NEW YORK, AUG. 20, 1881. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1881, by the Rural New-Yorker. In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.! 
the Rolhamsted Experiment Station may be 
said to date from that time. The problem to 
be solved was to determine, by exact experi¬ 
ments, the principles, chemical and physio¬ 
logical, which are involved in the general and 
fundamental processes of successful agricul¬ 
ture ; in other words, to determine the actual 
relation of various crops with the soil in which 
they are sown and with the fertilizers 
used to promote that growth, and to do this 
on so extensive a scale, both as regards time 
and area, as to settle upon a definite basis the 
fundamental principles of agricultural prac 
tice, 
The investigations have chiefly embraced 
researches, 1, into the exhaustion of soil, in¬ 
cluding experiments on wheat, barley, oats, 
potatoes, clover, root and leguminous crops ; 
2 , on the principles of rotation and fallow; 
S, on the mixed heroage of grass landB; 4, on 
the process of vegetation generally, includ¬ 
ing researches on the action of manures ; 5, 
on the origin of nitrogen in plants; 0, on the 
feeding and fattening of animals; 7, on rain¬ 
fall and drainage; 8, various supplementary 
the number of plots experimented upon in¬ 
creased, the area devoted to the work steadily 
grew larger. The number of assistants and 
other helps has also increased from time to 
time. At first only one laboratory man was 
employed ; but very soon a chemical assistant 
was necessary and next a computer and 
record-keeper. Daring the last twenty-five 
years the staff has consisted of one or two 
or sometimes three chemists; two or three 
general assistants whose principal occupation 
Is to superintend the field experiments; an 
occasional botanical assistant with from three 
to six boys under him ; a varying number of 
laborers always employed iu field and other 
work ; two or three (lately always three) com¬ 
puters and record-keepers for calculating and 
tabulating field, feeding and laboratory re¬ 
sults, copying, etc.,, and one, and sometimes 
two, laboratory men. Besides the permanent 
laboratory staff under Dr. Gilbert, chemical 
assistance is frequently engaged in London 
and elsewhere; and in this way Mr. R. Richter 
of Berlin has, for some years, been almost 
constantly engaged in analytical work sent 
OUR PORTRAIT GALLERY. 
John Bonnet Lawes, LL. D,, F. R, 8. 
John Bennet Lawes was born in 1814, and 
on the death of his father, in 1833, succeeded 
to the estate of Rothamsted, Hertfordshire. 
He was educated at Eton and at Brasenose 
College, Oxford, where be remained from 1883 
to 1835, and afterwards he spent some time in 
London for the purpose of the further study 
of chemistry, to which he had devoted much 
attention at the University. In October, 1834, 
he took possession of his property at Rotham¬ 
sted. and at once instituted experiments in ag¬ 
ricultural chemistry. He studied with great 
interest the researches of Da Saussure on veg¬ 
etation, and sought to apply his scientific 
knowledge to the solution of questions affect¬ 
ing practical agriculture. Among other sub¬ 
jects, his friend and neighbor, the then Lord 
Dacre, particularly directed his attention to 
the fact that while bones proved 
a highly valuable manure on some 
lands, they were quite, or almost, 
useless on others. To test this and 
other subjects several hundred ex¬ 
periments were made, some upon 
various crops in the field and 
others with plants grown in pots, 
and in these experiments the con¬ 
stituents found in the ashes of 
plants, as well as others, were 
supplied in various states of com¬ 
bination. Of all the experiments 
so made, those in which the neu¬ 
tral phosphate of lime in bones, 
bone-ash and apatite was ren¬ 
dered soluble by means of sul¬ 
phuric acid and the mixture ap¬ 
plied to root crops, gave the 
most striking results. Those ob¬ 
tained on a small scale in 1887, 
1838 and 1839 were such as to lead 
to more extensive trials in the 
field in 1840 and 1841 and subse¬ 
quently. Eirly in 1843, as one of 
the Jesuits of his investigations, 
Mr. Lawes took out a patent for 
the manufacture of the manure 
now known as superphosphate of 
lime. Before the publication of 
Baron Liebig’s works in 1840, but 
little attention was given any¬ 
where to agricultural chemistry, 
and many of the terms now in 
common use fouud no place in ag- 
ricultural works published before 
that date. In 1843 Mr. Lawes es- 
tabliehed large works in the 
neighborhood of London for the 
manufacture of the new fertilizer 
according to the process covered 
by his patent, and when, shortly 
afterwards, vast deposits of min- 
eral phosphates were discovered, 
the business of converting them 
into superphosphates attained ^llWU 
vast proportions: nine years ago, wn 
when Mr. Lawes discontinued his 
connection with the works he had 
established, the amount of super¬ 
phosphates manufactured there 
alone was upwards of 40,000 tons 
annually. 
For some years Mr. Lawes had 
been aided in his investigations 
by a youn^ chemist, Mr. Dobson; but in 1848 1 
he secured the valuable services of Dr. Joseph 
Henry Gilbert, then 26 years old, who has ever 
construction oi a new and more com- 
I modlou8 laboratory, which has enabled 
him to extend his inquiries for 
the benefit of those who thus 
honored themselves by their 
grateful recognition of his emi¬ 
nent services. In the same 
year he was elected a Fellow of 
the Royal 8oclety, and in 1867 
the Royal Medal was awarded to 
him conjointly with Dr. Gilbert 
by the Council of the Society. 
Daring the whole period of its 
existence the Experiment Btation 
has been completely disconnected 
from any external organization, 
and has been maintained entirely 
by Mr. Lawes. His object all 
along has been, not to put money 
into hia own pocket, but to afford 
the farmers of the United King¬ 
dom, aye, and of the whole civil¬ 
ized world, Information by which 
they may be able to put money 
into theirs. For upwards of 40 
years this philanthropic object 
has been sought by a series of ex¬ 
periments conducted with a skill, 
perseverance and success which, 
in the words of 8ir Edward Sa¬ 
bine. President of the Royal So¬ 
ciety, *• have placed their authors, 
by general consent, at the head of 
all those who have pursued this 
important branch of experimental 
~ Inquiry.” When investigations 
such as these have occupied one’s 
attention for many years, he is led 
to regard them, as Dr. Lawes re- 
marks, In some way as his chil- 
dren, which he is unwilling to 
||[|3» desert or leave destitute at the 
time of his death. Acting on this 
principle, Mr. Lawes has set apart 
jgllspl a sum of $500 000 and a sufficient 
area of land for the continuance 
of his life-work after an honored 
memory of him alone and the 
lasting results of his labors shall 
remain among the living. 
It is Impossible in the compass 
of this short sketch even to out¬ 
line the practical conclusions ar¬ 
rived at from a series of investi¬ 
gations upon so many subjects, 
each so complicated in its na¬ 
ture, so important in its ob¬ 
ject and continued systematically over so 
protracted a period. A great deal of the 
lesults of his labors from 1843 to the pres¬ 
ent time has been given to the pnblic through 
various English agricultural and scientific 
periodicals as well as in official reports, 
while of late years, as these who have had 
the advantage of reading his prized contri¬ 
butions In onr columns are aware, he 
JOHN BENNET L A. WES.—F 
investigations, ench as extensive researches 
into the application of town sewerage to 
crops, especially to grasses; the chemistry of 
the malting process, etc., etc. 
In systematically undertaking the experi¬ 
ments in 1843, fourteen acres, divided into 
abont twenty plots were devoted to wheat; 
seven acres divided into abont twenty-five plots 
to experiment with turnips; subsequently as 
