36 THE SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES 



is now available with regard to some of these ques- 

 tions, and I shall have to call attention to it in 

 subsequent lectures. 



I may add that, very shortly after Dr. Daubeny 

 had bequeathed the piece of ground to which I have 

 referred, I visited it with him, and at the time ex- 

 pressed a fear that it was not very suitable for the 

 objects in view, little thinking that it would fall to 

 my lot to consider the subject more seriously, as 

 I shall soon have to do. In the first place, I pointed 

 out the unlevel character of the plot, and gathered 

 from the history of it given to me, that it was very 

 uneven as to condition. Accordingly, I suggested 

 that, before any experiments on it were undertaken, 

 it should be brought into an even state as far as 

 mechanical operations could accomplish this ; and 

 that then some corn-crop should be grown for several 

 years in succession without manure, so as, as far as pos- 

 sible, to obliterate the unevenness of condition arising 

 from previous irregularity in manuring and cropping. 



It will doubtless excite surprise when I say that, 

 notwithstanding the importance of the subject, and the 

 high authority on which the prosecution of scientific- 

 ally conducted field-experiments has been advocated, 

 the conduct of such experiments has never been an 

 important part of the work of the Agricultural Experi- 

 mental Stations on the continent of Europe, and that 

 it is now almost excluded from their programme. 



In 1880, Professor Maercker of Halle, one of the 

 leading Agricultural Chemists of Germany, stated that 

 belief in their value was greatly diminished, and that 

 by some they were declared to be of no value. It is 

 objected that the Chemists of the Agricultural Stations 

 have neither the means nor the technical know- 

 ledge necessary for carrying out such experiments 



