Experiments on the Growth of Wheat

Abstract

THE long series of reports which have emanated from Rothamsted since 1847, and which lie buried to most readers in the Journals of the Royal Agricultural Society, as well as in those of our more purely learned Societies, have long needed an editor. Back numbers of serials are not particularly attractive to the modern reader. The laborious papers by Sir John Lawes and his indefatigable colleague Dr. Gilbert would have run some little danger of being buried alive had not an able editor and exponent been found. Happily, Dr. Fream possessed the necessary knowledge and discrimination for this task, and, with the entire concurrence of the original investigators, the upshot is a valuable digest of a certain section of the results obtained—namely, those relating to the cereals and the grasses. The volume is adapted for reference rather than for rapid reading, although the sections upon the influence of climate on the cultivation of wheat, and upon the home produce, imports, and consumption of wheat, are less close in fibre, and may be scanned with greater ease. The book is, in fact, rather for students than for the omnivorous reader, but nevertheless appeals to a very large constituency. All landlords, land agents, and farmers, as well as agricultural students (now a numerous class), will welcome it as giving, in a compendious form, and in digested condition, matter which is scattered through many periodicals.

The Rothamsted Experiments on the Growth of Wheat, Barley, and the Mixed Herbage of Grass Land.

By William Fream, Professor of Natural History in the College of Agriculture, Downton. (London: Horace Cox, Field Office, 1888.)