AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENTS 257 



so great ; in no other country, therefore, is there such a 

 necessity for intensive farming and for utilising the soil up to 

 its utmost capacity. That the important farming districts of 

 England do at the present time still show a higher productivity 

 than similar areas in any other country is in no small degree 

 due to the manner in which the farmer has assimilated the 

 lessons of the Rothamsted experiments during the period of 

 expansion and development in all districts which took place 

 from about 1840 to i860 or 1870. Now that a fresh wave 

 of prosperity seems to be coming to British agriculture, accom- 

 panied by an increased intellectual activity and curiosity among 

 the cultivators of the land, we may hope that the later researches 

 at Rothamsted may find both appreciation and translation 

 into practice at the hands of the working farmer. 



17 



