238 



NATURE 



\Jan. lo, li 



of latitude is great ; and (f) when the two places under considera- 

 tion are on dikfferent sides of the Equator. In these cases M cr- 

 eator's sailing should be u-ed." And again, on p. 104, when 

 speaking of a ship's journal (which I considered the right place 

 to introduce it), I give this camion : — 



" As longitude by inspection depends on the middle latitude, 

 the cases in which it should not be used as explained under 

 middle-latitude sailing should be attended to : and if the latitude 

 be high, or the distance made good be great on a small course, 

 then correct longitude can only be obtained by finding the posi- 

 tion of the ship by Mercator's sailing on every change of course." 

 John Merrifield 



Navigation School, Plymouth, December 22, 1S83 



[I WAS, of course, aware of the existence of the paragraphs 

 mentioned by Mr. Merrifield, but they do not seem to meet the 

 point raised, viz. that no notice was taken in the chap'er on 

 Traverse'Sailing of the necessity of finding the difference of 

 longitude on each course in high latitudes, although the subject 

 is incidentally referred to at p. 104. There will ilcubtless 

 always be differences of opinion between the writer and reviewer 

 of a book, but it seems to me that, in teaching, the theory should 

 be unassailable. Whether in ])ractice it is necessary to apply all 

 the corrections required should be left to the judgment of the 

 practitioner. Mr. Merrifield has reversed this order, having 

 omitted certain rules from the instructions on Traverse Sailing, 

 but mentioned them casually in a paragraph preceding the cojjy 

 of the log. — The Reviewer.] 



AN AMERICAN ROTHAMSTED 

 TLTALF a century has elapsed since Sir John Lawes 

 ■'• ^ commenced at Rothamsted Park, in Hertford- 

 shire, the unique series of experiments the results of 

 which have produced so salutary an effect on agricultural 

 practice. The inquiries were at the outset restricted to 

 determining the influences of various kinds of manures, 

 and these led to the institution, in the year 1843, of sys- 

 tematic field experiments which are still in progress. 

 Wheat and barley have been grown on the saine land for 

 forty-one consecutive years, oats for twelve years, turnips 

 for thirty years, potatoes for nine years, meadow herbage 

 for twenty-eight years, while beans, clover, sugar-beets, 

 and mangel-wurzel have likewise been grown more or 

 Icoo continuously, and all under the varied influences of 

 the different manurial agents. The influence of soils and 

 manures on the composition of crops, the relations of 

 botanical characteristics to the soil and to manures, the 

 physical and chemical properties of the soils themselves, 

 the transpiration of water by plants, the question as to 

 whether plants assimilate free nitrogen, the composition 

 of rain and drainage waters, — these are some of the chief 

 problems which have been the subjects of research. Not 

 less noteworthy are the experiments which have been 

 made with animals, such as the determination of the re- 

 lation of quantity and kind of food consumed to increase 

 in live weight, the proportion and relative development 

 of the difterent organs of farm animals, the composition 

 of the animals in difterent conditions as to age and 

 fatness, the cotnposition of the solid and liquid excreta 

 in relation to that of the food consumed, and the conip si- 

 tion of the ash of animals in different conditions and 

 variously fed. 



Valuable and highly appreciated as are the many pub- 

 lished results of the Rothamsted researches, yet their 

 significance could not fail to be greatly enhanced were it 

 possible to compare them with similar e.xperiments carried 

 on elsewhere. But the efficient equipment of an agricul- 

 tural experiment station like that at Rothamsted is a very 

 costly afifair, and, unless State aid can be relied upon, it 

 can hardly be undertaken save through the munificence 

 of private individuals. The splendid example set by the 

 founder of the Rothamsted station in this country has 

 stimulated an American gentleman to establish in the 

 State of New York an experimental farm which is already 

 well on the way towards becoming another Rothamsted. 



The credit of this enterprise is due to Mr. Lawson Valen- 

 tine, who thi-reby realises " a long-cherished plan for 

 doing something towards the progress of American agri- 

 culture," and at the same tiine providing a pleasant 

 country home conveniently near his place of business in 

 New York City. 



Houghton Farm, Orange County, is within two hours' 

 railway journey of Nevv York City, and occupies an area 

 of 600 acres. In the summer of 1879 the proprietor 

 secured the services of Dr. Manly Miles as director of 

 the projectei experiments, and after a period of eighteen 

 months, during which the fields were laid out and drained, 

 the experiments were begun. Since the summer of 1881 

 the experimental work has been carried on as a distinct 

 department, quite separate from that of the farm proper 

 on the one hand, ancl from that of the residential portion 

 of the estate on the other. Thus the pi esent plans as to 

 Houghton Farm are, in the words of the proprietor, the 

 following : — i. That the farming operations be carried on 

 in accordance with the best known methods, and under 

 the best possible organisation and management, with a 

 view to educating and enlightening others by furnishing 

 valuable examples and results in practical agriculture. 

 2. That there be a scientific department devoted to agri- 

 cultural investigation and experiment, and that such de- 

 partment be of the higheat order, so as to command the 

 respect, interest, and co operation of the leading scientific 

 minds of this and o;her countries. 3. That Houghton 

 Farm be a comfortable, healthful, and attr.ictive home 

 for the family of its proprietor, and affoid large hospitality 

 for friends and guests. 



Two distinct though closely related and parallel lines 

 of investigation are recognised. Firstly, the purely scien- 

 tific work of the laboratory to gain a knowledge of the 

 elements of animal and vegetable nutrition, and of their 

 relations under known definite cond.tions. Secondly, 

 accurate and well planned experiments in the feeding of 

 animals and in the growth of crops to answer the various 

 practical questions that arise in the management of the 

 farm, and to determine the agricultural value of the facts 

 and theories that arc presented as the result of purely 

 scientific investigations. E.xperiments under this second 

 head demand, on the part of those who conduct them, an 

 extended knowledge of practical farming, as well as the 

 trained skill and ability for original investigations that are 

 required in researches in pure science. 



As the system of growing the same kind of crop on 

 the same land for a continuous series of years, in the 

 manner followed at Rothamsted, appears to be the only 

 one that can be reliel upon to give consistent and 

 trustworthy results, this method has been adopted at 

 Houghton Farm. But besides wheat, barley, and oats, 

 the staple American cereal, Indian corn, forms the sub- 

 ject of a special series of experiments. Indian corn is 

 successfully cultivated over a very wide area ; it much 

 exceeds in aggregate value any other crop grown in the 

 United States ; it is of great importance as a cleaning 

 crop ; and the large amount of cattle food of good quality 

 it is capable of yielding, together with the value of the 

 manure produced per acre when it is fed on the farm, all 

 point to this crop as the one a series of systematic ex- 

 periments upon the cultivation of which will yield results 

 of greater practical interest to American farmers than 

 will experiments with any other field crop. 



The first report on the experiirents with Indian corn 

 has already been published, with considerable elaboration 

 of detail. Some interesting results have been est iblished, 

 particularly those on the influence of drainage, on the 

 employment of barnyard manure, and on the character 

 and quality of the grain. 



Prof D. P. Penhallow, the botanist and chemist at the 

 station, has issued no less than four reports last year 

 and this. These deal respectively with the meteoro- 

 logy of the district in which the farm is situated, based 



