RESULTS OF INVESTIGATIONS ON THE 
ROTHAMSTED SOILS. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Il is my privilege to appear before you as the delegate of tlie Lawcs 
Agricultural Trust Committee, to offer once again, for your aceept- 
ance, a digest of the results of some of the work carried <>ut at Rotham- 
sted. When the late Sir John Bennett Lawes permanently endowed 
and dedicated to the public his famous experimental stal ion, he recog- 
nized, as yon will recollect, the interest which you in America had 
long shown in Kothamsted, by making prov ision in the trust deeds 
for the periodical delivery here of what have now come to be known 
as the Rot hamsted leet ures. 
The first to fulfill the mission was Professor Warington, in 1891; 
the next was Sir John's veteran colleague, Sir J. Henry Gilbert, who 
visited you in INu.'i; w hile the last, in 1SU7, was Professor Armst rong, 
wlio acts on the Lawes Agricultural Trusl Committee as the represent - 
at ive of t he ( hemical Society. 
This, therefore, is the fourth occasion <>n which official greeting 
passes personally and by word of mouth from the time-honored insti- 
tution in Kngland to the representatives of the many younger but 
already vigorous and nourishing kindred institutions which have 
grown up on your side. 
My visit to you occurs at a I hue which is one of mourning for all who 
care for Etothamsted and its work. Sir John Lawes passed away from 
us on the last day of August this year, at what would usually be 
called the pipe old age of nearly 86. But the use of this conventional 
phrase would not be applicable to his case. Ripe his Life was in one 
sense, in so far as ripeness is an emblem of maturity, of service, of 
usefulness, of the potentiality to feed, enrich, and adorn. All this 
his life did for the mental life of all who intelligently study agricul- 
ture; and much also has it done directly and indirectly, in a physical 
sense, to mitigate the troubles and advance the well-being of thou- 
sands of his fellow-agriculturists at home and abroad. But in the 
sense of being ripe for the harvest, his life was not ripe. Though 
full of years he was of such a fine and vigorous constitution, and 
still mentally so young and fresh, that his friends confidently fore- 
told for him many years yet of active work. There was no fading 
7 
