REPORT ON THE WORK OF 



THE THREE YEARS, 1915, 1916, 1917. 



THE work of the Station and its personnel have been considerably 

 modified by the advent of the War. At the outset the Staff was 

 rapidly depleted, two-thirds of its members joining the fighting- 

 forces or undertaking Government work for which their experience at 

 Rothamsted specially qualified them. Two of those who joined the 

 Army have lost their lives. C. H. Martin and K. R. Lewin, both men of 

 great intellectual promise and of much charm of character. Of those 

 who remained four of the oldest died, N. H. J. Miller and G. T. Dunkley 

 with tragic suddenness, W. Freeman and W. Wilson after long illness. 

 Of the band of workers collected and trained by Lawes and Gilbert, who 

 had also faithfully served under Mr. Hall, only two are now left, 

 E. Grey and A. Ogglesby. 



From the outset the depleted Staff was called upon to undertake a 

 considerable amount of work for the Board of Agriculture and 

 subsequently for the Ministry of Munitions. The work was further 

 increased as the food problem l)ecame more urgent. When the Board 

 of Agriculture was enlarged in 191 7 the newly formed Food Production 

 Department asked the ('ommittee for a definite portion of the time of 

 the Director, a request to which the Committee acceded. 



Despite changes in the Staff and in the conditions the investiga- 

 tions have been continued ; women have come in to take the places of 

 the workers who are gone, and the more important lines of enquiry 

 are being pursued. The programme of work is naturally undergoing 

 modifications. As the shifting agricultural conditions bring new 

 problems into prominence, these are brought as far as possible into the 

 scope of our investigations ; the danger, always present, that experi- 

 mental work may become artificial and remote from practice has 

 been met by setting up an ordinary farm of 230 acres in addition 

 to the experimental area, and more recently by the connection estab- 

 Hshed with the Food Production Department, which brings in new 

 and important problems that require study. 



For many years past the purpose underlying much of the Rotham- 

 sted work has been to restore the tradition of good farming and of good 

 country life. By common consent Great Britain led the way in farming 

 practice in the 'fifties, 'sixties and 'seventies of the last century ; 

 \ravellers came to see our methods and went home to copy them. This 

 fine position was lost in the 'eighties and 'nineties ; the falling prices of 

 that period were met in this country by lowering our farming methods. 

 In Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Germany, on the other hand, the 

 situation was met by intensifying the methods, with the result that 

 they excelled us and built up an intensive system suited to modern 

 conditions. It is much to the credit of British agriculturists that 

 they were able to exist through the bad times at all. Fortunately 

 our error was realised early in this century, and the more vigorous of 

 the younger race of farmers have endeavoured to retrieve the situation. 



The work of the Rothamsted Experimental Station is mainly 

 concerned with the investigation of the soil and the growing crop. 

 At the present time the enquiries fall naturally into four groups— 

 the economical use of manures, the ploughing up of grassland, the 

 control of soil organisms, and the nutrition of plants. 



