ANNUAL REPORT 



FOR THE YEAR 1914 



THE outstanding feature of the year 1914 in the annals of 

 Rothamsted will always be the pulling down of the old 

 laboratory that has done duty for 60 years, and the com- 

 mencement of the new 7 laboratory where future work will have to 

 be carried out. At this stage in the history of the station it is 

 opportune to summarise briefly the nature of the present day work 

 and its bearing on the development of agriculture. 



The general character of the work is determined by the very 

 prominent part played by the teacher and the expert in recent 

 agricultural developments. At no time has there been so large a 

 number of experts engaged by Government Boards, County Coun- 

 cils, Societies, etc., for the purpose of giving advice to farmers, and 

 at no time has there been a more wide-spread demand for agricul- 

 tural education. 



But before the expert adviser and the teacher can do their work 

 satisfactorily it is obvious that definite systematic knowledge must 

 be obtained of the subject with which they have to deal. Until this 

 has been done much of their teaching must be purely conjectural 

 and may even be unsound — the history of the subject is full of 

 illustrations in point. The only safe foundation on which their work 

 can be built up is sound, accurate knowledge gained by systematic 

 investigation. 



The proper function of a Research Institute is to obtain such 

 knowledge and to develop an agricultural science that teachers 

 can teach and experts can use. The true test of the work is not 

 its immediate applicability to practice but its significance in the 

 development of agricultural science. 



Agriculture covers so wide a field, and the movement towards 

 specialisation tends to become so pronounced, that no one Institute 

 can deal with the whole subject, and at Rothamsted the work is now 

 confined to :- — 



(1) The study of the soil conditions that affect the growth of 

 the plant ; 



(2) The nature of the changes induced in the plant by variations 

 in soil and nutrition conditions. 



Thus the investigations cover the whole of the problems involved in 

 Soil Management and Crop Production. 



Two general methods of investigation are adopted — the opera- 

 tions of the best practical men are studied ; and experiments are 

 made to discover precisely what the plant wants from soil and what 

 conditions are necessary in order that it may get what it wants. 

 The first often furnishes useful ideas, but the second generally gives 

 more precise information and has in our experience proved more 

 fruitful. Several instances could be quoted : an investigation on 

 the rate of oxidation in soils — apparently a highly academic enquiry 

 very remote from practice — led direct to the explanation of the 

 phenomena of "sickness" in glasshouse soils, a problem bristling 

 with so many difficulties that it could hardly have yielded to any 



