commodities; but if silver were demanded in payment, I apprehend astonishing results. This paper is a warrant without the deposit of pig, and depreciates silver illegitimately, since there is no issue of gold paper to balance it. This "paper silver" economises silver, so that the less productive mines have to close; the more productive mines remaining open are the less productive ones at present, this paper costing practically nothing, being the most productive mine.

Legitimate foreign competition would do us no hurt, nor do I believe that the alleged appreciation of gold exists. This requires qualification, since England obtaining by far the cheapest sovereign in the world, follows a policy obliging her neighbours to absorb gold at a great disadvantage to themselves. This floods our markets with foreign importations under cost price, to the ruin of both home and foreign producers. This most intricate gold side of the question, however, requires dealing with separately.

Though silver is very variable in price, it is this very variableness or "sensitiveness" that points to comparatively easy remedies, and a recurrence to bimetallism may not even be necessary. But unless the British Government Delegates meet the Brussels Conference next May with proposals to economise gold, and to prevent the illegitimate depreciation of silver, the worst results may be feared.

T. W. HUSKINSON, Fellow.

Hop Growing in Herefordshire.

Having acted in the years 1888 and 1889 as one of the assistant land commissioners in the carrying into effect the redemption of the extraordinary tithe on hops, under the provisions of the "Extraordinary Tithe Redemption Act, 1886," and being engaged in the management of an estate in Herefordshire on which hops are grown, I think it may

be interesting to record the results of the cultivation of hops on one of the farms under my care.

The farm in question is situate near Malvern, on an inferior soil, and about 350 feet above sea level. The area is about 166 acres, and the rent, including tithe rent-charge, £176, or a fraction over 21s. per acre. A few years ago the tenant, feeling the effects of the prevailing depression in agriculture, thought he would try the experiment of planting a few acres of hops. He commenced with 7 statute acres, which, in 1890, produced 4 tons of hops, equal to about 11 cwt. per statute acre, which realised £723 6s. 10d., or a little over £9 per cwt., and very nearly £100 per acre.

In 1891 the result was not nearly so favourable, 10statute acres having realised only £270, or £27 per acre.

In 1892 11 statute acres realised £614 8s. 6d., or £53 8s. 6d. per acre.

The balance of profit and loss is as follows, viz. :-
Gross average annual produce

for three years, per statute

Thus, on an average annual acreage of about 10 acres my friend the tenant has contrived to make a clear profit of about £200 per annum, or more than the rent of his farm. The average profit of £20 per acre is equal to half the fee simple value of the land, which cannot be estimated at more than £40 per acre.

The result is mainly due to repeated washings with a decoction of soft soap and quassia, for the purpose of destroying the insect pests which attack the bine. In some hopyards in the same district, where the washing was not so carefully attended to, hops have this season proved a failure.

I have warned my friend that he must not expect so good a result every year in the cultivation of a plant liable to great fluctuations, both in crop and price; but it is a satisfaction, in these days of severe agricultural depression, to record an instance of successful and profitable cultivation. WM. STURGE, Past-President.

Tithe Commutation Rent-Charge

VALUE FOR THE YEAR 1893, &c.

For the year 1893 the value of £100 commuted tithe rent-charge, according to the average prices of wheat, barley, and oats for the last seven years, will be £74 15s. 2 d.

The following figures, taken from Mr. TAYLOR's Tithe Rent-Charge Tables, published by MESSRS. SHAW AND SONS, shew that there has been a fall in the value of tithe rentcharge annually since 1878:

The average annual value of £100 for the 57 years (1837 to 1893) is £99 15s. 51d.

The average price of an Imperial bushel of British wheat, barley, and oats, computed from the weekly averages of Corn Returns for the seven years ending Christmas 1892, was, according to the London Gazette of 3rd January, 1893, as follows:

and the average price for the seven years ending on the Thursday next before Christmas Day 1835-upon which the commutation of tithes was based-was

The average price per bushel for the single year 1892

SECTION II.

COMMUNICATIONS REFERRING TO PAPERS IN THE "TRANSACTIONS," &c.

On Mr. Tidman's Paper on "Sanitary Ventilation."

("Transactions," Vol. XXV., pp. 63-82.)

NOTE A.

The question of thoroughly ventilating sewers has, at one time and another, received considerable attention at the hands of those with whom this responsibility rests, but it does not appear to have resulted in any very practical or comprehensive grip of the question until the year 1888, when, during the construction of part of the main drainage scheme, Mr. SANTO CRIMP, M.I.C.E., carried out some very exhaustive experiments at Wimbledon relating to the movement of sewer air. This formed the subject of a communication to the Institution of Civil Engineers, and was published by them, in Vol. XCVII. (issued August 1889), from which the following table has been abstracted: