170 
LIFE OF DEAN BUCKLAND. 
[CH. VI. 
myself. This tour, in which your father took such an 
active part, did a great deal to stimulate the leading 
agriculturists of the country to carry out the motto of 
the Royal Agricultural Society, ‘ Practice with Science.’ 
Among other houses which he visited were those of Sir 
Robert Peel at Drayton Manor, Lord Ducie at Portworth, 
Lord Fitzwilliam at Wentworth, Lord Essex at Cassiobury, 
Philip Pusey, then the ruling spirit of the Agricultural 
Society, Mr. Webb and Mr. Miles at Bristol, and Mr. 
Crosse. The opportunity was taken of our visits to hold 
meetings in the neighbouring towns, and the genial, 
amusing speeches of your father contributed much to 
their success. Baron Liebig always spoke in German, so 
my function chiefly consisted in rendering his speeches 
comprehensible to the audience, by repeating them in 
English after he had finished. 
“ One notable fact should not be omitted. Your father 
had shown that the coprolites found in various rocks 
could not be anything but the fossil dung of extinct 
animals, as the intestinal marks were still obvious. Dr. 
Buckland took us to see these coprolites in the strata in 
which they occur. Liebig, on being convinced of their 
probable origin, said they must contain abundance of 
phosphate of lime, the most needed manure for our 
exhausted soils. By the post of the same day I sent 
some to my laboratory in Manchester, where it was found 
that they abounded in phosphate of lime. Later, on his 
return to Germany, Liebig* made complete analysis of the 
coprolites, and what your father termed ‘ pseudo-copro- 
lites,’ which were also found to contain this important 
earth. This was the origin of the great industry of Super¬ 
phosphates, which has done so much for agriculture. 
During part of our tour Dr. Daubeny was with us, and he 
suggested that mineral phosphates such as he had seen in 
Estramaclura might be used when coprolites failed, and 
this source is now largely used in agriculture. 
“ I hope that I have answered your question as to 
whether your father did much to promote the application 
of science to agriculture. In relation to this you ask me 
