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VOL. XXXVII. No. 30.1 
WHOI.E No. 1487. / 
NEW YORK CITY, JULY 27, 1878. 
fPRICK SIX I'ENTS. 
( *2.50 PKU YEA tt. 
[Enter ed according to Act of Coi.ki'phh. In Uie year 1878, by the Rural Publishing Company, in the ofllce of tho Librarian of Confess at Washington.] 
4ann Copies. 
J. B. LAWES’ EXPERIMENTAL FARMING. 
The several communications of Mr. J. B. 
Lawks, of Rothamstod, England, to tho Ruiul 
New -Yorkkr, are still frowh in the memory of 
onr readers. Professor Sii.liman has visited 
this great experimental farm that for over forty 
years has been oondnoted by Mr. Lawks in the 
interests of Agrloiiltiire with an intelligence and 
devotion which have roudorod and do aud will 
render the results of those experiments of a 
value to all agriculturists -indeed to the world— 
which it would be idle to attempt to estimate. 
If “ Agriculture 1 b tho most healthful, most 
usoful, and most noble employment of u>an," 
surely the life which Mr. Lawks has Bpont for 
its improvement with results so important and 
trustworthy, entitles him to a share of mankind’s 
gratitude to which few other investigators iu 
any field whatsoever can with equal justice lay 
claim. « 
Professor Silliman communicates to the New 
York World a short account of what ho saw dar¬ 
ing his visit, the gist of a part of which will bo 
found in the Rural Nkw-Y\>bkeu of 0,jt. 17, ’77, 
p. 240. " It la impossible,*’ he says, " in any 
reasonable limits of space to follow the details 
of those moHt impoitaut and interesting experi¬ 
ments which it has required so many years to 
oarry out, not oven if I were to confine myself 
to a single example." 
After all thoso 
years Mr. Lawks 
says ho fools that 
he has but com¬ 
menced a work 
wkiok will de¬ 
mand many lives 
for its comple¬ 
tion. lie has 
therefore set a- 
part a fund of 
$500,000 and 
a certain area of 
laud for tho con¬ 
tinuance of these 
inve s t i g a t ions 
when ho is dead. 
But Mr. Lawkh 
is still in vigor¬ 
ous health and 
Boarcely over 
Bixty years o f 
age. Wo may 
therefore hope 
that he will be 
spared to con¬ 
tinue his good 
work through 
many years. 
Our engrav¬ 
ings are repro¬ 
ductions of those 
published iu the 
Gardener's 
Chronicle of Sep. 
22 of last year, 
aud we are in¬ 
debted to tho 
Bame source for 
the substance 
of what follows. 
Air. Lawks en¬ 
tered upon his 
hereditary prop¬ 
erty in 1 8 8 4, 
when experi¬ 
ments wore be¬ 
gun. But the j 
foundation o f 
the ltothamsted 
Experimental 
Htation may he 
said to date from 
1848, ^It ban up IIV'X'A; 
to tho prosont time been entirely disconnected 
from any external organization, and has been 
maintained entirely by Mr. Lawks 
In 1854 5 a new laboratory waB built, by pub¬ 
lic subscription of agriculturists, and presented 
to Mr. Laweh, iu July, 1855, from which date 
an old barn laboratory was abandoned, and the 
new one has boon occupied. 
From June, 1843, up to the present time, Dr. 
J. H. Gilbert has been associated with Mr. 
Lawks, aud had tho direction of tho laboratory. 
The number of assistants and othor helpB has 
been increased from time to time. At first only 
one laboratory man was employed, but very Boon 
chemical assistant was necessary, and next a 
oompnter and record-keeper. During the last 
twenty-five years tho staff haH consisted of one 
or two, and sometimes three, chemists, and two 
or three general assistants. One of these is 
usually employed in routine ohemioal work, but 
sometimes in more general work. Tho chief 
occupation of tho general assistants is to super¬ 
intend the field experiments—that is, tho mak¬ 
ing of the manures, tho measurement of the 
plotH, the application of the manures, and the 
harvesting of tho crops, also tho taking of sam¬ 
ples. the preparation of them for preserving or 
analysis, and the determination of dry matter, 
ash, Ac. These assistants also superintend any 
Experiments made with animals. There are now 
about 25,000 bottles of samples of exporiment- 
ally-growu vegetable produce, of animal prod¬ 
ucts, of ashes, or of soils, stored in the labora¬ 
tory. 
A botanical assistant is also occasionally em¬ 
ployed, with from three to six boys under him, 
and with him is generally associated one of tho 
permanent gouorai assistants, who at other 
times undertakes the botanical work. 
Two or threo (for sometime over threo) com¬ 
puters and record-keepers have been occupied 
in calculating and tabulating field, feeding, aud 
laboratory results, copying, Ac. 
One, and sometimes two, laboratory men are 
employed. 
The field experiments, and occasionally feed¬ 
ing experiments, sJmo employ a considerable but 
a very variable number of agricultural laborers. 
The general scope aud plan of the field ex¬ 
periments have been: 
To grow somo of tho most important crops of 
rotation, each separately, year after year, for 
many years in succession on tho Bame land, 
without manure, with farmyard manure, and 
with a groat variety of chemical manures ; the 
same description of manure being, as a rule, 
applied year after year on the same plot. Ex¬ 
periments on an actual course of rotation with 
different manures have also been made. In this 
way field experiments have been conducted as 
follows : — 
On Wheat, thirty-four years iu succession, 
13 acres, 35 plots, many of wiiich are duplicates 
gt others. 
On Barley, twonty-Bix years In Buocossion, 
43-6 acres. 23 (or 29) plots. 
On Oats, nine years in succession, % aero, 6 
plots. 
Oil Wheat, alternated with fallow, twonty- 
Bix years, 1 acre, 2 plots. 
JNTAJltlOU OF «T. B, LAWJES’ LA1IOHATOUY AT\ltOTllA»IliTl!lD, 
On different descriptions of Wheat. nineyearB, 
7 acres (each year in a different field,) about 20 
plots. 
On Beans, thirty-ono years (including one 
year Wheat and five yearB fallow), 1% aore, 10 
plots. 
On Beans, alternated with Wheat, twenty- 
eight years, 1 acre, 10 plots. 
On Clover, with fallow or corn (grain) crop 
intervening, twenty-eight years, 8 acres, 18 
plotB. 
On Turnips, twenty-five years, about 8 acres, 
40 plots. 
On Sugar Beet, five yearB, about 8 acres, 40 
plots. 
On Alangel-Wurzel, one year (in progress, 
about 8 acres, 40 plots. 
On Potatoes, one year (in progress), 2 acres, 
10 plots. 
On rotation, thirty years, about 2% acres, 
twelve plots. 
On permanent grass land, twenty-two years, 
about 7 acres, twenty plots. 
Comparative experiments with different ma¬ 
nures have also been made on othor descriptions 
of Boil in othor localities. 
Samples of all the experimental crops are 
taken, and brought to the laboratory- Weighed 
portions of each are partially dried, aud pre- 
soiVed for future reference or analysis. Dupli¬ 
cate weighed portions of each are dried at 100° 
G., the dry matter determined, and then burnt 
to ash on platinum sheets in cast-iron muffles. 
The quantities of ash are determined aud re¬ 
corded, aud tho ashes themselves are preserved 
for reference or 
analysis, 
1 u a large pro¬ 
portion of the 
tiamples the ni¬ 
trogen i» deter¬ 
mined. 
Iu selected ca- 
es, illustrating 
tho intluenoe of 
of season, ma¬ 
nures, exhaust¬ 
ion, Ac , com¬ 
plete ash analy¬ 
ses have been 
made, number¬ 
ing iu all about 
live hundred. 
Also iu select¬ 
ed oases, illus¬ 
trating the inilu- 
uuco of s uson 
aud manuring, 
quantities or the 
experimentally- 
grown wheat 
grain have been 
sent to tho mill, 
and tho propor¬ 
tion and compo¬ 
sition of tho dif¬ 
ferent mill pro¬ 
ducts determ¬ 
ined. 
Iu the case of 
Hagur Boot, the 
sugar, by polari- 
soopo, has in 
most cases been 
determined. 
In the case of 
tho experiments 
on the mixed 
herbage of per¬ 
manent grass- 
land, besides the 
samples taken 
for the determi¬ 
nation of ohemi¬ 
oal composition 
(dry matter, ash, 
nitrogen, woody 
fiber, fatty mat- 
’JE1», ter, and oompo 
