Abstract
IT has become a trite remark, that while both the progress and teaching of Science are fostered in most educated countries by the care of the State, they mainly depend in our own country on the exertions of private individuals; this fact is perhaps, however, more strikingly seen in the case of agriculture than in any other instance. The traveller in Germany will find scattered over the country, some forty Experimental Stations and Agricultural Academies, establishments which are devoted to the investigation and teaching of scientific agriculture and are maintained by their respective States. The German farmer has thus the means of becoming acquainted with the true science of his business, and provision is at the same time made for the investigation of the various problems with which his work abounds. In England the state of things is, alas, wholly different. We have just one college—that at Cirencester, devoted to the teaching of scientific agriculture, and one Experimental Station—that at Rothamsted. There is indeed some experimental work done by local Farmers' Clubs, but this is generally only with the object of comparing the effects of the various manures that are in the market, and with no scientific aim or result. Yet England preeminently needs the help of Science to direct economically her vast system of agriculture. The art of agriculture is here in a higher state of development than on the continent. More capital is here invested in the land; more attention has been paid to tillage, to artificial manures, and to the breeding and feeding of stock. The British farmer succeeds because he is a practical man, and has good common sense, and the enterprising spirit of his race; what might he not do if he thoroughly understood the principles which underlie his art?
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
The Rothamsted Agricultural Investigations . Nature 9, 317–318 (1874). https://doi.org/10.1038/009317a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/009317a0