VOL.  LI.  No, 
NEW  YORK,  AUGUST  2 
PRICE,  FIVE  CENTS. 
S2.00  PER  YEAR. 
Sir  J.  B.  La wes  and  His  Home. 
At  the  meeting"  of  the  Association  of  American  Agri¬ 
cultural  Colleges  and  Experiment  Stations  last  year, 
Prof.  Robert  Warrington  delivered  a  series  of  six  lec¬ 
tures  on  the  investigations  at  Rothamsted  Experi¬ 
ment  Station.  Prof.  Warrington  has  been  long  in¬ 
timate  with  Sir  J.  B.  Lawes  and  these  lectures  were 
delivered  under  the  provisions  of  the  Lawes  Agricul¬ 
tural  Trust  by  means  of  which  it  is  proposed  to  main¬ 
tain  the  experiment  station  at  Rothamsted  and  pub¬ 
lish  the  results  obtained  there.  The  lectures  were 
printed  by  the  Department  of  Agriculture  with  the 
pictures  which  are  given  in  this  issue  of  The  Rural 
New-Yorker.  We  are  indebted  to  the  Department 
-for  the  use  of  them. 
The  picture  of  Sir  J.  B.  Lawes  is  the 
latest  taken  of  him.  Older  readers  will 
remember  that  four  years  ago  we  printed 
a  full-page  picture  of  this  remarkable 
man.  It  will  be  interesting  to  compare 
these  two  pictures,  and  see  how  gently 
time  has  delt  with  our  honored  friend 
who  has  done  so  much  for  scientific  agri¬ 
culture. 
Most  of  our  readers  are  familiar  with 
the  leading  events  in  the  life  of  Sir  J.  B. 
Lawes.  The  following  autobiographical 
note  gives  a  new  idea  of  the  thoughts 
that  induced  him  to  adopt  a  line  of  scien- 
ti fie  research: 
“It  is  always  difficult  to  predict 
whether  a  juvenile  taste  will  develop 
in  after  life  into  anything-  useful.  To 
write  upon  the  door  of  a  dark  room  with 
a  stick  of  phosphorus,  to  dissolve  a 
penny  in  nitric  acid,  or  to  convey  an 
electric  shock  to  your  old  housekeeper, 
who  ‘  refused  to  touch  the  jar  with  her 
hand,  but  did  not  mind  touching  it  with 
the  end  of  the  poker,’  these  are  feats 
which,  with  the  accompanying  destruc¬ 
tion  of  clothes  and  furniture,  cause  the 
elders  of  the  house  to  look  with  unfavor¬ 
able  eyes  at  a  boy  with  a  taste  for  chem¬ 
istry.  In  my  day  Eton  and  Oxford  were 
not  of  much  assistance  to  those  whose 
tastes  were  scientific  rather  than  classi¬ 
cal,  and  consequently  my  early  pursuits 
were  of  a  most  desultory  character. 
Matters,  however,  began  to  look  serious 
when  at  the  age  of  20  I  gave  an  order  to 
a  London  firm  to  fit  up  a  complete  labo¬ 
ratory;  and  I  am  afraid  it  sadly  disturbed 
the  peace  of  mind  of  my  mother  to  see 
one  of  the  best  bedrooms  in  the  house 
fitted  up  with  stoves,  retorts,  and  all  the 
apparatus  and  reagents  necessary  for 
chemical  research.  At  the  time  my  at¬ 
tention  was  very  much  directed  to  the 
composition  of  drugs.  I  almost  knew 
the  Pharmacopoeia  by  heart,  and  I  was 
not  satisfied  until  I  had  made  the  acquain¬ 
tance  of  the  author,  Dr.  A.  T.  Thomson. 
abundance  of  the  crops,  and  wheat,  though  rigidly 
protected,  was  very  low  in  price.  Eor  three  or  four 
years  I  do  not  remember  that  any  connection  between 
chemistry  and  agriculture  passed  through  my  mind  ; 
but  the  remark  of  a  gentleman  (Lord  Dacre),  who 
farmed  near  me,  who  pointed  out  that  on  one  farm 
bone  was  invaluable  for  the  turnip  crop,  and  on  an¬ 
other  farm  it  was  useless,  attracted  my  attention  a 
good  deal,  especially  as  I  had  spent  a  good  deal  of 
money  on  bone  without  success.  Somewhere  about 
this  time  a  drug  broker  in  the  city  of  London  asked  me 
whether  I  could  make  any  use  of  precipitated  gyp¬ 
sum  and  spent  animal  charcoal,  both  of  which  sub¬ 
stances  held  at  the  time  no  market  value.  Some  tons 
Latest  Picture  of  Sir  J.  B.  Lawes,  Bart.  Fig.  230. 
Regarding  the  home  of  Sir  J.  B.  Lawes  (see  Fig. 
231),  Prof.  Warrington  says  : 
l  he  manor  of  Rothamsted  adjoins  and  includes 
a  considerable  part  of  the  parish  of  Harpenden  in 
Hertfordshire  ;  it  lies  about  25  miles  north  of  London 
and  about  four  miles  north  of  the  city  of  St.  Albans. 
I' he  manor  has  been  held  successively  by  several 
families.  It  came  into  the  hands  of  the  present  family 
in  the  year  1(523. 
“  Sir  John  Bennet  Lawes  is  descended  from  the  fam¬ 
ily  of  Wittewronge.  About  the  year  1564  Jaques  Witte- 
wronge  came  to  England  from  Flanders,  being  induced 
to  take  this  step  by  the  religious  persecution  then  pre  - 
vailing.  The  family  first  settled  at  Stantonbury,  Buck¬ 
inghamshire.  In  1623  the  manor  of  Roth¬ 
amsted  was  purchased  from  the  owner, 
Bardolf,  for  John  Wittewronge,  who  was 
then  a  minor.  He  was  created  a  knight 
and  afterwards  a  baronet  by  Charles  II. 
In  the  absence  of  male  heirs  the  baron¬ 
etcy  ceased  to  exist,  and  the  Lawes 
family  succeeded  to  the  estate  by  mar¬ 
riage  with  Mary  Bennet,  greatgrand- 
daughter  of  James  Wittewronge.  John 
Bennet  Lawes,  the  first  of  the  name, 
died  in  1822,  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son,  the  present  owner  of  Rothamsted, 
born  in  1814.  Sir  John  Bennet  Lawes 
was  educated  at  Eton  and  afterward  at 
the  University  of  Oxford.  He  entered 
into  the  possession  of  Rothamsted  in 
1834.  The  work  he  has  since  accom¬ 
plished  there  will  form  the  subject  of 
these  and  I  trust  of  many  future  lectures. 
In  recognition  of  his  great  services  to 
agriculture  he  was  created  a  baronet  in 
1882. 
The  house  of  Rothamsted  was  built 
many  years  before  the  coming  of  the 
Wittewronges  to  England  ;  it  dates,  ac¬ 
cording  to  Cussan’s  History  of  Hertford¬ 
shire,  from  about  the  year  1470.  It  was 
thus  in  existence  before  the  discovery  of 
America  by  Columbus.  The  front  had 
originally  four  pointed  gables,  two  on 
each  side  of  a  low  central  tower.  Sir 
John  Wittewronge,  after  purchasing  the 
property,  rounded  these  gables  and  ex¬ 
tended  the  front  somewhat  at  each  end  ; 
he  also  placed  a  clock  turret  on  the  cen¬ 
tral  tower.  The  front  remains  at  present 
as  it  was  left  by  him  in  1650,  but  Sir 
John  Lawes  has  considerably  extended 
one  side  of  the  house,  preserving  the 
character  of  the  old  building.” 
Sir  J.  B.  Lawes  has  always  taken  a 
deep  interest  in  American  agriculture. 
He  began  writing  occasional  letters  for 
The  R.  N.-Y.  about  12  years  ago  and 
has  since  then  frequently  contributed  to 
this  and  other  American  papers.  Ameri¬ 
cans  who  have  visited  him  at  his  home 
“The  active  principle  of  a  number  of  substances 
was  being  discovered  at  this  time,  and  in  order  to 
make  these  substances,  I  sowed  on  my  farm  poppies, 
hemlock,  henbane,  colchicum,  belladonna,  etc.  Some 
of  these  are  still  growing  about  the  place.  Dr.  Thom¬ 
son  had  suggested  a  process  for  making  calomel  and 
corrosive  sublimate  by  burning  quicksilver  in  chlorine 
gas.  I  undertook  to  carry  out  the  process  on  a  large 
scale,  and  wasted  a  good  deal  of  time  and  money  on  a 
process  which  was  in  fact  no  improvement  on  the  pro¬ 
cess  then  in  use.  Failures,  however,  have  their  value, 
as  I  found  out  afterwards.  All  this  time  I  had  the 
home  farm,  of  about  250  acres,  in  hand.  I  entered 
upon  it  in  1834.  Farmers  were  suffering  from  the 
of  these  were  sent  down,  and  as  sulphuric  acid  was 
largely  used  by  me  in  making  chlorine  gas,  the  com¬ 
bination  of  the  two  followed.” 
In  1837,  1838  and  1839  experiments  on  the  effect  of 
various  manures  were  carried  out  by  Mr.  Lawes  in 
pots.  It  was  in  these  trials  that  the  excellent  results 
obtained  by  manuring  turnips  with  phosphates  pre¬ 
viously  treated  with  sulphuric  acid,  were  first  ob¬ 
served.  These  led  to  experiments  of  the  same  kind  in 
the  field  in  1840  and  1841,  and  finally  to  the  taking  out 
of  a  patent  in  1842  for  treating  mineral  phosphates 
with  sulphuric  acid,  which  formed  the  commence¬ 
ment  of  the  present  enormous  manufacture  of 
artificial  manures. 
come  away  greatly  impressed  with  the 
wisdom  and  scientific  accuracy  of  this  great  farmer 
and  experimenter.  To  one  such  visitor  Sir  John  ex¬ 
pressed  his  regret  that  he  had  never  been  able  to  see 
a  great  field  of  vigoious  maize  growing  as  it  does  in 
our  best  corn-growing  sections.  The  English  climate 
will  not  permit  him  to  experiment  with  the  maize 
plant  successfully,  but  he  fully  recognizes  its  great 
value  and  its  great  importance  to  American  agricul¬ 
ture.  The  wheat  and  turnip  farmers  of  England  owe 
much  to  Sir  John’s  careful  investigations  into  the 
feeding  and  growing  habits  of  these  plants.  We  wish 
that  our  own  farmers  could  profit  by  similar  investi¬ 
gations  into  the  needs  of  that  greatest  of  all  American 
plants — Indian  corn. 
