clxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert, of Rothamstead, and Dr.Voelcker, 

 chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society. At the estab- 

 lishment of Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert, consisting of a labora- 

 tory and experimental fields, some eight or ten persons are 

 directly or indirectly engaged in experimental researches, the 

 total expense of which, amounting to two thousand pounds 

 (2000) per annum, is borne by Mr. Lawes. Some of the 

 most elaborate investigations known in agricultural science 

 have been performed here. Among these are experiments 

 upon the nutritive value of different foods for cattle, and 

 upon the effects of different manures upon different crops 

 grown year after year upon the same land. A late report 

 of a series of experiments upon the growth of barley for 

 twenty years in succession upon the same land fills 197 

 pages of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. In 

 the laboratory of Dr.Voelcker, which occupies four stories 

 of a bouse in Salisbury Square, London, some five or six as- 

 sistants are employed, and as many as two hundred analyses 

 of fodder materials, and nearly two thousand analyses of 

 fertilizers, are made per annum. 



In the experiment station founded by Grandeau at Nancy, 

 in France, considerable good work is being done. Of the 

 labors of the other experiment stations reported as having 

 been founded in France we hear but little. 



Accounts from Switzerland show that there are in that 

 country, 1st, the so-called "Alpine Experiment Stations," four 

 in number, commenced in 1863, for the purpose of making 

 experiments with fertilizers ; 2d, a station for dairy economy, 

 established in 1872, at Thun ; 3d, a station in process of es- 

 tablishment in connection with the agricultural department 

 of the Polytechnic School at Zurich ; 4th, the establishment 

 for investigations in agricultural science, maintained by Mr. 

 Risler on his estate of Calevres, near Nyon. 



The progressive spirit which prevails in Italy under the 

 regime of Victor Emmanuel has effected, among other im- 

 provements, the establishment of some twelve experiment 

 stations. Of these, one is devoted to investigations on silk- 

 culture ; another to wine-culture ; another to dairy economy; 

 while the labors of others, instead of being specialized, are 

 devoted to various branches of investigation? 



In January, 1873, a meeting of the directors of the stations 



