THE  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENTS  OF 
THE  LATE  MR.  JAMES  MASON. 
Mk.  James  Mason,  of  Eynsham  Hall,  Oxon.,  one  of  the 
original  founders  of  the  firm  of  Mason  and  Barry,  carried  on 
an  extensive  series  of  agricultural  experiments  for  the  last 
twenty  years  of  his  life.  While  some  of  the  work  was  on  a 
laboratory  scale,  everything  was  intended  to  bear  directly  on 
practice,  and  the  information  gained  was  applied  to  ordinary 
farming  conditions  on  the  estate.  Mr.  Mason  himself  pub- 
lished little  or  nothing  about  his  procedure  ; he  contributed 
a short  article  to  this  Journal  (Vol.  53,  1892,  pj).  (151-857), 
and  some  of  his  methods  were  set  out  by  Professor  Wrightson 
and  Mr.  S.  B.  L.  Druce  in  the  Agricultural  Gazette  for  1891 
(Vol.  34,  pp.  240  and  445).  Most  exact  and  ample  records 
were  kept,  however,  of  everything  tluit  was  done,  and  the 
])resent  paper  is  simply  an  attemj)!  to  extract  the  main  results, 
scientific  and  practical,  which  jiossess  ])crmanent  value.  In 
addition  to  Mr.  Mason’s  papers  I have  been  allowed  by  Lady 
(Gilbert’s  kindness  to  read  the  correspondence  which  for  many 
years  passed  between  him  and  the  late  Sir  Henry  Gilbert. 
Mr.  Mason’s  early  life  was  engrossed  in  business,  a business, 
however,  in  which  the  applications  of  science  to  industry  found 
the  fullest  scope  ; he  was  much  occupied  with  the  chemistry 
of  the  various  processes  for  the  recovery  of  copper,  and  it  was 
to  a rare  combination  of  scientific  aptitude  with  energy  and 
organising  power  that  he  owed  a success  which  would  probably 
have  been  ecpially  marked  in  any  other  walk  of  life.  Although 
Mr.  Mason  purchased  the  Eynsham  Hall  Estate  in  1867  it 
was  not  until  1882,  after  his  withdrawal  from  active  ]>artici- 
])ation  in  business,  that  he  Ix'gan  to  turn  his  attention  to 
agricultural  matters.  At  that  time  tin*  greater  j)art  of  the 
estate  was  let,  only  the  j)ark  and  a few  recently  ac(|uired 
