BIOGEAPHICAL INTRODUCTION xxvii 



value of cattle foods. These experiments were conducted on 

 the Duke of Bedford's estate, and at his expense. 



The relations of Mr Lawes with the Chemical Society were 

 also intimate. He became a Fellow in 1850, and was elected 

 to the Council in 1862. The chief part of the chemical work 

 done in the Rothamsted laboratory was communicated to this 

 Society, and about twenty-two lectures and papers by Lawes 

 and Gilbert, and other Rothamsted workers, appear in the 

 Journal and Transactions. 



Mr Lawes was a member of the Royal Commission 

 appointed in 1857 "To inquire into the best mode of distri- 

 buting the sewage of towns, and applying it to beneficial and 

 profitable uses." Two members of this Commission, Lawes 

 and Way, conducted for several years important experiments 

 on sewage irrigation at Rugby. The investigation dealt with 

 the quantity and composition of the grass receiving varying 

 amounts of sewage, and its value as food for fattening oxen and 

 milking cows, including the composition of the milk obtained. 

 The effluent waters from the irrigated fields were also analysed, 

 and the formation of nitrates in large quantities was demon- 

 strated. The final report was published in 1865. 



The aid of Rothamsted was again sought by the Govern- 

 ment in 1863, the object in this case being to ascertain 

 whether the malting of barley resulted in -any increase of its 

 value as a food. A considerable bulk of barley was divided 

 into two lots, one of which was malted, and the loss in dry 

 matter ascertained ; feeding experiments were then made, in 

 which the nutritive effect of a given weight of barley was com- 

 pared with that shown by the quantity of malt which could have 

 been produced from it. The trials with oxen, sheep, and pigs 

 were made at Rothamsted, and those with milking cows 

 at Rugby. The full report was presented to Parliament in 

 1866. 



While the formal reports on the Rothamsted investigations 

 were to a large extent the work of Dr Gilbert, Mr Lawes was 

 himself an active writer on agricultural subjects. In middle 



