INTRODUCTION. 



John Bennet Lawes was the founder of the Rothamsted 

 Experimental Station. He began experiments with various 

 manurial substances, first with plants in pots and then in the field, 

 soon after entering into possession of the estate at Rothamsted in 

 1834. In 1843 more systematic field experiments were begun, and 

 the services of J. H. Gilbert were obtained as Director, thus starting 

 the long association which only terminated with the death of Lawes 

 in 1900, followed by that of Gilbert in 1901. 



The Rothamsted Experimental Station has never been connected 

 with any external organisation, but has been maintained entirely at 

 the cost of the late Sir John Lawes. In 1889 he constituted a Trust 

 for the continuance of the investigations, setting apart for that pur- 

 pose the Laboratory (which had been built by public subscription, 

 and presented to him in 1855), certain areas of land on which the 

 experimental plots were situated, and ;f 100,000. 



By the provisions of the Trust Deed the management is 

 entrusted to a Committee nominated by the Royal Society (four 

 persons), the Royal Agricultural Society (two persons), the Chemical 

 and Linnean Societies (one each), and the owner of Rothamsted. 



It has latterly been the desire of the Committee to obtain addi- 

 tional funds for the extension of the work of the Station. In 1906 

 Mr. J. F. Mason, M.P., presented the Committee with ^1000 for 

 the building and equipment of the " James Mason " Bacteriological 

 Laboratory, together with a grant towards its maintenance. In 1907 

 the Goldsmiths' Company made a grant of ;^ 10,000 the income from 

 which is to be devoted to the payment of a special assistant for the 

 investigation of the soil. The Permanent Nitrate Committee have 

 also made a grant of ;^2000 to the endowment. The Society for 

 extending the Rothamsted Experiments, founded in 1904, has also 

 collected donations amounting to ^500, and annual subscriptions of 

 nearly ^150. This Society has recently been Incorporated under 

 the Board of Trade, thus giving it the power to hold money in trust 

 for the purposes of the Rothamsted Experiments. 



The field experiments, which began in 1843, have on some of 

 the plots been continued without break or alteration up to the 

 present day ; on the Broadbalk Wheat Field certain rearrangements 

 were made in 1852, in which year also the Barley experiments on 



