vi Preface. 



In several instances the information here given is 

 brought very nearly down to date. This has been 

 rendered possible only through the characteristically 

 kind and ready manner in which Sir John Lawes and 

 Dr. Gilbert have responded to my requests, and for 

 which my grateful acknowledgments are tendered. 



At the present time, when there has been preferred a 

 somewhat vague demand that the Government should 

 undertake the support of agricultural experiment stations, 

 it seems a fitting moment in which to make more widely 

 known the nature and results of the splendid work 

 which private enterprise has with such conspicuous 

 success maintained at Rothamsted. Whatever merits 

 this book may possess are due to the illustrious investi- 

 gators with whose name the volume is associated. Its 

 faults, whatever they be, are mine alone. 



W. FREAM. 



COLLEGE OP AGRICULTURE, 



DOWNTON, SALISBURY, 

 January, 1888. 



