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JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
November  8,  1900. 
leave  any  memorial  behind  ub?  Are  others  better  and  wiser  because 
we  lived  ?  ” 
If  we  are  straightforward,  the  answer  should  make  us  wince. 
With  the  exception  of  our  own  near  relatives,  who  will  miss  us  when 
we  are  called  ?  We  may  have  been  upright  men  trying  to  do  our 
duty,  if  even  in  only  a  limited  sphere,  but  we  have  made  no  great 
mark  in  the  world’s  history.  This  is  reserved  for  the  few — every 
generation  gives  birth  to  some  who  stand  by  their  innate  ability,  by 
their  genius,  or  by  their  immense  powers  of  application,  head  and 
shoulders  above  their  fellows.  They  die,  but  their  name  perishes  not ; 
they  stand  as  monuments  of  real  greatness.  They  have  achieved  two 
objects — their  life  work,  which  they  have  done  unflinchingly  ;  and 
their  example,  which  unconsciously  they  have  set  before  the  world. 
Some  of  the  greatest  work  in  this  world  is  done  silently  and 
secretly,  “  comes  without  observation.”  We  see  the  results,  but  we 
know  little  or  nothing  of  the  patient  toil,  the  weary  plodding,  the 
frustrated  and  often  deferred  hopes.  We  should  not  understand  the 
methods  adopted  to  gain  the  desired  end,  even  if  they  were  explained 
to  us,  and  it  is  only  because  the  outcome  is  so  patent  that  we  are  able 
to  grasp  it. 
Full  of  years  and  of  honour  has  just  passed  away  Irom  us  one  of 
the  great  ones  of  this  century  ;  his  work  will  last  to  the  end  of  time. 
A  life  of  eighty-six  years  is  a  long  one,  and  it  was  a  life  of  active 
industry.  Born  the  son  of  a  country  gentleman,  John  Bennet  Liwes 
of  Rothamsted,  Herts,  had  all  the  advantages  of  an  excellent  education 
— Eton,  Oxford,  London.  How  many  lads  have  had  the  same  advan¬ 
tages  ?  how  few  have  put  them  to  such  good  uses  ?  Left  early  his 
own  master,  and  with  plenty  of  money,  he  used  that  time  and  that 
money  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge — knowledge  that  could  only  be 
gained  by  hard  and  laborious  toil. 
As  an  agricultural  chemist  John  Bennet  Lawes  had  no  superior — 
no  equal.  Fancy  beginning  experiments  on  plant  life  in  1834  and 
continuing  them  up  to  1900.  Is  not  that  perseverance  ?  Bringing  a 
shrewd  practical  mind  to  bear  on  his  work,  who  can  assess  its  value? 
He  caused  a  perfect  revolution  in  the  science  of  manuring  Call  it  a 
science?  Yes;  a  science  of  the  deepest  importance  to  mankind.  We 
are  placed  in  this  world,  we  have  to  sustain  life  by  food,  and  to  get 
that  food  for  our  quickly  multiplying  generations  we  must  increase  the 
methods  of  production,  and  anvone  who  shows  us  how  that  is  best 
done  is  a  public  benefactor.  What  of  a  man  who  has  devoted  his 
whole  life  to  the  subject,  spared  no  expense,  no  personal  toil  ?  Talk 
about  canonising  hair-clothed  saints  and  hermits,  why  this  man’s 
deeds  shine  far  before  theirs  !  Ah  !  well,  the  world  does  not  always 
recognise  its  greatest  men. 
The  great  backbone  of  profitable  farming  may  be  summed  up  in 
one  short  word — “muck,”  and  for  long  years,  aye,  for  centuries,  that 
“  muck  ”  meant  the  excrement  of  animals.  They  gave  back  to  the 
land  certain  constituents  of  which  they  had  robbed  it.  Well,  there 
are  other  fertilisers.  There  remainrd  to  be  discovered — or  rather, 
perhap-i,  to  be  put  into  a  form  suitable  for  distribution.  W^e  suppose 
a  man  might  sustain  life  on  whole  grain,  but  he  sustains  it  better  on 
meal  which  is  more  easily  dealt  with  by  his  digestive  organs.  The 
same  wdi  apply  to  plant  li  e.  Dress  with  bone  !  How?  Raw  bone 
of  irregular  size  and  irregular  distribution  ?  No  ;  that  will  not  answer. 
How  can  the  tiny  rootlets  derive  any  benefit  from  a  shankbone  ? 
But  let  that  bone  be  dissolved,  reduced  to  powder  more  or  Kss  fine, 
and  the  plant  has  a  chance.  How  is  this  reduction  to  come  about — 
with  a  hammer,  or  a  complicated  “devil  with  strong  teeth?”  Not 
quite  so;  there  is  a  better  agent  than  brute  force.  There  is  an  acid 
(sulphuric)  before  which  no  bone  can  stand.  'J  here  is  much  valuable 
lime  in  bone  ;  this  the  acid  precipitates. 
We  know  there  was  a  time  when  this  island  was  full  of  many  strange 
and  savage  beasts.  They  hrve  disappeared  before  the  gentler  occupants 
of  the  present  day,  but  they  have  left  their  traces  behind.  Who  has  not 
beard  ol  coprolites,  the  petrified  (  xcrement  of  certain  extinct  saurians  ? 
These  coprolites,  reduced  to  their  original  form,  have  proved  of 
immense  value  as  mmurial  agents,  and  it  is  to  this  man  Lawes  we 
owe  such  a  debt  that  we  can  never  repay.  He  laid  the  foundation  of 
this  great  industry — the  manufacture  of  superphosphates.  There  is 
not  a  farmer  nowadays,  big  or  little,  who  is  not  a  user  of  super¬ 
phosphate  in  some  form  or  other.  We  will  not  say  anything  about  the 
limitrd  companies  who  have  earned  excellent  dividends  by  the  manu¬ 
facture  thereof.  Many  of  the  shareholders  are  farmers  who,  in  thus 
uniting,  have  provided  themselves  with  an  honest  dressing  at  a 
minimum  of  cost. 
But  it  was  not  alone  as  the  father  of  “artificials”  that  Lawes 
•obtained  his  renown.  Had  he  done  that  and  nothing  else  he  would 
have  been  greater  than  a  Caesar  or  Alexai  der.  Having  land  of  his 
own,  and  an  investigating  mind,  he  gave  himself  and  his  time  up  to  a 
series  of  experiments  that  ended  only  with  his  life.  Nay,  indeed,  the 
experimentalist  is  gone,  but  he  left  adequate  provision  for  the  carrying 
out  of  these  experiments  still. 
For  fifty-seven  years  he  and  his  friend,  a  young  chemist  (now  old 
in  the  service).  Sir  J.  Henry  Gilbert,  have  worked  together  unceasingly. 
They  have  analysed  soil,  they  have  analysed  water,  they  have  grown 
crops  of  all  sorts  in  all  manners,  with  manures,  without  manures,  with 
a  certain  manure  solus  with  that  manure  in  conjunction  with  others. 
Close  and  varied  notes  have  been  taken,  and  this  for  fifty-seven  years. 
Talk  of  patience,  these  men  have  been  the  personification  of  it.  And 
this  they  were  doing  for  the  pure  love  of  knowledge  and  with  a  view 
to  benefitting  their  brother  agriculturists.  Think  of  the  outlay  of 
money  and  time.  It  does  not  do  to  draw  comparisons,  but  how  many 
other  young  men  born  in  a  similar  rank  of  life  and  with  similar 
advantages,  how  many,  we  sav,  have  so  laid  themselves  out  for  the 
good  of  humanity  ?  How  many  of  their  pleasures  have  been  purely 
selfish  if  not  worse  ? 
Busy  as  this  man  was  with  his  multifarious  undertakings,  he  yt^ 
had  leisure  for  his  own  peculiar  duties,  duties  appertaining  to  his 
position  as  a  landed  proprietor,  and  he  was  full  of  wise  and  beneficent 
schemes  for  the  good  of  his  poorer  neighbours.  You  generally  find 
broad-minded,  busy  men  have  time  for  the  great  as  well  as  small 
concerns  of  life.  It  is  only  the  idle  ones  who  have  no  leisure. 
We  have  of  late  years  heard  a  good  deal  of  the  allotment  question. 
If  land  could  not  be  got  easily  the  strong  hand  of  the  law  intervened 
and  allotments  were  provided  for  these  who  demanded  then’.  The 
parish  of  Harpenden  must  stand  alone — 334  !  and  a  club  bouse  in  the 
centre,  beer,  “  bacca  ”  and  books,  comlort,  recreation,  convenience. 
This  club  is  managed  by  the  holders  of  the  allotment  gardens  and  has 
proved  a  permanent  success.  Sir  John  also  started  a  labourers’ 
co-operative  and  pig  club,  but  these  two  were  not  of  long  duration. 
In  his  early  days  there  were  no  facilities  for  small  saver.-;.  He  started 
savings  banks  and  gave  5  per  cent,  interest,  and,  busy  as^he  was,  he  took 
all  the  receipts  himself  as  the  people  had  more  cot.fidencj  in  him  than 
they  would  have  had  in  anyone  else.  Presently  the  P.O.  savings 
bank  ctme  into  operation  and  took  this  burden  off  Sir  John’s  shoulders. 
The  schools  both  in  his  own  village  and  at  his  chemical  works  found 
in  him  a  firm  supporter.  Perhaps  that  term  “firm  supporter”  is 
liardly  the  correct  one — he  was  practically  the  school.  And  on  his 
sugar  plantation  in  Queensland  he  maintained  a  missionary  teacher. 
We  want  to  particularise  some  features  of  his  life  work,  to  do 
this  we  must  wait  lor  another  art  cle.  There  is  so  much  of  interest 
and  value  that  we  feel  sure  our  readers  will  be  glad  to  know  more 
than  we  have  been  able  to  tell  in  these  few  lines. 
Work  on  tkie  Home  Farm. 
The  beautiful  autumn  we  have  been  enjoying  has  been  rudely 
broken  by  storms  of  wind  and  rain.  The  land  will  no  more  this  year 
be  in  the  workable  condition  of  the  past  month,  and  horse  labour  will 
now  be  of  a  much  heavier  nature. 
Farmers  who  stored  all  their  roots  before  the  rain  are  happily 
circumstanced,  but  notwithstanding  the  good  price  of  Potatoes,  the 
crop  is  not  likely  to  be  a  very  remunerative  one  ;  the  yield  of  saleable 
ware  is  smaller  even  than  we  anticipated,  and  we  have  personal 
knowledge  of  an  output  of  12  tons  from  5  acres,  which  at  75s.  per 
ton,  only  amount  to  £45,  or  £9  per  acre,  a  very  poor  return  for  all 
the  labour  and  expense  incidental  to  Potato  growing.  Dry  weather  at 
a  critical  time  and  attacks  of  disease  later  appear  to  be  the  chief 
causes  to  which  this  failure  is  attributable.  The  soil  is  a  light  sandy 
loam,  and  8  cwt.  per  acre  of  salt  were  applied  to  the  land  before  the 
Potatoes  were  planted.  The  salt  seems  to  have  done  harm  rather 
than  good,  and  certainly  did  not  ward  off  either  drought  or  scab,  results 
which  the  cultivator  expected. 
The  ploughing  of  fallows  is  being  carried  on  under  favourable 
conditions,  as  the  wetter  state  of  the  land  helps  the  ridges  to  hold 
themselves  up  and  present  a  larger  surface  to  the  action  of  the  winter 
weather.  Sheep  have  had  an  uncomfortable  lair  for  the  first  time  since 
going  on  Turnips.  If  they  have  plenty  of  room  to  run  back  upon  they 
will  not  suffer.  We  do  not  like  to  keep  sheep  penned  up  too  closely 
until  after  Christmas.  Breeding  ewes  are  now  on  rape  with  the  ram; 
the  latter  should  be  changed  again  if  convenient,  as  he  will  be  removed 
altogether  in  another  fortnight.  Half  a  pound  of  Barley  per  head  per 
day  for  another  ten  davs  may  do  much  to  reduce  the  percentage  of 
barren  ewes  to  be  sold  off  fat  next  April. 
Now  that  horses  are  on  dry  food  they  should  have  an  allowance  of 
linseed  cake  for  the  water  trough,  one  cake  each  per  week.  A  Swede 
Turnip  each  given  in  the  evening  is  excellent  for  horses,  and  will  help 
to  keep  them  in  health,  but  do  not  allow  an  unlimited  quantity.  Farm 
servants  are  very  apt  to  run  to  extremes. 
Cattle  as  brought  up  will  require  examining  for  insect  pests,  and  it 
is  a  safe  plan  to  wash  all  with  Little’s  non-poisonous  dip  before  bringing 
them  into  the  yards.  Warble  and  ringworm  are  nasty  things  to  have 
amongst  beasts,  and  prevention  is  better  than  cure,  whilst  these 
diseases  can  be  more  easily  dealt  with  when  the  animals  are  in  small 
1  enclosures. 
