356 The Science of Agriculture. [May, 
determine is, remarks the Commissioner, necessarily with- 
held from the farmer and the manufacturer. The report 
contains extracts from letters from prominent agriculturists 
in the United States, all of whom testify to thefaCt that the 
agricultural interests of the country would be greatly 
advanced by a more thorough analysis than has yet been 
made of the grains, grasses, and edible roots, in order to 
determine the exaCt value of each in the production of 
milk, beef, and fibre, or muscular power. 
The English Government would do well to follow the lead 
of the American Government by establishing experimental 
agricultural stations in various parts of the kingdom with 
properly furnished laboratories and experienced chemists. 
It is impossible to over estimate the benefits to agriculture 
in England resulting from the scientific experiments made 
on a large practical scale by Messrs. Lawes and Gilbert at 
Rothamsted, but we contend that such work ought not be 
left entirely to private enterprise. 
In the preface to the English translation of his LeCtures 
on Chemical Manures* at the Experimental Field at Vin- 
cennes, M. Georges Ville remarks that it is important that 
both England and France should be alive to the faCt that 
the agricultural crisis from which both countries are now 
suffering, as well as the more serious troubles which threaten 
civilised nations, are only the prelude to the economic 
struggle between the Old World, bound in the trammels of 
tradition, and the New World, pressing onward free and 
unrestrained in the path of progress. 
At a period when the means of communication had not 
reached the development which they have since acquired, 
the home markets provided certain and easy outlets for agri- 
cultural produce. But at the present time, with free trade 
and the facilities of transport, farmers are compelled to 
compete in our own markets with all the world. In order 
that the struggle may be possible and remunerative, it is 
absolutely necessary that crops of every kind should be 
increased to their utmost possible limit. The traditions of 
the past are not sufficient for the necessities of the present. 
We want more rapid, more economical, and more powerful 
processes. The agriculturist used to divide the land into 
two nearly equal parts, setting one aside for grazing pur- 
* On Artificial Manures, their Chemical Selection and Scientific Application 
to Agriculture. A Series of Lectures given at the Experimental Farm at 
Vincennes during 1867 and 1874-5. ByM. Georges Ville. Translated and 
Edited by William Crookes, F.R.S. Illustrated with Thirty-one Engravings. 
London: Longmans, Green, and Co. 1879, 
