x PREFACE 



the subject then living; an instance, perhaps, that practice 

 without science is not always a sure guide. 



The Farm occupies some twenty acres of land near the village 

 of Ridgmont, the formation consisting of the Oxford clay, of 

 which a tongue projects into the greensand formation prominent 

 in the neighbourhood. The ground is of a somewhat peculiar 

 nature, there being in the lower portion of the farm a preponder- 

 ance of fine particles (clay) in the upper layers, whereas in most 

 soils it is the lower layers which are richest in the finer particles : 

 analyses of the soil will be found below (p. 81). The surface 

 soil is shallow, and difficult to work, becoming sticky in winter, 

 and baking very hard in summer; added to which, it is a soil 

 which is very favourable to the growth of weeds. These objec- 

 tions, which, of course, would be fatal for commercial fruit- 

 growing, do not constitute any serious drawback to the 

 ground as an experiment station; indeed, for such a station, 

 exceptionally favourable conditions are as disadvantageous as 

 exceptionally unfavourable ones. 



Fruit trees generally, and apples in particular, flourish well at 

 the Woburn Farm, though their life there is probably not a 

 very extended one, and the main drawback to its position as 

 an experiment station is that it is low-lying, and subject to 

 spring frosts : this, of course, interferes with the regular crop- 

 ping of the trees, and causes an irregularity in those records 

 which depend on the fruit. 



From the first it was realised that the station would probably 

 never be equipped as such a station ought to be so as to 

 fulfil the highest ideals of investigation. For that purpose, half 

 a dozen branches of science would have to be represented, each 

 with its laboratory and staff, the whole forming an establish- 

 ment which could scarcely be maintained except by the State 

 or some large corporate body. Hence the goal which we set 

 ourselves was the investigation of those cultural problems in 

 which much work could be done without the assistance of special 

 scientific investigation, and it is only in the direction of chemistry 

 that we have at all over-passed these self-imposed limits. 



In looking back on the work of past years, it is inevitable 

 that Wolsey-like reflections must arise, as to how much more 

 might have been done had circumstances been otherwise than 

 they were, and how much more ought to have been done under 

 the existing circumstances. But whatever has been done or left 

 undone, it may be pleaded that the work is the work of one 

 man only, not very well equipped for his task, handicapped 



