VII. Memoir on the rotation of crops, and on the quantity of inorganic matters abstracted from the soil by various plants under different circumstances

In laying before this Society an account of certain experiments which I have undertaken with the view of elucidating the principles upon which the advantage of a rotation of crops in husbandry depends, it may be proper that I should in the first instance state the circumstances under which they were commenced, as well as those which led me during the course of them to deviate in some respects from my original plan of proceeding. During the prosecution of a set of researches which embraced a period of more than ten years, it might naturally be expected, that the views at first entertained would become modified, and that arrangements deemed sufficient for carrying out the original plan should appear unsatisfactory, in proportion as glimpses of other truths, than those which enlightened us at the outset, began to open upon the field of our inquiry.