PREFACE ix 



" The Fruit Farm is on the Duke's land near Ridgmont Station, 

 and almost adjoins the land which is given up to the use of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society as an experimental agricultural 

 station. About twenty acres have been devoted to the purpose, 

 and of this some fifteen have already been planted." 



In the quarter of a century which has elapsed since the 

 foundation of the Farm, events have forced such a profound 

 change in the popular view as to the relation between science 

 and practice the practice of the arts both of war and of peace 

 that it is no longer necessary to apologise for any attempt to 

 apply the teachings and the methods of science to any branch 

 of industry; but it may be pointed out that the methods of 

 science may justly claim to be those which are really practical in 

 the strictest sense, since they consist of ascertaining by direct 

 trial the true behaviour of the subjects in question under given 

 circumstances, instead of accepting the generally held beliefs and 

 the rule-of-thumb methods of former generations. As might 

 naturally have been expected, the work at Woburn exposed the 

 fallacy of some of these popular theories, and, as might equally 

 have been expected at the time, such exposure met with violent 

 opposition, supported sometimes even by personal abuse. The 

 more enlightened spirit pervading the country at the present 

 day must make such a reception appear to belong to very 

 distant times. 



Some of our visitors to the Farm who hailed from Kent have 

 asked why it was that this experiment station was not located 

 in that fruit-growing county; others from Herefordshire have 

 wanted to know why the claims of that land of the apple were 

 not duly considered by establishing the Farm in their county. 

 These are questions which should be put to, and answered by, 

 the large landowners in Kent and Hereford : it should hardly 

 be necessary to point out that a landowner in Bedfordshire who 

 takes so great an interest in fruit-growing as to devote his land 

 and money to the establishment of an experiment station, would 

 scarcely establish such a station on some one else's land, remote 

 from his own ken and supervision. 



Much has been said, some of it with justice, and some without, 

 as to the unsuitability of the site chosen for the Woburn Farm. 

 On a private estate, however large, many circumstances other 

 than the suitability of the land have to be taken into considera- 

 tion when establishing an institution of this sort ; but it may 

 be mentioned that this site was selected as eminently suitable 

 for fruit-growing by one of the highest practical authorities on 



