102 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. [Vol. 10 



fall mainly under the heads of reclamation schemes, fertilizer prob- 

 lems, utilization of waste materials, and food problems. There were 

 naturally a large number of tests of fertilizing materials, some new 

 and many old. There was a search for sources of potash, studies of 

 methods of conserving and utilizing army stable manure, of saving 

 drainings from farmyard manure, and of employing urine for fertil- 

 izing purposes. The possibility of using peat in the manufacture of 

 ammonia and of niter cake in making superphosphate was inquired 

 into, and the value of sulphate of ammonia made by the use of niter 

 cake was tested. Monthly notes to farmers on fertilizers were pre- 

 pared for (he Journal of the Board of Agriculture, and numerous 

 popular articles on the subject were contributed. 



A huge number of waste products from manufacturing establish- 

 ments were tested for the Board of Agriculture and the Food Produc- 

 tion Department, and experiment- were made on the fertilizing value 

 of city wastes and by-products from munitions factories. Another 

 line of food production problems assigned to the station related to 

 the question of cultivating the royal parks, the possibility of utiliz- 

 ing other areas, the causes of infertility of certain tracts of land, and 

 the soils of Foulness Island. 



It is evident, therefore, that the station served in the capacity 

 of consulting expert to the Government on a wide variety of questions 

 important to the time. But fortunately it was not necessary to re- 

 strict its activity to this field. It was found possible to keep up the 

 long-time experiments for which it is famous, and. in addition to 

 undertake several special lines of investigation on topics arising out 

 of the emergency or changed conditions. 



It is especially interesting to read of the progress of these more 

 intensive investigations at Rothamsted, and to note the manner in 

 which its program was modified to meet conditions in those trying 

 times. The efforts in that direction indicate no change of attitude on 

 the importance of thorough and fundamental inquiry or the need of 

 looking to the future in planning investigations. Normally the sta- 

 tion concerns itself mainly with investigations of the soil and the 

 growing crop. During the war its lines resolved themselves into four 

 groups — the economical use of manure, the plowing up of grassland, 

 the control of soil organisms, and the nutrition of plants. 



The organization of research around definite problems and the con- 

 centration of attack upon them from various sides is well illustrated 

 in the studies bearing on the breaking up of grassland. When it I 

 came evident that the policy of plowing up these lands must ulti- 

 mately be adopted, the station broke up a -field which had been in 

 grass for ten years and sowed a variety of crops. This developed a 



