IT was with great sadness that I read the official notice that said that Horticultural Research International, Wellesbourne, is to be sold.

This research station was set up after the war as the National Vegetable Research Station and as such played an important part in improving the efficiency of British horticulture as well as making many ground-breaking discoveries and gaining a well-earned reputation as an international centre of excellence; apart from its work in acting as an independent arbiter in the testing of many agricultural chemicals and techniques routinely used today by farmers and growers.

Today it is manned by the remaining core of what has been a brilliant network of Government-backed research stations, now closed and lost for ever. Its purchase by the University of Warwick is a sad end to that work and, I fear, will result in it becoming just another teaching institution. Yes, it is better than complete closure but it is another step in the abandonment of British agriculture by successive governments of whatever political persuasion. Sic transit gloria mundi!

DAVID GOODMAN, Blue Cap Road, Stratford.