60 THE GEOvrrn of bakley and root crops. 



We found cases illustrating the advantage of good cultivation, 

 where from land of the same character, and under similar condi- 

 tions of climate, the produce vras ten times greater in Fat and 

 Heat-producing matter, and forty times greater in the Fleeh- 

 forming matter, in the one case than in the other. We found 

 the nutritive value of crops under similar conditions of soil 

 and climate doubled by a proper drainage of the land. We 

 found the advantage of using a suitable seed giving three times 

 as much Fat and Heat-producing matter, and seven times as 

 much Flesh-forming matter, from similar land, and under simi- 

 lar management. We found a judicious change of seed 

 increasing the Fat and Heat-producing matter to a three-fold 

 extent, and the Flesh -forming matter in rather higher proportion, 

 from the same area of the same land. We found the suitability 

 of Barley for Malting and for Feeding purposes greatly con- 

 trolled by the system of management pursued. It would, how- 

 ever, be wearisome to you to pursue these details ; but enough 

 has probably been said to show that they are not without 

 importance to the cultivator of the land, nor without interest 

 from a national point of view to the general public. 



These results have opened upon us enquiries of the deepest 

 possible moment, and reveal to us a vast extent of work which 

 yet remains to be accomplished. We have opened up some 

 new lines of research and enquiry, and, encouraged by the past, 

 we may hope to bring the experience of practical men more 

 thoroughly within the range of scientific observation. It must, 

 however, be borne in mind that these results have been arrived 

 at by the evidence obtainable in the growth of one season, and 

 a continuance of the enquiry will probably give us additional 

 facts confirmatory in their character, and increasing our know- 

 ledge of the limits of variation. These results must therefore 

 be regarded merely as the first steps in an important line of 

 research. The first report is now before the Council of Educa- 

 tion, and will be made public in due course. Approval has also 

 been given for an entirely new mode of illustrating these results 

 by means of coloured diagrams, which will enable the informa- 



