228 



School of Agriculture, Cambridge University. [June, 



small rooms in the basement of the University Chemical Labora- 

 tory lent by Professor Liveing, and in a small room in the 

 Botany School lent by Professor Marshall Ward. * 



Within a year a farm of 140 acres was added to the equipment, 

 Burgoyne's Farm, Impington, 5 miles from Cambridge, being 

 leased to the University rent free for 10 years by the late Mr. 

 W. A. Macfarlane Grieve of Clare College. The farming capital 

 of £1,500 was collected by public subscription. 



Under Professor Somerville this farm was stocked and 

 equipped, local experimental work was extended by the estab- 

 lishment of several experiment stations on a more permanent 

 and ambitious scale, notably the " manuring for mutton 

 stations at Hatley, Cransley, and Trowse, and the " schemes 

 of manuring " stations at Saxmundham, Hatley, Great Thurlow, 

 and Thripjow. Laboratory research was also actively prose- 

 cuted, chiefly in the direction of studying the composition of 

 various crops. Biffen's plant breeding work, endowed with a 

 new weapon by the rediscovery of Mendel's laws of heredity, 

 made steady progress. The teaching was reorganised by the 

 inclusion of systematic instruction on the practical side of agri- 

 culture, and the number of students slowly but steadily 

 increased. 



In 1902, Professor Somerville left Cambridge in order to 

 fill the important position of Assistant Secretary in charge 

 of the Intelligence Division of the Board of Agriculture. 

 During his short stay his personal gifts and the success of his 

 practical experiments had made an important contribution 

 tovards the establishment of the new department as one of the 

 scientific departments of the University. He was succeeded by 

 Professor (now Sir Thomas) Middleton, who, like his predeces- 

 sor, left the chair of agriculture at Armstrong College, Ne wcastle - 

 on-Tyne, to come to Cambridge. 



Professor Middleton extended the experimental work inaugu- 

 rated by Professor Somerville by including in the farm pro- 

 gramme a very comprehensive series of variety trials of oats, 

 potatoes, mangolds and other farm crops, and in collaboration 

 with the writer, at that time Reader in Agricultural Chemistry, 

 carried out an important series of feeding trials at several centres 

 to test the nutritive value of different varieties of mangolds. 

 Research work on the composition of crops was actively prose- 

 cuted by the writer and his assistant, Mr. R. A. Berry, now 

 Professor of Agricultural Chemistry at Glasgow, and bv Mr. 

 Bitfen on plant breeding. The steady increase in the number of 



