15 



THE LIBRARY. 



With the growth of the Experimental Station in recent years it has 

 become imperative that a good agricultural library should be assembled. 

 Considerable efforts have therefore been made during the last four 

 years to collect the more important agricultural literature, and now 

 that the new buildings are complete it has been found possible to provide 

 a suitable Reading Room and adequate storage space for the Library. 

 The furniture for the Library was kindly given by Sir John Brunner. 



Sir John Lawes had given a small collection of books and journals 

 to the Laboratory^ and for many years these were all that the Institution 

 possessed. Expansion was begun in i9i3,when the late Lady Gilbert 

 generously presented the library of Sir Henry Gilbert, the binding of 

 which was completed by Mr. H. T. Hodgson. A grant of £300 was 

 then made by the Carnegie Trustees to complete broken sets of Journals. 

 Gifts of choice and rare books on husbandry have been made by 

 Lady Wernher, Capt. the Hon. Rupert Guinness, Messrs. T. H. Riches, 

 V. T. Hodgson, Robert Mond, J. Martin White, and others, and gifts 

 of books and journals by the Royal, the Chemical, the Linnean, the 

 Statistical, Meteorological, Royal Horticultural, Royal Agricultural 

 and other Societies, and by the more important Agricultural Depart- 

 ments and Experimental Stations throughout the world. Mr. Otto Beit 

 kindly gave £150 for the purpose of binding. A special Library Fund is 

 also raised by the Society for Extending the Rothamsted Experiments for 

 purchases, and the generosity of many donors, notably Mrs. and Miss 

 Midler, Sir Norman Lockyer, Dr. H. T. Brown, Mr. Marlborough Pryor, 

 and Mr. J. H. Howard, has provided much needed books and money. 

 Altogether some 10,000 volumes dealing with agriculture and the 

 cognate sciences have now been collected and card indexed by the 

 Librarian, Miss Adam, and her assistant. Miss Cumberland. The 

 indexing is done on a uniform plan which differs from the Dewey 

 decimal method, as expanded by the International Bibliographical 

 Institute at Brussels, only in details where deviation is absolutely 

 necessary, but it is so arranged that any student familiar with this 

 system can at once find his way through the Catalogue. Moreover, 

 the indexing is not confined to the titles of the volumes, but is extended 

 to cover the more important agricultural experiments, with the result 

 that the looking up of information is greatly facilitated. 



The Library is much used by agricultural experts and students 

 of our own and other countries and by various Government 

 Departments. 



FARM REPORT. 



OCTOBER, 1914 TO SEPTEMBER, 1915. 



So little rain had fallen in September of 1914 that the land was 

 left too dry to plough, and some difficulty was experienced in 

 getting a seed-bed for the oats. On Oct. 13th and 14th, however, 

 there was sufficient rain to soften the ground and allow of the drilling 

 of the oats, but unfortunately the rain did not stop then, and by the 

 end of the month so much had fallen as to interfere considerably with 

 potato digging. The total rainfall for the month was not excessive, 

 indeed it was below the average, being only 2.3 inches as compared 

 with 3.2, but the distribution was not satisfactory for farm work. 

 November opened with fine weather and wheat was sown during the 



