deceased having run through a large snit' of
money, some 11/, or so, during the week,