EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



Vol.40. February, 1919. No. 2. 



Two reports have recently come to hand which are worthy of 

 special mention. One of these is an account of the Rothamsted Ex- 

 periment Station in war time, covering the three years 1915 to 1917. 

 It is the first report of the kind to come from any of the stations in 

 the war zone beyond occasional references to their activity, and hence 

 it is of unusual interest in reflecting the effects of the war and the 

 response to its demands. The very brevity and condensation of the 

 report suggests the war's influence, but it does not prevent reflection 

 of the aggressive attitude of the station and its readiness to meet new 

 problems, or the manner in which it was turned to for aid in the great 

 crisis. As a reviewer has said, it " is a striking record of triumph 

 over war-time difficulties and of adaptability to the circumstances 

 and needs of the times." 



We learn tliat at the outset the station's staff was rapidly depleted, 

 two-thirds of its members joining the military forces or entering 

 Government work for which their experience especially qualified 

 them. Two of the former lost their lives and four of those who 

 remained with the station died, so that of the band of workers col- 

 lected and trained by Lawes and Gilbert only two are now left. 

 Women were brought in to take the places of the men who left the 

 station, and in this way the more important lines of inquiry were 

 continued and new problems arising with the shifting conditions 

 were cared for. 



At an early stage the staff was called upon by the Board of Agri- 

 culture to carry on a considerable amount of advisory work, and later 

 by the Ministry of Munitions. As the food problem became more 

 urgent the demand for help increased, and when the Board of 

 Agriculture was enlarged in 1917 the Food Production Department 

 called the director of the station into service for a definite portion 

 of his time. He was also engaged on various other committees, such 

 as the Electro-culture Committee of the Board of Agriculture, the 

 National Salvage Council, the Munitions Inventions Panel, and the 

 Advisory Committee on Agricultural Science. 



The list of inquiries' conducted at the request of the various 

 branches of the Government is a long and varied one. The subjects 



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