APPENDIX.

Page 5. On the Total Average Produce of Grain in England and Wales.

It is much to be regretted that there are no means of accurately ascertaining the extent of land in England and Wales under grain crops. Mr. Couling, in an estimate laid before the Emigration Committee, supposed the arable land and gardens to amount to 11,143,370 acres. Arthur Young, in his "Eastern Tour," estimated the extent of land under crop in England, exclusive of Wales, at 12,707,000 acres, which Mr. M'Culloch justly conceives to have been too high an estimate, as 1,200,000 acres must be added for fallows. Dr. Beeke, in 1800, arrived at a conclusion very similar to Mr. Couling's. Mr. Stevenson, in 1812, estimated the arable land at 11,500,000 acres; and Mr. Middleton, in his " Survey of Middlesex," supposed the tillage land to amount to 12,000,000 acres. Mr. Comber, in his Appendix to his work" On National Subsistence," calculated the total acres under cultivation in England and Wales to amount, in 1812, to 11,591,000. Mr. M'Culloch, therefore, cannot be very far from the mark in estimating the total quantity of land under cultivation to be at present 12,000,000 acres. The distribution of crops he con

ceives to be as follows:

H

It is upon this estimate of the quantity of land under tillage, that he proceeds to calculate the total average produce of grain, as follows. It appeared from a Report published by the Board of Agriculture, that the produce of wheat throughout England and Wales was taken, before 1837, at an average of from 21 to 3 quarters (Winchester measure) per acre, barley at 4 quarters, oats at 4. Mr. M'Culloch, however, writing in 1837, felt himself warranted in reckoning the average produce of wheat at 3 quarters per acre, in consequence of the great improvement in its cultivation by the introduction of bone and other artificial manures. On this sup

position he gives the following result :

Crops. Wheat

31

- 3,000,000

The improvements which have since been carried on in the culture of wheat will probably have raised the amount of the wheat crops very considerably: on the

other hand, I am led to suppose, from very good authority, that the extension of railroads has exercised a very marked influence in reducing the quantity of spring crops. It would be very much to be desired that an annual return should be obtained of the quantity of acres under each description of crop, as well as of the average yield at the conclusion of the harvest, and, in the case of the wheat crop, of the average weight of the bushel of wheat. I am indebted to Mr. Henry Dixon, the eminent land-surveyor at Oxford, for the following account of the rough method adopted by the dealers in corn for estimating the produce of each approaching harvest with reference to speculations in the corn trade.

The present mode of calculating the probable yield of wheat of a given district for the coming harvest is as follows: About the time that the wheat is blooming, generally about the beginning of June, a person will go round with a gauge secreted in a hollow cane, which forms a triangle when opened, and represents a certain portion of an acre of ground. This is placed over various portions of the standing crop in the best and worst parts of a field: the number of ears of wheat comprised within the triangle is counted, and the probable quality of the grain is taken into calculation according as the spring has been wet or dry. On the former supposition the grain is likely to shrink; on the latter, to harden and come out plump. It may be observed, that if there has been a good general rain during the last ten days of April and the first ten days of May, on the average, no more wet is required for wheat. expert gauger will form a very accurate estimate of the probable produce of a given district by this method.

An

The weight of a bushel of wheat is a very important element in the calculation of the probable quantity of

flour. For instance, "in the best wheat counties, and in good years, the weight of a Winchester bushel of wheat varies from 60 to 62 lbs. In the Isle of Sheppey, in Kent (where perhaps the best samples are produced), it sometimes weighs, in favourable seasons, 64 lbs. a bushel. Where the climate is naturally colder, wetter, and more backward, or in bad seasons, the weight of the bushel does not exceed 56 or 57 lbs." (M'Culloch's Statistical Account, i. p. 472.) Mr. Dixon has furnished me with the following table, which has been submitted by him, I believe, to very competent criticism.

"Produce of Flour from a Bushel of Wheat of different Qualities.

"A load of wheat (40 bushels) averaging 63 lbs. to the bushel, will produce about 7 sacks of flour, weighing 280 lbs. per sack. The average produce will consequently be about 55 lbs. of flour from 63 lbs. of wheat.

"The following scale of produce of flour may be taken as about the average, according to the weight and quality of the wheat.

"63 lbs. per bushel, about 55 lbs. of flour.

The above table will at one glance show the importance of ascertaining the weight of the bushel of wheat, in regard to any calculation of the quantity of food which the year's crop is likely to furnish.

The breadth of acreage under each species of crop seems to be a subject, for various reasons, well worthy

I am fully aware

of inquiry on the part of the state. that it is a very difficult question to determine by what machinery the necessary returns could be procured. Perhaps the means which are employed by the Tithe Commission, or by the Commissioners of the Property Tax, might be most readily made available for such a purpose.

Page 67.

Increased Vitality amongst the French
Population.

I have omitted, by accident, to insert the conclusion at which M. Matthieu arrives in the Annuaire. From the present returns of the population in France, he considers that on the supposition of its being stationary, according to Duvillard's method, the mean duration of life would now be 33 years, whilst Duvillard only gave an expectation of 28 years. This augmentation of more than four years M. Matthieu attributes to the introduction of vaccination, and to the increase of material prosperity amongst all classes.

Page 78. Defective Drainage.

As the lecture in which the effects of defective drainage in increasing the rate of mortality were discussed, does not form part of those which I have selected for publication, I subjoin a few striking facts illustrative of the intensity of the evil. In a memoir annexed by Mr. Chadwick in the Appendix to the Supplementary Report on the Sanitary Condition of the Labouring Population of Great Britain, p. 241., it is stated, "that in the parish of St. Margaret's, Leicester, during the year 1840, the average age at death in the streets that were drained (and that by no means