portant harbours, as Brest and Lorient, Nantes and St Malo, which have hitherto been wanting to Wales ;* its population is proportionately twice as numerous, and its agricultural development greater, at least as regards three-fourths of the country. In this respect, then, the comparison is in our favour, the cause being found in the difference of ruggedness between the two soils. Brittany owes also part of this superiority to a crop which I am astonished not to see more prevalent in Englandthat of buckwheat. These five departments alone produce about a million and a-half quarters of this grain, as well as an equal quantity of wheat, and it is much used there for human consumption. This is the case also in many parts of Europe, especially in Holland.

Although it is said, and perhaps with reason, that buckwheat, when made the chief article of alimentation, has a bad effect upon the brain, it is a valuable additional resource both for men and cattle; and it is one of those crops which succeed best upon granitic and light and poor soils, provided the summers be wet, and the autumns without frost. Everything indicates that the soil and climate of a great part of England and Wales should be very favourable to this plant; it is, nevertheless, scarcely ever cultivated, except for pheasants, which are very fond of it, and sometimes as a manuring crop to be ploughed into the land, for it is one of the best green manures known. Several English agricultural authorities have recommended its more extensive useamong others, Rham, in his excellent Farm Dictionary -but with little effect hitherto. We shall some day hear of its brilliant success from the other side of the

Milford Haven, which is likely to be an important harbour, is only beginning to be resorted to.

Channel, when some enterprising and clever practical man there takes the matter up to try the experiment on a large scale.

We shall then learn-what is already known in some of our provinces, such as Brittany and part of Normandy, but scarcely out of these all the advantages of this crop, which occupies the land only during three months of the year, and which consequently figures in the first rank among catch crops, which accommodates itself to all soils, requires little manure, has scarcely any exhausting effect upon the land, keeps the ground perfectly clean by the rapidity of its growth, and which, notwithstanding, yields on an average fifty-fold, and may easily be raised to double that quantity. Maize itself, although much more exhausting, does not give more. Chemical analysis shows that the flour of buckwheat is at least as nourishing as that of wheat, taking weight for weight; and we have processes of grinding now which remove its roughness.

Among domestic animals, the goat is one which, though little in favour owing to its capricious and destructive instincts, merits a better appreciation on account of its fecundity, and one which appears to be perfectly adapted for such districts as Wales. The last statistics show that the number of goats is rapidly increasing in Ireland, at which I am not surprised. Besides throwing usually two kids, while the sheep produces (in general) only one, and being of a more hardy constitution and less subject to disease, the goat, when well fed, gives an abundance of extremely rich milk, which may be made into excellent cheese. In France, where all agricultural industries are known, although often too very imperfectly practised, whole districts owe their prosperity chiefly to the goat. Such is the Mount

d'Or, near Lyons, where a goat yields as much as a cow elsewhere. As population increases, I have no doubt the goat will be more appreciated; only we must learn to treat it properly, and reclaim it from that half-wild state which rendered it dearer to the shepherds of Theocritus and Virgil than to agriculturists and cultivators. All the gifts of Providence are good when kept in their places, and treated with skill. The goat's place is on the barren mountains, where shrubby plants can be cultivated for its food, unless, as at the Mount d'Or, it is subjected to the strictest stabulation.

Civilisation tends to equalise in value soils the most unequal in appearance. The worst may produce a great deal, provided that only is required of them which they are capable of producing. The constant aim of cultivators being to produce cereals, it is often the case that lands yield no income, because the expense of raising such crops upon them costs more than the produce is worth. But cereals are not everything. With the vine in France we obtain, upon soils unsuitable for corn, results equal, or even superior, to those from lands the most favourable to wheat. In other places the resinous pine gives marvellous results from the driest sands; rice turns the marshes to account, &c. The skill of the agriculturist lies in discovering what is best suited to the different soils. Virgil long ago wrote in his Georgics,

"Nec vero terræ ferre omnes omnia possunt."

The small islands belonging to England partake of the general prosperity of the mainland. A good report is given of the state of agriculture in the Isle of Man, lying midway in St George's Channel between England and Ireland, and which was once a separate kingdom. Although very mountainous, the population numbers fifty thousand, upon an area of one hundred and fifty

or war; their part is more humble. Industrious and peaceful hives, they show what unfettered labour at length produces.

Mr William Thornton, in his Plea for Peasant Proprietors, lays great stress, and justly so, upon this agricultural and social condition; and Mr Mill, in his Principles of Political Economy, agrees with Mr Thornton. A school has lately started up in England as advocates for small property and small farming. I rejoice to see such ideas spreading in the country of Arthur Young. Provided the reaction is not carried too far-and for this the English may be trusted-it is sure to produce good effects. Even in Jersey, if the agricultural population is numerous, the non-agricultural portion is numerous also.

Although the soil of Jersey is granitic and poor, the aspect of the island is delightful; it may be called a forest of fruit trees, with meadows and small cultivated fields interspersed, filled with charming habitations, decked with virgin vines, and shady walks winding under the trees. David Low observes that the subdivision of the land, which might seem likely to become infinite in the course of a certain number of generations in so small and populous an island, is limited by arrangement among the families, so that a stop is put to it when it becomes inconvenient. This example ought to give new confidence to those who are afraid of seeing the soil of France frittered into dust.

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CHAPTER XX.

SCOTLAND.

SCOTLAND exhibits one of the most striking examples of the power of man over nature. I know of only one country which can be compared with it in this respect, and that is Holland. Switzerland even does not present such great obstacles to human industry; but what adds still more to this marvellous rise of prosperity upon so ungrateful a soil is, that it is all recent. The antecedents of Scotland are different from those of England. Only a century ago it was one of the poorest and most barbarous countries in Europe; but now, although the last remains of its ancient poverty have not quite disappeared, it may be said that, upon the whole, there is not a better regulated country under the sun.

The total production during the last hundred years has increased tenfold. Agricultural products alone have increased in an enormous ratio. In place of the periodical scarcities which formerly devastated the country, and one especially, which lasted from 1693 to 1700, leaving an indelible impression, alimentary commodities are now produced there in such abundance as to admit of a very large export. Scotch agriculture is at this day superior even to English, in some districts at least. It is to the model farms of Scotland people send their sons to be taught farming. The best books upon farming