September i, 1921] 



NATURE 



29 



Agricultural Research at Rothamsted. 



THE Lawes Agricultural Trust has recently issued 

 a useful index to the activities of the Director 

 of Rothamsted and his colleagues. The index is de- 

 scribed as a " Report " for 1918-20 ; but within its 

 86 octavo pages it would be impossible to report ade- 

 quately on the work now in progress. The pamphlet 

 states the aims of Rothamsted, indicates the methods 

 adopted in its scientific work, and mentions the 

 sources to which those interested in the investigations 

 may go for fuller information. 



The aims of Rothamsted have not changed, but in 

 recent years the soil and fertiliser problems inves- 

 tigated by Lawes and Gilbert have been studied in 

 new aspects ; the Rothamsted team now numbers 

 nearly forty scientific workers, and includes chemists, 

 physicists, biologists, pathologists, and statisticians. 

 Whereas formerly the chief work might best have 

 been described as the study of the soil, stress is now- 

 laid rather on crop production. No possible means of 

 throwing light on the reasons for high or low yield 

 is neglected. The physical condition of the soil ; the 

 factors which influence the supply of water to the 

 plant or determine the mechanical effort required 

 in tillage ; the character of the soil population 

 and the possibility of control ; the gains and losses 

 of fertilising substances ; the precise quantities 

 of fertilisers which different crops require ; the 

 effects on production of competition within the soil 

 and between the individual plants of a crop, or be- 

 tween cultivated plants and weeds ; the effects of over- 

 crowding on the aerial development of crops ; the 

 extent to which attacks of insects and fungi reduce 

 the yield; the influence of the year's weather and 

 the cumulative effect of several favourable or un- 

 favourable seasons — all these questions and many 

 ancillarv' subjects are now engaging attention. 



With so many subjects under investigation, the 

 methods of work required of the Rothamsted staff 

 offer many contrasts. No contrast is sharper than 

 that which the element of time introduces. A "time " 

 distinction may not have much importance for those 

 interested only in the results of scientific work ; but 

 in dealing with such problems as those which 

 Rothamsted tackles, it raises considerations of very 

 practical moment to the Director and his staff. The 

 study of the organisms present in soils has recently 



engaged much attention. Changes in the soil popula- 

 tion were so rapid that little light was thrown on 

 their development by the examination of an occasional 

 sample. For a year, therefore, on every day, counts 

 were made of certain species, and now that the 

 year's results have come in it is found that even more 

 frequent sampling and counting will be necessary. In 

 a building adjoining the laboratory, in which a team 

 of workers has been handling samples and studying 

 the ceaseless changes in these Rothamsted soils for 

 365 days in succession, without even Christmas Day 

 for holiday, there are other samples, faithfully col- 

 lected and stored by Lawes and Gilbert year after 

 year for more than half a centun,*, which are now 

 awaiting the time when some chemist will turn to 

 them for aid in unravelling the storv' of the changes 

 in land in which wheat has been growing continuously 

 since the autumn of 1843 • 



The fate of these old soil samples suggests that 

 problems are not' lacking at Rothamsted. There has 

 been a large increase in the staff in recent years ; but 

 with agricultural science — as with its raw material, 

 the soil — intensive cultivation increases output. The 

 results, in a sense, are embarrassing. No sooner is 

 a laboratory ready than its accommodation is ex- 

 hausted, and the Trustees and Director must find more 

 space or see the problems of their staff condemned 

 to involuntan- "pupation." It is understood that the 

 entomological staff has, for some time, been await- 

 ing a new laboratory, and that its construction must 

 be put in hand without delay if a "resting stage " is 

 to be avoided. 



Not the least satisfactory' feature of the work at 

 Rothamsted is the care and trouble taken by the 

 staff to explain the bearing of its studies. This 

 readiness must have been remarked by many recent 

 visitors, and it is reflected in the admirably clear 

 abstracts which the report contains of the more im- 

 portant of the sixtv-one papers published within the 

 past two years. The abstracts are arranged in two 

 groups — scientific and technical. A subject is not 

 necessarily dealt with in each series ; frequently pub- 

 lication in one or other form suffices. But nearly all 

 the material embodied in the scientific papers is 

 ultimately used in papers suitable for farmers' 

 journals. 



Scientific Research in the United States. 

 By J. W. Williamson, 



'X'HE two papers referred to below, written by the 

 -■■ Chief Physicist of the Bureau of Standards, 

 whose recent death is widely deplored, though dealing 

 only with the question of scientific research as it 

 affects the United States of America, will well repay 

 the careful study, not only of British scientific 

 workers, but also of all British citizens who wish to 

 form a just estimate of the part that scientific research 

 should play in the national economy. In the first of 

 the papers Prof. Rosa set himself to answer the 

 inquiry: •" Whether scientific research as carried on 

 by the Federal Government is a luxury or a necessity ; 

 whether it is something to be enjoyed when taxes are 



1 (i) " The Economic Importance of the Scientific Work of the Govern- 

 ment." A lecture given before the Washington Academy of Sciences on 

 May 20, ig2o. Reprinted from the Journal of the Washington Academy of 

 Sciences, vol. lo, No. 12. By Edward B. Rosa. 



(2) "Scientific and Engineering Work of the Government." Reprinted 

 from the February, 1921, issue oi Mechanical Engineering. By Edwaid B. 

 Rosa. 



NO. 2705, VOL. 108] 



light, and curtailed when taxes are heavy ; or whether 

 it is creative and wealth-producing, and therefore to 

 be increased and developed when expenses are ab- 

 normally large and a hea\y debt must be liquidated ? '" 

 In an interesting and informative examination of the 

 national Budget he shows that the appropriations for 

 obligations arising from recent and previous wars 

 and for the War and Navy Departments amount to 

 928 per cent, of the total, public works to 3 per cent., 

 primary Governmental functions to 32 per cent., and 

 research, education, and developmental work to i per 

 cent. 



Prof. Rosa pregnantly observes : " One is led to 

 wonder whether the total burden of taxation would 

 not be lighter if the expenditure for scientific and 

 developmental work were increased ; if, for example, 

 it were one dollar per year ^er capita instead of fiftv 

 cents." He answers the question bv a detailed 

 account of how the fift}- cents per capita is expended 



