1920] EDTTOrJAL. 307 



Sjiiii iiii :icciiimil;ition of dati! is often vi<2:oiV)iisly defended by 

 f'itin«x the case of the Kothamsted experiments, luyinjj^ chief emphasis 

 on their aire and overlooking a distinctive featnre that has cliaracter- 

 ized those experiments ahnost from the first. If those experiments 

 had remained stereotyped, and if throughout their history they had 

 not been marked by a type of inquiry which sought diligently the 

 reason for the results and the relationships which they expressed, 

 they would have been far less illustrious examples and would have 

 wielded a much smaller influence. 



It is well to remember that the work at Rothamsted has repre- 

 sented progressive stages of field experimentation. At first it A\as 

 developing a method of plat experimentation ; later it was a study 

 of the balance of fertilizing ingi'eclients in the soil, the taking up and 

 the loss of elements, the residual value of manure and fertilizer, etc. ; 

 and this subsequently led to supplementing the work of the chemist 

 by that of the bacteriologist, with significant findings. Still later 

 various other types of soil study were taken up, the reciprocal re- 

 lations of organic and inorganic elements of the soil, and other 

 fundamental questions ; and for years the recording of results on 

 the field plats has been accompanied by a searching study of the 

 meaning and the significance of the results. This has tended, to 

 make the station primarily an institute for soil technology, the 

 largest of its kind, in the world. While the original plan of certain 

 experiments has been retained, the data from them have not been 

 viewed as an end, but as a step and a means in investigation. The 

 field work has gone hand in hand with intensive laboratory work, 

 not alone analytical and routine, but research upon points suggested 

 by the quantitative field data and their interpretation. 



It is this spirit of inquiry accompanying the experiments through 

 all the years and the advantage which has been taken of the oppor- 

 tunity afforded by them that has made them what they are. This 

 fact needs to be adequately recognized in stressing the importance 

 of long continued experiments. It is a great lesson from the Eoth- 

 amsted work. The experimenter who sets out with no more definite 

 plan or aim than to see what will happen through a long course of 

 years, needs to tako care that the effort does not degenerate into 

 the mere routine gathering and summation of the results. Unless 

 the element of inquiry is early injected into the undertaking and 

 maintained, the work may actually represent a marking of time as 

 far as research is concerned, a postponement of investigation which 

 yearly becomes more remote. The data themselves need to be viewed 

 in the light of furnishing material for investigation, the basis of 

 possible facts and prospective subjects of research. 

 24S2°— 20 ^2 



