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INAUGURAL LECTURE. /8 ^ 



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Oxford, May 6, 1884. 



Mr. Vice-Chancellor and Gentlemen, 



The term 'Rural Economy, which gives the title to 

 the Professorship to which I have been appointed, 

 might be held to include such a variety of topics, that 

 if I had no other guide in the selection of subjects to 

 bring before you, I should be placed in a position of 

 some difficulty. It would not be inappropriate to 

 treat of the general management of landed property 

 from the point of view of the Land-owner or the 

 Land-agent ; of the practical details of farming, 

 mechanical, economical, and commercial, such as are 

 essential to be observed by the tenant or occupier, if 

 his " business is to be a profitable one ; or, lastly, 

 attention might be confined to the elucidation of the 

 scientific principles involved in successful practice, so 

 far as the existing knowledge of the day permitted. 



Fortunately, however, I have not only the obvious 

 intentions of the Founder of this Chair, the late 

 Professor Sibthorp, and the way in which my Pre- 

 decessor, the late Professor Daubeny, interpreted and 

 performed the duties of the office, to guide and limit 

 my selection of subjects ; but, on the 14th of July last, 

 these duties were, under the sanction of the Chancery 

 Division of the High Court of Justice, defined to be 

 to lecture on the Scientific Principles of Agriculture, 



It may be not out of place to remind you that, 

 according to Dr. Sibthorp's will, the Sherardian Pro- 

 fessor of Botany for the time being was to hold the 

 Professorship of Rural Economy ; and that hitherto, 



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