PREFACE xi 



One most valuable result is the conversion from 

 heather to clover without tilling a yard, and 

 showing a return on the investment something 

 like twenty times the average on the scores of 

 millions in surplus capital which this poor country 

 has invested abroad, while our soil goes to grass 

 and our grass to heather.* This is something 

 more than mere success in farming. It implies 

 a practically unlimited extension in the basis of 

 food production, with corresponding gain to 

 the quantity and kind of human life. Is it not 

 natural that, knowing this, I should want others 

 to know it ? To myself, it would seem criminal 

 to refuse. Yet the Department, while knowing 

 all about it for years, has done nothing whatever 

 to hand on the gift, though endowed by the State 

 for this purpose. That is bad, but it is not the 

 worst. The influence and authority of the Depart- 

 ment, in so far as they count, have been used to 

 deny my results, though these are permanently 

 visible in concrete form, and have been inspected 

 by inquirers from various countries abroad. Some 

 of the best farmers in Scotland have come to me 

 and confessed that they had something to learn 

 in Mayo. 



The scientific workers in the Department have 

 had no part in this official treachery against the 

 farmers. I have not found a trace of evidence for 

 any such thing, and that is what I expect of men 

 scientifically educated. They are competent 

 agriculturists to a man, know how to do the thing 



* The Department takes f of a perch, per crop omitting cost ! 



