194 



The author believes that, considering the care with which field 

 experiments are to be conducted and the large margin of error 

 inherent in their results even under favourable conditions, "they are 

 hardly to be lightly entered upon by the ordinary busy farmer, and 

 that the advice so often given him to work out by experiment the 

 manures best suited to his own farm would really involve a dispro- 

 portionate amount of work. " 



" In field experiments, using the author's concluding words, as 

 in all other applications of science to agriculture, the problems 

 involved are so complex, the factors which intervene are so various 

 and unexpected, that the greatest rigour and technical skill are 

 called for in the conduct of the investigation, to be followed by 

 an even greater measure of scientific caution in interpreting the 

 results." 



Woburn Experimental Station. Visit of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society. The Scotsman, i6th July, 1910. Edinburgh. 



One of the most important of the undertakings carried on by 

 the Royal Agricultural Society of England is the experimental farm 

 at Woburn, Bedfordshire. The ninth Duke of Bedford offered the 

 use of this farm to the Society in 1875, and ever since it has been 

 applied to agricultural investigation. 



The farm consists of 140 acres (56.65 hectares), 100 of which 

 (40.46 hectares) are arable land, and the remainder grass. The 

 soil is a light sandy loam, the top soil being about 9 inches (o. m., 

 23 centimetres) deep, and the subsoil consists of sand. . 



At the Rothamsted Experimental Station the top soil is a heavy 

 loam containing many flint stones, the subsoil being a stiff clay 

 resting on chalk. Thus the one may form quite well a comple- 

 ment of the other. This was the view of the R. Agric. Soc. of 

 England in starting the Woburn farm in 1877, which is conducted 

 chiefly, with the intention of finding out in a methodical scientific 

 way what the specific values of various types of plant food may 

 be. The staff is a very competent one. The director is Dr. J. 

 Augustus Voelcker who contributes annually a report of the results 

 obtained to the Society's Journal. Every year a visit of the members 

 of the Society is made to the farm. This year some seventy vi- 

 sitors were present. 



One of the features of the farm is the pot-culture station which 

 was instituted in 1897 in consequence of a bequest by Mr. E. H. 



