ROTHAMSTED 



5088 



ROTHSCHILD 



grown upon the land year after year the supply 

 of this food becomes exhausted to such a de- 

 gree that the plant is not sufficiently nour- 

 ished to produce a good yield. Again, all 

 plants drain the soil of its nitrogen, and unless 

 means for restoring nitrogen are employed the 

 soil soon becomes infertile. The best method 

 of restoring nitrogen is to plant clover, cowpea, 

 soy bean or some other leguminous plant, and 

 to plow the crop under. This is called {in n 

 manuring. By a diversified syMein of farm- 

 ing different crops follow each other in a regu- 

 lar order, and no one element of plant food is 

 drawn on more than another. The 



fertility of the soil is maintained and the farmer 

 receives greater returns for his labor. 



Another reason for the rotation of crops is 

 that the continuous growing of one sort of grain 

 or other crop contributes to the growth of 

 weeds, insect pests and plant diseases. Small 

 grains should be followed by tillage crops, such 

 as corn or potatoes, so that weeds may be 

 killed. If the field becomes infested with the 

 Hessian fly, for instance, raising corn, then po- 

 tatoes and then clover will rid the field of the 

 pest. A third reason for rotation of crops is 

 that a variety of crops assures the farmer of a 

 better income for a period of years. No sys- 

 tem of rotation will apply to all localities, but 

 the following is suggestive: 



First and second years, corn, planted on ground 

 enriched by a green manure crop previous to the 

 planting of the first crop. 



Third year, a small grain. In the wheat belt 

 two successive crops of wheat might take the 

 place of the two crops of corn. 



Fourth year, timothy and clover. At the end 

 of this year the sod may be turned over and the 

 system of rotation begun again. Some farmers, 

 however, prefer to keep the field in timothy and 

 clover for two or more seasons. See FERTILIZER ; 

 SOIL. W.F.R. 



Consult Parker's Field Management and Crop 

 Rotation. 



ROTH'AMSTED, the oldest and most purely 

 scientific agricultural experiment station in the 

 world, was established in 1843 by Sir John Ben- 

 nett Lawes, Bart., F.R.S., on his ancestral estate 

 adjoining the village of Harpenden in Hertford- 

 shire, England. Since 1889 it has been in the 

 hands of a trust created by its founder, with 

 an original endowment of nearly half a million 

 dollars for its maintenance on the original plan. 

 It is divided into "fields," of which Broadbalk 

 (sown continuously to wheat, without fertiliza- 

 tion), Agdell (with rotation of crops) and Hoos 

 (since 1848 devoted to roots of leguminous 

 plants) are among the most famous. The park 



plots began in 1856. Careful records are 

 kept, and samples of each year's harvest are 

 preserved. The work is not commercialized 

 in any way, but is wholly scientific; and while 

 the annual report is awaited with interest by 

 agriculturists and others throughout the world, 

 there are no issues of bulletins of advice to 

 farmers. A. D. Hall, F.R.S., in charge of the 

 institution, said, in 1912: 



It is impossible to exaggerate the importance 

 of continuing the experimental plots at Rotham- 

 sted without any change, as nowhere else in the 

 world do such data exist for studying the effects 

 of season and manuring upon the yield and 

 quality of the crop, and for watching the progres- 

 sive changes which are going on in the soil. 



ROTHS 'CHILD (in German, roht'shilt), a 

 famous family of European bankers, financiers 

 and philanthropists. The name was first con- 

 nected with great financial deals when Mayer 

 Anselm Rothschild, the son of a Jewish mer- 

 chant of Frank- 

 fort-on-the-Main, 

 opened a money- 

 exchange house 

 in that city, and 

 in 1806 won favor 

 throughout Ger- 

 many and Aus- 

 tria by caring for 

 the fortune of the 

 Elector of Hesse- 

 Cassel, who had 

 fled from the in- 

 vading French. 

 Immense sums of 

 the wealth of royalty were henceforward in- 

 trusted to him, and before his death in 1812 

 he and his five sons had amassed huge fortunes. 

 So conspicuous was the service of these sons 

 that the Emperor of Austria made each a baron 

 in 1822. 



The business at Frankfort passed to the eldest 

 son, Mayer Anselm, and then to the sons of 

 Karl, but upon the death of the youngest 

 of these sons the Frankfort house was closed. 

 Solomon, the second son of the founder of the 

 firm, established the famous house at Vienna, 

 which repeatedly has come to the financial 

 rescue of European nations. His brother Na- 

 than established the British firm at Manches- 

 ter in 1798, and removed it to London in 

 1803. Jacob, the fourth son, was founder of 

 the famous Paris house, and Karl, the young- 

 est, of the one at Naples. The enterprises are 

 yet conducted by descendants of the founders. 



BARON LIONEL 

 ROTHSCHILD 



