258 A VISIT TO EOTHAMSTED. 



their nature and requirements, and that the growing of such 

 crops continuously is a question for the future. 



Regarding the experiments with root crops at Rothamsted, 

 thereis not much that can be said ; the results obtained, while 

 they furnish much valuable information, are not so striking or 

 definite in their character as those obtained with cereals. The 

 same care and precision of arrangement was noticed in these 

 plots as in all the others. Owing to the long-continued wet 

 nngenial weather they presented a miserable appearance when 

 we saw them, and everywhere over the farm were noticed spots 

 where the plants were rapidly being drowned out. The sight 

 of well-planned and carefully-tended experiments going to waste 

 reminded us forcibly of the liability of all agricultural field 

 experiments to the varied accidents of weather, and of the need 

 that exists to be cautious in our interpretations of these until a 

 long succession of seasons has given us data from which average 

 results may be obtained that are able to be looked upon as facts 

 on which we may rely. 



Besides the experimental crops we have mentioned, there are 

 many others which a visitor to Eothamsted will have pointed 

 out to him, and there is none from which he will not be able to 

 derive, as he will certainly receive if he asks it, a great amount 

 of instruction. He will find there experiments, both old and 

 new, with sugar-beet, mangold-wurzel, potatoes, and other crops, 

 some growing continuously, and some forming part of a rotation. 

 He will also find there experiments with different varieties of 

 wheat and other crops. If he is a practical farmer, he will receive 

 from Dr Lawes more plain practical truth in one hour than he 

 is likely to learn anywhere else in a year. If he is a chemist, he 

 will find with Dr Gilbert a vast amount of information ready to 

 his hand in almost all departments of agriculture ; and he will 

 find in Dr Warrington one who will explain to him and show 

 him in practical operation some of the most delicate methods of 

 analysis in the service of agriculture. If he is a meteorologist, 

 he will find there in operation perhaps the best series of rain- 

 guages and drain-gnages in England, and many apparatus for the 

 investigation of the meteorological side of agriculture, together 

 with a great amount of statistical information on the relations 

 of weather and crops extending over more than thirty years. If 

 he is a physiologist, he will also find much to interest him, 

 whether in regard to animals or vegetables. The large experi- 

 ments on the nutrition of animals which were conducted for so 

 many years at Eothamsted are now abandoned, but the specimens 

 and analytical results belonging to these investigations are still 

 exhibited in the Museum of the Laboratory, Physiological re- 

 searches on plants are still going on, and form one of the most 

 interesting parts of the work being done at Eothamsted. 



