IN A UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM 7 



century as it did in the penultimate decade of the nine- 

 teenth. In the ninety years that intervene much less 

 was accomplished for Agricultural Science than the 

 activity of the closing ten years of the eighteenth 

 century might have led one to expect. The chief land- 

 marks of this period are the foundation of the Royal 

 Agricultural Society in 1838, and of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural College in 1842; the commencement of the 

 famous experiments by Lawes and Gilbert at Rotham- 

 sted about 1835, and the production by the former of 

 Superphosphate of Lime on a commercial scale in 

 1843. It is true that each of these factors has had 

 an enormous influence on agricultural production, and 

 the work of Lawes and Gilbert may, in a sense, be 

 called epoch-making; but until 1890 systematic agri- 

 cultural education could be pursued at only a single 

 University in the United Kingdom. This University 

 was not Oxford but Edinburgh, for although Professor- 

 ships of Rural Economy were established in these two 

 places about the same time, that at Oxford does not 

 appear to have exercised its functions till 1884, and 

 then only in a very restricted sense. In that year it 

 was detached from the Sherardian Professorship and 

 given an independent though terminable existence, 

 first under Sir Henry Gilbert, and subsequently under 

 Professor Warington. 



Almost at the end of the nineteenth century agri- 

 cultural education in this country stood very nearly 

 where it did a hundred years earlier, and the outlook 

 was about as hopeless as could well be conceived. But 

 seldom has more forcible illustration been given to the 

 saying that the darkest hour is that before the dawn. 

 In the years 1888, 1889, and 1890, three notable events 

 occurred, each of which has had an important influence 



