ADDRESSES 291 



broad and deep the foundations of agricultural chemistry. 

 Liebig, teaching the applications of chemistry to agricul- 

 ture and the nutrition and growth of plants and animals, 

 inaugurated the era of progress of scientific agriculture. 

 Boussingault, whose careful analyses and experiments in 

 connection with his investigations into the sources of the 

 elements of nutrition for plants and the value of food- 

 rations for animals, led the "Agricultural Gazette" to say 

 of his "Economie Rurale" that it was the most important 

 and valuable book for farmers that the chemists of the 

 present century have produced; Stockhardt, popularizing 

 agricultural chemistry by his lectures and his writings; 

 Mechi, laying down the rational principles of farm-manage- 

 ment; Henneberg, unfolding the mysteries of the physio- 

 ology and economy of feeding farm animals ; Ville, teaching 

 the principles of complete manures; Grandeau, teaching 

 the analytic methods of agricultural chemistry; Deherain, 

 for years conducting exhaustive field experiments; Mcercker 

 and Wagner studying the application of potash, nitrogen, 

 and phosphoric acid to the growing plant; the two Kuhns, 

 working in the respective fields of the physiology of cattle- 

 feeding and the chemistry of the respiration of animals; 

 Wolff, in food-rations, Pettenkofer in respiration; and the 

 lengthening list closes with the name of one whose carefully 

 conducted experiments for half a century have made the 

 estate of Rothamsted a shrine for all true workers in the 

 science of agriculture — a Mecca to which the devout 

 repair as do the followers of the prophet to their holy city. 

 Fifty-seven years ago Sir John Bennet Lawes, entering 

 into possession of his estate, commenced a few experiments 

 on the effects of different manures upon potted plants and 



