APPENDIX. 237 



Sir A. Cotton's experiments were not conducted, or rather 

 were not reported, in a thoroughly scientific way. But the 

 more desirable it would have been, either to contradict or to 

 confirm his statements by experiments carefully conducted 

 at some experimental agricultural station. This is, in fact, 

 what was expected from the veteran head of the Rothamsted 

 experimental farm, Sir John Lawes, even though the author of 

 the pamphlet may have been hard upon the general lines 

 followed in the Rothamsted experiments. Sir John Lawes 

 took, however, another course, and inserted in the Echo a 

 letter (reproduced in an Appendix to Sir A. Cotton's lecture), 

 in which we read the following : 



" There are, obviously, two important questions to consider, 

 first whether so much as from 100 to 120 bushels of wheat 

 can be grown per acre on ordinary arable land ? And 

 secondly, whether, if a crop of this magnitude can be grown, 

 it can be done at a cost which will give profit to the farmer? 

 If Sir A. Cotton, or any one else, will grow 1000 bushels on 

 ten acres of fairly average wheat land, spending as much as 

 he likes on the cultivation, I will give him .250. Further, 

 in order to ascertain whether our country can grow sufficient 

 wheat to feed our population, and even, perhaps, for export 

 besides, upon from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 acres, I will give 

 ^1000 to Sir A. Cotton, or any one else, who will grow 100 

 bushels of wheat per acre, on ten separate acres of wheat land, 

 one in each of the ten English counties growing the largest 

 acreage of wheat at the present time ; the cost of production 

 being less than the value of the crop, so as to prove that 

 such crops could be grown profitably by our farmers." 



I reprint this letter almost in full (italics are mine) because 

 I have already had letters from correspondents, and seen 

 public affirmations to the effect that Sir John Lawes had 

 offered ,1000 to the person who would grow 100 bushels 

 to the acre, but that no one had answered his challenge. 

 Every one may see now that actually no such challenge has 

 ever been made. 



The fact is this. All Rothamsted experiments were 

 carried on on plots of two-thirds and one-third of an acre. 

 And, from experiments on such a scale, the far-reaching 



