236 JOSEPH HENRY GILBERT 



original plan ; and he has been known to say, jokingly, that if he 

 had been left to have his own way, he would have ploughed up 

 many of his experimental plots before they had yielded the full 

 results, which continuance on the old lines alone brought out. 

 Gilbert, on the other hand, was possessed of indomitable per- 

 severance, combined with extreme patience and careful watching 

 of results. His was the power of forecasting, as it were, what 

 might, in the end, lead to useful results. With the determi- 

 nation to carry out an experiment to the very close he united 

 scrupulous accuracy and attention to detail. Gilbert, it may be 

 said, was not so much the man for the farmer, but for the 

 scientist, and he it was who gave scientific expression to the 

 work at Rothamsted, and who established field experiments on 

 a scientific basis in this country." 



To describe in detail Gilbert's work it would be necessary to 

 write an account of the Rothamsted experiments, a task beyond 

 our present limits seeing that the collected reports occupy nine 

 volumes. 



The last published "Rothamsted Memoranda" gives a list of 

 132 papers. They are divided into two series, one relating to 

 plants, the other to animals. 



Series I. deals with "Reports of Field Experiments, Experi- 

 ments on Vegetation, &c., published 1847 1900 inclusive," and 

 contains lOi papers. These reports on plants are concerned 

 chiefly with the results obtained by growing some of the most 

 important crops of rotation separately, year after year, for many 

 years in succession, on the same land without manure, with 

 farm-yard manure, and with various chemical manures, the same 

 description of manure being, as a rule, applied year after year 

 on the same plot. 



Amongst the numerous field experiments conducted on 

 these lines one of the most interesting is the field known as 

 Broadbalk field, in which wheat has been grown continuously for 

 over 60 years. The results show that wheat can be grown for 

 many years in succession on ordinary arable land if suitable 

 manure be provided and the land be kept clean. Even without 

 manure of any kind the average produce for 46 years 1852 

 to 1897 was nearly 13 bushels per acre, about the average yield 



