Introductory* 3 



Supplementary investigations have included a somewhat 

 exhaustive inquiry into the application of town sewage to 

 different crops, and especially to grass ; the chemistry of the 

 malting process, the loss of food constituents during its 

 progress, and the comparative feeding value of barley and 

 malt ; the changes and losses which food crops undergo in 

 the process of conversion into silage ; and the feeding value 

 of different kinds of silage when supplied to fattening oxen 

 and to milking cows. 



The first original paper that emanated from Eothamsted 

 appeared in the year 1847, and from then to the middle of 

 1887 that is, during a period of forty years there were 

 published as many as one hundred and four separate papers 

 or memoirs. A rough classification of these papers leads to 

 some such arrangement of subjects as the following: (1) 

 Experiments on the continuous growth of wheat and of 

 barley on the same land. (2) Agricultural, botanical, and 

 chemical results of experiments on the mixed herbage of per- 

 manent meadow conducted for more than twenty years in 

 succession on the same land. (3) The amount and composi- 

 tion of rain and drainage water. (4) The application, distri- 

 bution, and influence of manures, and the valuation of unex- 

 hausted manures. (5) The fertility and exhaustion of soils. 

 (6) The combined nitrogen in soils and subsoils. (7) The 

 sources of the nitrogen of vegetation. (8) Nitrification. (9) 

 Clover sickness and the growth of clover by different manures. 

 (10) The evaporation of water from plants. (11) The botany 

 and chemistry of fairy rings. (12) The home produce, 

 imports, and consumption of wheat, and the composition of 

 wheat grain, mill products, and bread. (13) Agricultural 

 chemistry, dealing with Liebig's theories, with turnip culture, 

 and with the feeding of oxen, sheep, and pigs. (14) The 

 utilisation of town sewage. (15) The relation of temperature 

 to plant-growth. 



It is when the inquirer, who wishes to obtain an adequate 

 idea and a comprehensive view of the Eothamsted experi- 



B 2 



