1839 - 1845 *] LORD PLAYFAIR’S REMINISCENCES. 
169 
twenty-one was welcomed as a colleague by men whose 
names still remain revered in the history of science. Of 
these men your father had most influence upon my career, 
and was certainly my most intimate friend. 
“ Dr. Buckland had for some time taken much interest 
in the relations of geology to agriculture, but had found 
these to be of a complicated character, for, though the 
rock beneath the soil influenced the crops in a marked 
degree, it was less dominant in its influence than the 
surface soil, which frequently consisted of detritus having 
little relation to the geological structure beneath. This 
led your father to look to chemistry as a science which 
might be brought into more useful practical connection 
with agriculture. Liebig had shortly before written his 
masterly work on Agricultural Chemistry, which I intro¬ 
duced to this country by an English translation. This 
made me the natural exponent of Liebig’s views in 
England, specially as I kept myself in close correspondence 
with my great master, and became acquainted with all his 
new researches. In these your father was much interested, 
and did much to popularise them among agriculturists. 
Personally I did not then see much of your father, as I 
resided in Clitheroe and afterwards in Manchester; but 
I visited him in Oxford on two occasions, and we had 
lively conversations as to the best methods of inducing 
farmers to throw the light of science on their important 
industry. 
“In 1842 Baron Liebig offered to pay me a visit in 
Manchester, when I was living in humble lodgings, ill 
calculated to receive my illustrious friend. On consulting 
Dr. Buckland he suggested that I should induce Liebig to 
make a tour in Great Britain, where he was certain to 
be received with welcome and with honour. Though I 
became £ personal conductor 5 of this tour, your father 
joined us in part of it and contributed much to its success. 
We went together to the meeting of the Royal Agricultural 
Society, which will explain the fact that, in the published 
print to which you refer, his portrait appears standing 
beside Lord Ducie, Baron Liebig, T. C. Morton, and 
