Preface to the Third Edition. rv. 



have amply compensated me for the time and 

 labour I have expended on this subject. For 

 many years past we have been doing what ought 

 to have been the work of an agricultural department ; 

 our correspondence has reached far beyond these 

 islands, and it may be of interest to mention that 

 we have heard on the subject, either directly or 

 indirectly, from India, Chili, Peru, the Argentine 

 Republic, the Antipodes, Canada, and Rhodesia. 

 From the many confirmatory opinions I have 

 received I quote the following from a Roxburgh- 

 shire tenant farmer, as it illustrates so conclusively 

 the national importance of the work that has been 

 carried to most successful results at Clifton-on- 

 Bowmont. The passage, I may mention, has 

 already appeared in my letter in the Times, under 

 the heading of " Agricultural Depression,'' on 

 October 12, 1904. The tenant farmer alluded to 

 writes as follows : — 



"Prom the short experience I have had on my farm of 

 practising a modification of your system, I am now thoroughly 

 convinced that most of the poor land in this country could be 

 profitably farmed and give more employment to labour than it 

 possibly can do at present. Ohfton-on-Bowmont proves beyond 

 question how much can be done to cheapen production and 

 maintain the fertility of the land through natural and scientific 

 methods. Your example shoidd prove a guide and a warning 

 to many who would run to extremes in laying too much land, 

 thought worthless for growing crops, to grass of inferior quality. 

 Such land can never be profitably held in that way. Chfton- 

 on-Bowmont teaches a different lesson, and conclusively proves 

 that much poor land going out of cultivation, and carrying a 



