a wide and pathless moor, now inclosed and cultivated on every hand; and again, after crossing the Witham at Lincoln, and ascending the hills on the south, over a continuation of the same moor of the lower oolite, to the town of Sleaford. In their natural condition, we should have more hope of the moor of Culloden than of this tract of country; and if man can conquer nature here, and can permanently keep her subdued with a profit to himself, we know of few districts in which he need to despair. That he not only maintains his ground, but continues to extend his conquests, is to us a sure indication that here also the agricultural mind is not permitted to slumber.

If from Sleaford we descend to Boston, and then skim over the rich alluvial bottoms to Lynn, we find ourselves already within the influence of the Holkham husbandry. There may, in this district, be a comparative lull at present in agricultural improvement, and some leading mind may be wanted to give the country a fresh start, and to present to it a new aim, and new means of attaining it; but, on returning from Holkham by East Dereham and Watton to Thetford and Newmarket, nearly all the way over the same chalk district, we see much to admire, and find much to learn, in the practice of the tenantry; and when we hear of a single farmer consuming as much as a ton of oil-cake per day in feeding his stock, we cannot doubt that much energy and enterprise are still at work among the local followers of the celebrated Mr Coke of Norfolk.

Turning now to the west, we do not stop on the flat and fenny district of Cambridge; nor among the rich gardens of Bedford-which, resting on the same middle oolite, remind us of the skill of Lincolnshire; nor on the heavy bean and wheat lands of Northampton, on which drainage has begun; nor on the clays of Oxford, Berkshire, Sussex, and Kent, in which the introduction of the drain alone is at once cheapening by a half the expense of culture, and is doubling, at the same time, the produce of wheat.

All this we must leave, as well as the steam and other artificial drainages of the level of Hatfield chase,' and the entire central plain of England, and the principality of Wales, and the peninsula of Devon and Cornwall-even in the last of which counties the improvement of the surface has begun, during the last ten years, to command a portion of that enterprise and capital which, time out of mind, has been almost exclusively lavished on the search for less certain treasures beneath.

In our hasty tour, we have seen enough to satisfy us that British agriculture is every where in actual and present progress; that the energy of our agriculturists as a body is not yet de

pressed; that their wits are not stagnant, nor their hands yet void of cunning.

But, granting that such is the present state of our agriculture-that it has not only advanced remarkably during the last twenty years, but is still moving forward—we proceed to our third and most momentous question.

3. Of what further progress is it capable? How much further may the culture of the whole soil be economically improved, so that while the production of food for an increasing people is augmented, a fair profit may, at the same time, be left to the occupying tenant, and a reasonable return to the landlord?

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The term capability,' as applied to the soil, has a meaning which is limited and defined by the knowledge of the man who uses it. Tell us how much practical experience and skill a man possesses, and how much scientific instruction he combines with this knowledge, and we can understand what meaning he attaches to such expressions as capable of improvement, unproduc'tive,'' worthless,' and many others of a similar kind in daily use. They had one meaning twenty years ago; they have another meaning now. Even at the present day, one man understands them in one sense-another man in another sense. • In'capable of improvement' means merely that he who applies the term to a given portion of land, does not know how such land is to be improved, or how to be done economically, and with a profit. Other men may know, and to the whole of an after generation the method may be familiar. The knowledge of the wisest of us now, therefore, as to the capability of the soil, is only relative; and if not a hasty and inconsiderate, he must be regarded as an ignorant man, who ventures to limit, or strictly define, the possible productiveness of the soil; or to say, thus far only shall the fertility of this or that land hereafter be brought.

In regard to what we may reasonably hope for, however, there exists a theoretical principle and a practical rule,—the indications of which, taken together, enable us to form a reasonable, intelligible, encouraging, and, as we think, a safe opinion.

In a previous article of this Journal, upon scientific husbandry, we explained the general relations of geology to agriculture. We showed how, beneath the immediate surface of soil and other loose materials, there is in every country a pavement of solid rock. This solid floor differs in different countries, and in different parts of the same country. In some places it is hard-in others soft. In some it is red or grey-in others it is white, brown, or yellow. In some it consists of limestone-in others of clay, more or less hard; and in others, again, of a silicious or flinty sandstone.

We showed further, that under the action of the atmosphere,

of the rain, or of masses of moving water, these different rocks all crumble down more or less rapidly, and that out of the crumbled fragments our soils have been formed. The soil, therefore, partakes of the character of the rock from which it has been produced, and upon which, if it has not been displaced by the action of natural causes, it is usually found to rest. If the rock be a red or grey sandstone, the soil will be red or grey and sandy; or it will contain lime or much clay, if these exist largely in the rock from which it is derived.

Now, one of the objects of geology is to determine the nature, the relative local positions, and the geographical boundaries, of the several rocks which form this solid under-pavement, and to make these sensible to the eye by representing them upon the ordinary maps of the country. This is usually done by distinguishing the different rocks by different shades of colour. These maps are prepared by the geologist chiefly as a record of his own. labours in the field of observation, and as invaluable aids to the further prosecution and to the higher reasonings of his own peculiar science. But they are of much important use to the scientific agriculturist also. They show him where similar rocks prevail, and, therefore, where similar soils may be expected. They exhibit to him generally the nature, the geographical extent, and the boundaries of the several great classes of soils upon which the skill of the husbandman is to be expended.

Such is the scientific principle to which we have alluded; the practical rule is as follows: If we cast our eye over such a geological map of our own island-Mr Phillips' map, for examplewe find large portions of it in various districts, coloured of a dark red, (the old red sandstone,) of a green, (the trap rocks,) and of an ash or yellowish grey, (the slate rocks.) As above stated, we are entitled to infer that wherever any one of these colours prevails, soils possessed of a certain degree of general similarity will prevail also.

Now, suppose we visit one portion of the red or green country, and there find a skilful race of farmers producing large crops, rearing profitable stock, and prospering in their holdings, it is generally fair to infer that what the soil does here, it may be made to do in any other part of the same red or green country. If forty bushels of wheat an acre can be reaped in the one district, it should be possible to grow as much in the other also. And if, on visiting this other, we find the average produce to be fifteen or twenty bushels only, we may infer, unless climate or other adverse circumstances intervene, that the produce of the district is capable of being at least doubled; and by means already known and practised.

Such is one of the ways in which science and practical obser

vation go hand in hand, in enabling us to judge of the capabilities of the soil, and to lead us, even without visiting the entire country, to tolerably fair approximations as to the kind and extent of improvement which its several parts may be made to undergo. It is clear that the possession of such scientific knowledge will greatly modify the opinions of the agricultural economist; and, by founding his views upon something like an established principle, will remove them from the class of empirical dicta, in which the opinions of a great majority of the practical men, even of the present day, may still be placed.

Guided by the joint light of scientific induction and personal observation, we therefore think it safe to say, that the produce of the whole Island in corn may be doubled, by methods now known and in some districts profitably practised. Spread the knowledge of the red-land farmers of East Lothian among the farmers of the similar red lands in Wales and in the Orkneys, and, allowance being made for the latitude, similar crops may be expected.

But a further and more purely theoretical view may be taken of the capabilities of the soil-a little in advance, it is true, of the views and opinions of the time; but based, like our former conclusion, upon the discoveries of science. Chemistry has linked herself to practical agriculture-cheerfully and zealously on her part, though looked upon with suspicion and distrust by many of those to whom, in their ignorance of her resources, she has offered her willing assistance. And, leaving out of view the above cautious, though broad deductions of agricultural geology, she grapples with the wider questions:-Must one soil necessarily differ in productiveness from another? May all soils, however naturally different, not be rendered artificially alike? From whatever rock your soil is formed, may it not be made to yield the most abundant crops?

Upon this broad question-for these are all but different ways of putting the same inquiry-Chemistry is at present labouring. She says, that according to her present belief, the growth of a crop depends, not solely, but mainly, upon the composition of the soil to which it is intrusted that this composition can at all times be ascertained by means she has at her command--that the composition of the naturally poor soil can, by her skill, be made similar to that of the naturally rich soil; and that thus they can be rendered to a great extent agriculturally equal and alike. Such is the promise she holds out, not advancing her opinions as already entitled to the rank of certain and infallible principles, but holding herself prepared to modify or change her views as new accessions of knowledge flow in to her, from the researches in her many laboratories, and from the experiments of the farmer

in the field. It is easy to see how very differently we shall understand the term 'capability,' should this high hope of Chemistry be hereafter in any considerable degree attained, and by the use of means which are within the economical reach of the rent-paying farmer. The problem of the national economist would then be easily solved. Give him the average produce of the richest and best-farmed land in the country, and the whole number of acres in arable culture; and the total possible produce of the Island in quarters of corn would be obtained by a simple multiplication.

Such far-seeing expectations are not without their practical value. Opinion every where regulates practice. Let a higher point be considered attainable, and a higher will be attained. The dead earth bends herself to fulfil the wishes of

determined men. It is part of the dominion which mind exercises over matter. Let it be established, even as probable, that naturally poor land may, by economical means, be made equally productive with naturally rich land, and a new aim and energy will be imparted to the entire agricultural community-a new basis will be given to the politician and the philanthropist for the widest and most important generalizations. It is in this way that the unseen and often unappreciated labours of the scientific few contribute more or less directly to the welfare of the many-infusing even, at times, new life and new hope into the breasts of whole classes of the community.

But we leave this high ground, and fall back upon our previous deduction, that by known and profitable means the corn produce of the Island as a whole may certainly be doubled. We shail also lay aside our geological map for the present, and ask our readers to judge with their own eyes how far we are right by taking another very brief survey of the country itself. In our former excursion we saw it in the sunshine, let us now look at it in the shade.

Starting again from the north, we find the great capabilities of the Orkneys to be as yet entirely unappreciated. Land there is sold for half its value, and willing nature is kept down by uninstructed and unconscious man. Caithness, to which so much has been done, is almost a waste still; and the native farmers are only beginning to understand how its resources are to be developed. Give them fences, pipe-tiles, bonemills, cheap and frequent steam communication, and, above all, give them resident landlords, and the exports will speedily increase to three or four times their present amount. Sutherland is a problem we have not local knowledge enough to enable us