120 BIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 



over the whole farm. 1 That insufficient attention has 

 been paid to the teaching of Mr. Elliot is I fear shown 

 by the fact that the Clifton Park System of Farming 

 was for a long time, and I believe still is, out of print. 



The relation that exists between grass-land and 

 arable had also before the war been appreciated at 

 some of our Agricultural Colleges, but very little exact 

 experimental work has been conducted in connection 

 with the problems involved. Most of the grass-land 

 work has been on the Cockle Park lines, and has con- 

 cerned itself with the improvement of existing pastures. 



Professor Gilchrist and Mr. Walker in the North of 

 England, Mr. Porter in Herefordshire, and the Agri- 

 cultural Departments of the Welsh Universities have, 

 however, done much to establish the value of Wild 

 White Clover, to encourage the use of the temporary 

 ley, and to demonstrate the interdependence of good 

 grass-land and good arable farming, whilst Professor 

 Somerville had demonstrated by a series of pot experi- 

 ments the influence of White Clover residues on sub- 

 sequent arable crops. 



A few advanced farmers had, moreover, before the 

 war, returned to tillage on an extensive scale Mr. 

 Falconer and Major Spence may be mentioned in this 

 connection, both having read important papers on 

 their methods at the Farmers' Club. In the main, 

 however, both scientific and agricultural opinion was 

 quite unprepared for a return to tillage on a grand 

 scale. 



It has, of course, to be realized that extensive areas 

 in the British Isles are not suited for corn-growing, at 

 least for human consumption, or it is at best a very 

 hazardous undertaking, and that these regions of high 



1 That is to say, by putting fields down to grass with carefully selected seeds 

 mixtures, and again ploughing the turf after it has been in grass about four 

 years. 



