Volume IX OCTOBER, 1919 Part IV 



05 



o 



Q 



THE AMOUNT AND COMPOSITION OF RAIN 

 FALLING AT ROTHAMSTED. 



(BASED ON ANALYSES MADE BY THE LATE NORMAN H. J. MILLER.) 



By E. J. RUSSELL and E. H. RICHARDS. 

 (Rothamsted Experimental Station.) 



The Editors regret that they are compelled to an- 

 nounce an increase of price for future issues of the 

 Journal. The price per Volume will in future be 25s. to 

 subscribers. Separate parts will be sold at 7s. 6d. each. 



"If the soil be suitable, if it contains a sufRcient quantity of alkalis, 

 phosphates and sulphates, nothing will be wanting. The plants will 

 derive their ammonia from the atmosphere as they do carbonic acid^." 



Liebig clearly supposed that there was a considerable amount of 

 nitrogen in the rain, and while he does not seem to have committed 

 himself to any figure in his earlier writings, he published in 1863* an 

 estimate of 24 lb. of nitrogen per acre per annum. 



Lawes and Gilbert did not accept this position. They showed by 

 field experiments that the crop yield is proportional to the ammonia 



' Phil. Tram., 1861, Part ii, 431. 



^ Letters on Chemistry, 1851, 3rd ed., 51'J. In tliis Letter, the 34th, Liebig sets out 

 his views with characteristic clearness. 

 ' Farmers' Magazine, 1847, 16, 511. 

 * Natural Laws of Husbandry, 1863, 290. 



Journ. of Agrio. Sci. ix 21 



