82 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



properly conducted, soon comes to be the investigation of special ques- 

 tions that strictly pertain to some department of the allied sciences. 



In the well-planned experiments which have been so ably conducted 

 at Rothamsted for more than forty years, embracing a wide range of 

 topics, there is an abundant fund of information that must be of in- 

 terest not only to the farmer, who looks for results in pecuniary values, 

 but to the man of science, seeking the truth for the truth's sake, and 

 the intelligent general reader who wishes to trace understandingly 

 some of the leading facts in the world's progress. 



Without including numerous newspaper articles, and the annual 

 "Memoranda of the Experiments at Rothamsted," that have been 

 printed for several years for the convenience of visitors, nearly one 

 hundred elaborate papers and discussions of the field, feeding, and 

 laboratory experiments, many of which are in the form of monographs, 

 have been published since 1847, every one of which has had its influ- 

 ence on questions of agricultural practice, as well as on the various 

 theories in science that have been prominent for the past half- 

 century. 



These papers are to be found in the " Journal of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural Society," the " Reports of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science," the " Journal of the Chemical Society of 

 London," the " Proceedings and Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 London," the " Journal of the Society of Arts," the " Journal of the 

 Horticultural Society of London," the " Reports of the Royal Dublin 

 Society," the " Edinburgh Veterinary Review," the " Philosophical 

 Magazine," and other periodicals, and in official reports on special sub- 

 jects of investigation. 



The titles alone of these papers would require the space of several 

 pages of this magazine. 



Rothamsted, with its fine old manor-house, the home of Sir John 

 Bennet Lawes, is in Hertfordshire, England, about twenty-five miles 

 from London, on the Midland Railway, Harpenden Station. 



Mr. Lawes was born in 1814, and succeeded to his estate in 1822. 

 He was educated at Eton, and at Brasenose College, Oxford. After 

 leaving the university, in 1835, he spent some time in London, in the 

 study of chemistry, which had been a subject of special interest to 

 him when pursuing his academic course. 



Soon after taking possession of his hereditary property at Rotham- 

 sted, in 1834, he began a systematic course of experiments with differ- 

 ent fertilizers, first with plants in pots, and afterward in the field. 



"The researches of Dr. Saussure on vegetation were the chief sub- 

 jects of his study to this end. Of all the experiments eo made, those 

 in which the neutral phosphate of lime in bones, bone-ash, and apatite, 

 was rendered soluble by means of sulphuric acid, and the mixture ap- 

 plied for root-crops, gave the most striking results. 



"The results obtained on a small scale in 1837-1839 were such as 



