NA TURE 



lOI 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1875 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



FARMING is a complex business. It embraces a 

 greater variety of objects and interests than any 

 other industrial pursuit. Its two great ends are the 

 production of crops and the production of animals. It is 

 j^ among the oldest occupations of man. Its history has 

 been very peculiar. In our own day the system of farm- 

 ing pursued by the great bulk of occupiers of land is far 

 behind the state of agricultural knowledge ; and many of 

 the practices of the most enlightened of our farmers are 

 based on empirical data, ^'arious agencies have been 

 proposed for promoting agricultural progress. For the 

 iDstruction of the mass we must look chiefly to the diffu- 

 sion of agricultural knowledge through the medium of 

 ordinary schools and colleges^ as was pointed out some 

 time ago in Nature. For further progress in the acqui- 

 sition of accurate knowledge we must look chiefly to 

 cxperiincntal investigations. 



In Germany they have had in operation for some years 

 a number of experimental stations which are partly sup- 

 ported by the State, and which are said to work satis- 

 factorily. France and other European countries are 

 following the example of Germany. Recently the subject 

 has been ventilated in Great Britain. It has been forced 

 on our attention by a number of persons who are seem- 

 ingly desirous of giving to the farmer every aid which 

 Iscience can suggest. 



British experience of experimental stations is very 

 I limited. We happen to have one at Rothamstead in 

 j England, which was described in Nature last year, and 

 i which we owe to the enterprise of Mr. John Bennett 

 Lawes, F.R.S., the great manure manufacturer. He has 

 for upwards of thirty years used a part of his estate for 

 experimental purposes. He has published the results in 

 avast number of papers. The whole is the work of the 

 man himself. He has had no aid from the Government 

 or any agricultural society, and no advice from any com- 

 mittee or public body. He has obtained a larger body 

 of facts in relation to manures and cropping, and the 

 feeding of animals, than all the agricultural societies in 

 the empire put together. It is manifestly desirable to 

 ; dwell on his labours and to contrast them"with the more 

 .public system projected elsewhere. 



1 To Mr. Lawes' experiments I hope to be able to 



ote another paper before long. For the present I 



I merely draw attention to the circumstances on 



:b, in my judgment, the success which has attended 



- labours has depended. Mr. Lawes has not had an 



unqualified success, especially in drawing inferences from 



his facts. But his writings afford ample evidence of great 



earnestness of purpose. His manly, outspoken language 



' "^bows that he loves truth for its own sake. He has had 



pie resources ; and he has had the motive of self- 



luierest, as well as love of knowledge, to stimulate him 



in his investigations. 



Here, then, we have a private individual who, unaided 



hy the State, or by any scientific body, has made a greater 



■aber of useful experiments than all the experimental 



ms of European Governments put together. Had the 



British Government established experimental stations 



Vrl.. X1!I.— No. 319 



before Mr. Lawes commenced, would he have established 

 his ? And if not, would British agriculture have derived 

 more useful results from the governmental stations than 

 from his ? 



These are questions which cannot be answered by 

 direct evidence. We possess, however, data which 

 enable us to throw light upon them. It is notorious 

 that the agriculture of Scotland has made great progress 

 within the past one hundred years. The improvement of 

 agriculture within that period has been greater in parts of 

 Scotland than in any part of England. Yet the demand 

 for means of effecting further progress is greater among 

 the most advanced farmers of Scotland than among the 

 mosfadvanced English farmers. There is no man in Scot- 

 land who has come forward, or offers to come forward, to do 

 for Scotland what Mr. Lawes has done and offers to do for 

 England. The friends of agricultural progress in Scot- 

 land are endeavouring to effect, by co-operation, what the 

 private enterprise of Mr. Lawes is doing for England. The 

 subject has been discussed in English agricultural classes, 

 more or less, for several years. The discussion has during 

 the past few weeks assumed a practical shape to which 

 it may be useful to refer. A member of the Council of 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Mr. Randell, 

 desires to " prove, by a series of experiments, under every 

 variety of soil and circumstances, how far the accuracy of 

 the estimated value of manures obtained by the consump- 

 tion of different articles of food as given by Mr. Lawes, is 

 confirmed by practical results." Mr. Randell was sup- 

 ported by the Earl of Lichfield and Lord Vernon, and the 

 matter was referred to the Chemical Committee of the 

 Society. Mr. Randell has so far confined himself to one 

 point, which has been suggested to his mind by the pass- 

 ing of the Agricultural Holdings Act of 1875. If one or 

 more stations be established, the experiments would of 

 course cover a wider field. The question arises at once, 

 how are the experiments to be directed ? Could Mr. Lawes 

 be induced to act as Director-General? He could be 

 assisted by a representative council. In due time the 

 best man to succeed him would appear. 



In Scotland the movement has of late been agitated 

 with energy and intelligence. The Royal Agricultural 

 Society of that country, better known as the Highland 

 Society, has a large surplus fund, and contains among its 

 members the leading gentry, many enlightened profes- 

 sional men, and a great array of intelligent farmers. It 

 has been suggested that some of this fund should be ap- 

 plied to the maintenance of experimental stations. Several 

 reports and suggestions have been made. It is said that 

 a sum of 700/. a year, and no m.ore, is available for the 

 purpose. 



One of the reports goes on to state that " considering 

 the advantages which had already been derived from 

 chemistry in its application to agriculture, it was expe- 

 dient to reorganise a chemical department under the 

 cognisance of the Society, for the purpose of conducting 

 investigations on all subjects relating to agriculture ; and 

 that in connection therewith a series of carefully con- 

 ducted experiments in the open ground be instituted." 

 The directors found that the Society had at its disposal, 

 for the purpose of the chemical department and field 

 experiments, a sum of 700/., which they recommended 

 should be set aside for a period of seven years. In 



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