402 



NATURE 



[July 3, 191, 



the "road machine" was shown in action; this 

 machine having been designed to reduce the time 

 necessary to test road materials from many months 

 down to a corresponding number of hours. The 

 machine was only completed a few weeks ago, but 

 the few tests already made on improved road surfaces 

 have already directed attention to several interesting 

 phenomena which had long been suspected by road 

 engineers, but were incapable or difficult of proof on 

 the ordinary roadway on account of the great varia- 

 tions in weather, traffic, and other matters which 

 render accurate comparative tests difficult, if not 

 impossible. 



OPENING OF THE NEW WING AT 

 ROTHAMSTED. 



ON Friday, June 27, the new wing of the Rotham- 

 sted laboratories was opened by the Right Hon. 

 Walter Runciman, President of the Board of Agricul- 

 ture, in presence of a large and distinguished com- 

 pany, which included Earl Grey, Earl Denbigh, Earl 



culable benefit to the world, markedly increasing the 

 yields of some of the British and Continental crops, 

 and rendering possible the economic growth of wheat 

 in Australia. Feeding experiments on animals came 

 later, and proved of fundamental importance both to 

 farmers and physiologists. During the fifty-seven 

 years of their partnership, Lawes and Gilbert had 

 investigated most of the important problems connected 

 with British agriculture, and laid the whole com- 

 munity under a great debt of obligation to them. 



' The work thus begun had expanded considerably 

 under Mr. Hall's directorship (1902-12), and the 

 growth was such that the new wing was already full, 

 and the director, Dr. Russell, was preparing plans for 

 new buildings to be erected in commemoration of the 

 centenary of the birth of Sir John Lawes (1814) and 



I Sir Henry Gilbert (1817). Mr. Runciman expressed 

 the hope that the centenary fund would be well and 

 widely supported. 



Mr. J. F. Mason, M.P., who followed, recognised 

 that farmers had evolved an admirable system of agri- 



I culture, but pointed out that every industry benefited 



Rosse, Lord Lucas, Prof. H. E. Armstrong, Mr. G. \V. 

 Lamplugh. Dr. W. N. Shaw, Sir William Tilden, 

 Sir David Prain, Dr. G. J. Fowler, Dr. J. A. Yoelcker, 

 and others. 



In his opening remarks the chairman (Sir John 

 Thorold) stated that the wing now ready for opening 

 was the third great advance during the last few- 

 years at Rothamsted. The first was made in 1906, 

 when Mr. J. F. Mason gave the James Mason Bac- 

 teriological Laboratory, and provided funds for its 

 maintenance; the second was made in 1907, when 

 the Goldsmiths' Company gave a grant of io.oooZ. 

 towards soil investigations ; and the third became pos- 

 sible when the Government instituted the Development 

 Fund, out of which part of the cost of new buildings 

 could be met. 



In declaring the buildings open, Mr. Runciman 

 sketched out the history of the Rothamsted Experi- 

 ment Station from its beginning in 1843 to the pre- 

 sent time. The experiments grew out of some pot 

 trials made bv Lawes as a young man in the late 

 'thirties. The first result was the discovery of super- 

 phosphate, which alone had proved of almost incal- 



NO. 227Q, VOL. 91] 



by scientific aid. He instanced the steel industry as 

 one in which science had done great things. Already 

 science had done much for agriculture, and there is 

 every reason to suppose that it will do more. 



Earl Denbigh and Sir Hildred Carlile both paid 

 high tributes to the work that is being done at 

 Rothamsted in relation to British agriculture, while 

 Earl Grey emphasised the enormous part that has 

 been played by science in the development of Canadian 

 agriculture. 



The buildings were then inspected. They include 

 a large soil laboratory and directors' room on the 

 ground floor, a botanical laboratory, librarv, and 

 chemical laboratory on the first floor, and a glass- 

 house for water cultures on the roof. Special rooms 

 are provided in the basement for polarimeter work 

 and for soil incubations. The laboratorv is served 

 throughout with electric current, which is generated 

 in an adjoining dynamo and battery house. The total 

 cost of the building- and fittings is about 3400/., and 

 the expenditure on the new farm (which has been 

 taken over to supplement and extend the old experi- 

 mental fiikN) is about 1200I. Towards this the Board 



