120 Master Minds of Modern Science 



management of the home farm at Rothamsted, comprising 

 about two hundred and fifty acres, and one of the first 

 things he did was to turn an old barn into a laboratory. 



Lawes began his experiments by planting wheat, oats, 

 etc., in pots, feeding them with different manures and 

 noting how they grew. One of the first new manures he 

 used was animal charcoal, which was then a waste pro- 

 duct. He found that it was much more efficient if first 

 treated with sulphuric acid, and this led to the discovery 

 of superphosphate of lime, which worked wonders on the 

 turnip crops. 



Lawes found that he needed a trained chemist, and 

 engaged Dr J. H. Gilbert. The two worked together for 

 fifty-seven years, and few partnerships were ever of so 

 much service to mankind. For one great thing which 

 they did was to work out the proper rotation of crops. 

 No gardener dreams of planting cabbages in the same bed 

 two years in succession. Cabbages take so much out of 

 the soil that it does not pay to grow them on the same 

 plot twice running. It is better to follow with peas or 

 potatoes, and to grow cabbages on another bed. That had 

 been known for a long time, but Lawes and Gilbert 

 showed exactly what a crop of wheat or barley or turnips 

 took out of the ground, and why beans should follow 

 wheat. They also worked on pasture, showing exactly 

 what effect different fertilizers had on the milk yield of 

 cows grazed on fertilized and unfertilized fields, and 

 the value of differently treated grass lands for fattening 

 stock. The problem of what the landlord ought to pay 

 to an outgoing tenant as compensation for unexhausted 

 manures was another of those worked out at Rothamsted. 



For his services to agriculture Lawes was made a 

 baronet, and honours came to him from all over the world. 

 He lived to be eighty-five, and before he died set aside 

 one hundred thousand pounds so that the Rothamsted 

 Farm experiments could be continued. Sir Daniel Hall 



