202 Board of Agriculture. 



11. From studying Arthur Young's great unpublished work, 

 and observing, from other sources of information, what valuable 

 experiences and discoveries have been gradually lost sight of from 

 the inertness of our Government in failing to record, and practi- 

 cally illustrate by demonstration farms, facts of the greatest 

 value to agriculture, I feel confident that the views I have 

 above expressed are sound. 



12. From the numerous visitors to OHfton-on-Bowmont I have 

 received most gratifying opinions as to the value of my work. 

 An agriculturist, whose opinion I highly value, in writing to me 

 lately, said — " What I saw the other day convinces me that you 

 have revolutionized the methods hitherto pursued, proved to the hilt 

 that the old are very inferior in residts to those you advocate, and 

 I cannot but believe that sooner or later — the old dies hard — what 

 you have so persistently laboured at will be generally adopted." 



13. Though work on the lines of the Board, as shown in their 

 reports, cannot accomplish the ends indicated in par. 10, I by 

 no means wish the reader to infer that the work of the Board 

 is of little value. All that I wish to insist on is that it never can be 

 of the value that it might be unless it is accompanied by practical 

 examples like those on my Clifton -on- Bo wmont farm^examples 

 which show how agricultural improvements may be carried out, in 

 some cases without additional cost, and in others with a con- 

 siderable saving of the expenditure at present incurred. 



CoNCLUDiNQ Eemarks. — When visiting Olifton-on-Bowmont 

 one day with an intelligent gardener, I remarked — " Is it not 

 wonderful to see such a fine crop grown on such poor soU ? '' 

 He replied — " Give me a good turf, and I don't care what the 

 soil underneath it is " — a point he practically illustrated as to 

 the value of turf by robbing my park of it whenever he could, 

 though he had full command of all kinds of manures. I may 

 remind the reader here of the quotation on the title-page, where 

 it is declared that " To eaise a thick tuef on a naked soil 



WOULD BE WOETH VOLUMES OF SYSTEMATIC KNOWLEDGE." 



This is what has been done at Clifton- on -Bowmont. In little 

 more than two years we can now raise a turf which, at a little 

 distance, looks Hke old pasture, and on a close inspection might 

 be taken for five-year old grass, while in five years we have 



