Vol. LXXVIII. 
Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co.. 
333 W. 30th St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
NEW YORK, OCTOBER 4, 1919. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter. June 2G, 1870. at the Post 
Office at New York, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 
No. 4554. 
A Vist to Rothamsted in England 
Dr. Lipman Tells of the Work Done There 
F oundation of tiie work.—sou students 
the world over know of the fame of the 
Rothainsted Experiment Station located at Harpen- 
den, Hertfordshire, England, about 24 miles distant 
from the city of London. John Bennet Lawes. the 
founder of the Rothamsted Experiment Station, be¬ 
came interested in soil problems while still a young 
man. Early in the thirties of the last century lie 
laid the foundation of fertilizer and soil experi¬ 
ments, which have been of inestimable value to the 
progress of our modern knowledge on soils and fer¬ 
tilizers. Systematic experiments were started in 
1813, in which year a young chemist, Joseph llenry 
Gilbert, was engaged to take charge of the experi¬ 
mental work. In order to assure the continuance 
of these experiments Lawes, who had been knighted 
for his services to agriculture, provided in 1889, a 
trust fund of $500,000, the income from which was 
to he used for maintaining the experimental work. 
FINANCIAL SUPPORT.—In more recent years 
the resources of the Rothamsted Station were con¬ 
siderably increased by various subscriptions and 
donations from different individuals. These included 
gifts of $50,000 from the Goldsmiths Company, of 
$10,000 from the Permanent Nitrate Committee, and 
likewise gifts from Rupert Guinness. W. B. Randall 
and a number of others. The Board of Agriculture, 
recognizing the value of the research work done at 
Rothamsted, has provided an annual grant of about 
$15,000. This and other funds have made possible 
the maintenance of a very efficient staff of research 
chemists and bacteriologists. 
RESEARCH PERSONNEL.—Sir John B. Lawes 
and Sir J. Henry Gilbert collaborated for more than 
55 years. The former passed away in 1900 and the 
latter in 1901. To them was given the privilege of 
carrying on uninterruptedly throughout the span of 
nearly two generations important experiments on 
the feeding of crops. Their successor, Mr. A. I>. 
Hall (now Sir A. Daniel Hall), was in charge of the 
Station from 1902 until 1912, and the present 
Director, Dr. E. J. Russell, has been in charge since 
the last named date. Under their guidance the use¬ 
fulness of the Station has been increased by the 
institution of new lines of inquiry into chemical and 
bacteriological problems connected with soil fertility. 
They were instrumental in adding greatly to the 
material equipment of the institution. A number of 
farm buildings and cottages were built in 1913, and 
a new laboratory was erected between 1914 and 1917, 
at a total cost of $130,000. 
FERTILIZER EXPERIMENTS.—The celebrated 
fertilizer experiments, begun in 1S43, have been con¬ 
tinued without interruption until the present day. 
These fertilizer plots constitute therefore a unique 
record of systematic fertilization. Some of these 
plots have received since the very beginning no plant 
food in any form beyond the small quantities brought 
down from the atmosphere. Others have received 
farmyard manure alone, single chemicals alone, or 
combinations of different chemicals. A certain num¬ 
ber of plots have, therefore, become deficient in avail¬ 
able nitrogen, others in available phosphoric acid 
and still others in available potash. It was the 
writer’s privilege to examine these plots a few days 
ago. Like others, he was impressed with the fact 
that the seventy-seventh crop of wheat produced 
consecutively on the same land was still good for 
probably eight to 10 bushels per acre, in spite of the 
fact that the land had received no applications of 
lnanuie or fertilizer during these years. 
POTASH DEFICIENCY—When the experimental 
A Bunch of Sheep Busy in a Clover Pasture. Fir/. 462 
