PREPACE TO FIRST EDITION IN a retrospect of the last twenty-five years of British Agriculture some rather striking features are to be discerned which are worthy of a brief notice matters which may at first glance appear somewhat irrelevant to the subject in hand, but which nevertheless have a distinot bearing and influence upon the character and value of farm structures. During the period mentioned there has been a very great increase in the use of artificial fertilisers. Farmers now better understand the use and value of chemical manures to supplement the natural manure produced upon the farm. Concentrated feeding stuffs, too, the manurial residues of which are very valuable, are now in general use so much so, in fact, that farmers have been at their wits end during the last two years to make shift with a necessarily greatly reduced supply. Can it be said that the fertility of the land has increased in any marked degree as a result of the importation of so much manurial substance Has it become more productive Save that., possibly, less home-grown corn has been consumed on the land, the manure produced from the consmption of farm crops has been returned thereto, and, with the addition of imported manurial substances, it might be expected that agricultural land would be in high condition. On a well managed farm this is doubtless the case, for with a proper appreciation of the nature and value of his manure the farmer takes steps to conserve it by the catchment of the liquid and the careful stacking of the solid. But the best results are impossible unless suitable drainage exists for the collection of liquid manure undiluted with surface water. Urine contains most of the potash of the food consumed, and is also very rich in nitrogen, and the loss of such liquid by discharge into a ditch or the unsystematic application of it to the land is therefore a cause of serious pecuniary loss to the farmer. The loss to the Nation due to the present deplorable state of the drainage on innumerable homesteads all over the country is incalculable. Of late years a great industry has grown up in the production of milk. Where, fcrmerly, farms in the immediate neighbourhood of towns supplied, or failed to supply, the bulk of the public, the business has now extended into rural districts which, though far away from the industrial centres and markets, are served by a railway. This has resulted in improvements to existing farm buildings, as milk produced for sale to the public must come from animals housed under reasonably sanitary conditions. In many cases existing cattle-sheds have been adapted to meet the new requirements, while in other cases it has been necessary to erect new buildings for the purpose. The industry is growing and will grow, for it is a branch of British farming which is not affected by outside competition. The scarcity of labour for farm work is a serious matter, and farmers have endeavoured to reduce the work in various ways to meet the shortage of labour. Prior to August, 1914, the use of labour-saving implements and the laying down of arable land in grass had somewhat relieved the situation. To save the labour of thatching, and the risk of damage to crops in uncovered stacks, Dutch barns have been erected on a considerable scale, either by landlords, in consideration of a rent in the form of interest on outlay, or by tenants themselves, under an arrange- ment with the owners as to take-over...