480 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
November  22,  1900. 
Trade  Catalogues  Received. 
B.  E.  Cant  &  Sons,  Colchester. — Boses. 
W.^W.  Johnson  &  Son,  Ltd.,  Boston,  Lines. — Peas. 
Tlie  Experimental  Work  of  Sir  J.  B.  Lawes. 
We  ;think  we  may  fay  that  the  first  experiments  on  which  Sir 
John  engaged  were  in  connection  with  bones.  They  are  a  valuable 
manure,  but  at  the  time  of  which  we  write  their  qualities  with  respect 
to  various  crops  were  an  unknown  qumtity.  By  means  of  several 
hundred  tests  Sir  John  came  at  the  root  of  the  matter  and  demonstrated 
when,  how,  and  where  bones  would  be  of  value.  As  we  said  before, 
he  was  the  first  to  treat  the  bones  to  a  dose  of  sulphuric  acid.  This 
acid  let  loose,  as  it  were,  the  manurial  properties  of  the  bone,  and 
made  them  more  easily  available  for  plant  life.  We  import  now  about 
half  a  million  tons  of  phosphates  that  will  produce  nearly  double  that 
amount  of  superphosphates,  such  is  the  growth  of  this  industry. 
At  one  time  we  may  fairly  say  the  four-course  system  prevailed 
throughout  the  farming  world.  That  system  answered  as  long  as 
prices  were  good  and  rent,  wages,  and  other  expenses  not  excessive, 
but  a  time  has  come  when  if  we  are  to  make  money  at  all,  or  rather 
not  to  lose  what  we  have  made,  we  must  not  stick  to  the  old  four- 
course,  it  is  too  hampering,  too  expencive.  Two  white  crops  in 
succession  were  penal,  but  two  white  crops  can  be  grown  in  succession, 
and  well  grown  provided  we  know  how  to  do  it.  There  is  a  field  at 
Eothamsted  called  Broadbalk  in  which  Wheat  has  been  grown  for 
fifty-seven  years  in  succession,  without  manure,  with  farmyard,  with 
artificials.  This  field  proves  that  Wheat  can  be  so  grown  with  good 
results  provided  the  land  is  kept  clean  and  the  requisite  manu  e 
applied.  The  average  yield  of  the  unmanured  plot  from  1852  to  1897 
was  nearly  13  bushels  per  acre,  or  more  than  the  average  yield  of 
U.S  A.,  inclusive  of  their  rich  prairie  land,  and  the  average  of  the 
world’s  Wheat  growing  lands.  It  was  proved  that  min' ral  manures 
alone  gave  little  increase,  nitrogenous  alone  more  than  mineral,  but  a 
mixture  of  the  two  more  than  either  s  paranly.  One  mixture  beat 
the  farmyard  manure.  Farmyard  manure  is  only  limited  in  quantity, 
whereas  artificials  are  only  limited  by  the  purse. 
Part  of  the  park  was  set  apart  fir  experiments  on  grass.  There 
is  grass  and  grass,  and  it  is  p  ositively  certain  that  much  grass  would 
be  materially  improved  by  systematic  manuring.  Btock  does  not 
give  back  in  manure  all  that  it  takes  out.  There  must  be  a  supplement 
of  some  sort.  And  if  stock  will  exhaust  land,  what  about  continual 
mowing  ?  It  perhaps  has  not  occurred  to  everyone  that  weeds  may 
abound  in  grass  quite  as  freely  as  in  arable  land.  Weeds  are  always 
“matter  in  the  wrong  place.”  They  need  not  exist,  and  should  not 
take  the  place  of,  and  crowd  out,  good  herbage  plants. 
Now  we  shall  speak  in  lull  of  these  grass  experinaents  because 
they  are  of  such  immense  value.  The  permanently  unmanured  piece 
was  largely  composed  of  weeds  found  in  poor  meadows — produce 
of  hay  about  1  ton  per  acre.  Ammonium  salts  did  not  increase  the 
cr.  p,  but  nearly  all  the  weeds  were  gone.  The  grass  here  was  dark 
in  colour.  Fairly  luxuriant  herbage,  mingled  with  Vetch  and  Clover, 
was  the  lesult  ot  potassium  salts  and  phosphates.  Ammonium  salts, 
potash,  and  phosphates  disposed  of  all  weeds  and  Clovers,  and  their 
place  was  taken  by  h  aw  crops  of  flowering  Grasses,  yielding  from 
2^  to  3  tons  per  acre.  There  are  twenty  of  these  plots  under  close 
observation,  and  undergoing  different  courses  of  treatment.  Who 
shall  estimate  the  value  of  these  observations  ? 
But  Sir  John  did  not  by  any  means  confine  his  attention  to  plant  life. 
The  growth  of  crops  is  only  the  half  of  a  farmer’s  business.  He  has 
stock  to  raise  for  breeding  purpose^,  for  feeding  purpose’s,  for  draught 
purposes.  To  secure  any  sort  of  a  profit  he  must  have  quick  returns. 
Early  maturity  is  the  cry,  and  this  early  maturity  must  be  achieved  by 
a  minimum  of  food.  To  find  out  how  to  do  this  experiments  were 
begun  as  early  as  1847.  Tons  upon  tons  of  valuable  food  have  been 
wasted  because  people  had  no  notion  of  the  constituents,  and  tried 
to  build  up  flesh  and  fat  with  wrong  materials.  There  are  some 
breeds  of  oxen  and  sheep  that  yield  to  generous  treatment  speedily — 
that  is,  they  are  of  so  kindly  a  nature  that  they  will  get  fat  while 
other  stock  are  only  just  in  a  thriving  condition.  Here  is  a  way  of 
helping  the  farmer’s  pocket,  and  the  consumer’s  likewise.  But  it 
is  not  from  the  butcher’s  point  of  view  alone  that  these  experiments 
were  and  are  so  valuable.  Meat  is  not  the  only  yield.  There  is  the 
manure,  which  is  of  immense  value,  and  what  Sir  John  aimed  at — 
1,  was  to  find  a  food  that  fattened  iquickly ;  2,  and  also  a  food  that 
imparted  to  the  manure  the  highest  possible  value.  Such  results  are 
not  arrived  at  without  years  of  patient  experiment. 
The  papers  and  reports  on  the  Rothamsted  experiments,  published 
by  Sir  John  Lawes  and  Sir  Henry  Gilbert,  are  innumerable,  and 
embrace  every  subject  that  can  be  of  interest  to  every  class  of 
cultivator,  big  or  little,  and  we  are  not  going  beyond  bounds  when  we 
say  that  many  of  these  papers  will  be  ranked  in  coming  times  as 
foremost  among  agricultural  classics. 
We  hear  a  good  deal  about  “unexhausted  improvements.”  If  ever 
a  man  knew  anything  of  the  subject  it  was  this  man,  and  on  it  he 
spoke  and  wrote  as  one  having  intimate  knowledge  of  the  possibilities 
of  the  improvements.  A  lifetime,  and  that  a  long  one,  is  not  enough 
to  workout  the  full  series  of  gigantic  experiments  inaugurated  by  him. 
He  lived  for  posterity,  and  that  posterity  should  not  be  the  loser  at  his 
death,  he  left  the  munificent  sum  of  £100,000  for  the  continuation  of 
these  experiments.  Is  not  this  a  man  of  great  public  spirit  ?  Is  not 
this  something  like  a  benefaction  ? 
In  1854  agriculturists  were  wishful  to  show  some  appreciation  of 
Sir  John’s  en  leavours  for  the  benefit  of  scientific  farming,  and  instead 
of  purchasing  plate  the  testimonial  took  the  unusual  form  of  a 
laboratory ;  and  truly  a  place  of  work  and  diligent  research  it  has 
proved.  In  1893,  the  worker  never  having  ceased  his  efforts,  it  was 
felt  that  something  must  be  done  to  commemorate  the  jubilee  of  the 
Rothamsted  experiments.  A  rough-hewn  granite  boulder  with  a  short 
but  terse  inscription  was  erected  in  front  of  the  laboratory  at  Harpenden, 
and  a  portrait  by  Herkomer  were  the  outcome  of  this  feeling.  He  was 
a  man  whom  kings  delighteu  to  honour;  we  will  go  a  step  further, 
and  say  a  man  whom  all  learned  societies  valued,  and  that  is  perhaps 
higher  praise.  Learned  societies  alone  can  form  some  estimate  of  a 
scientific  life  work.  They  know  it  has  necessitated  close  and  constant 
application — we  were  going  to  say  “  hard  ”  work — but  we  doubt  if 
that  word  should  be  applied  to  a  labour  of  love,  for  it  can  onlv  be 
when  a  man  is  enamoured  of  his  subject  that  he  will  give  himself  up 
heart  and  soul  to  it  for  fi  ty-seven  years. 
This  is  a  poor  and  inadequate  testimony  ;  only  one  laurel  leaf,  as  it 
were,  laid  on  the  cofiSn.  If  ever  a  man’s  works  lived  after  him  this 
man’s  do,  and  make  for  him  a  memorial  that  Time  cannot  destroy. 
Work  on  ttie  Rome  Farm. 
The  weather  still  keeps  open,  though  there  is  a  touch  of  frost  in  the 
air,  and  we  must  expect  a  change  before  long. 
We  do  not  grow  many  Carrots,  but  they  are  a  very  fine  crop, 
probably  twenty  tons  to  the  acre;  the  wet  weather  which  ruined  the 
Potatoes  was  just  what  the  Carrots  liked.  This  crop  is  grown  very 
largely  on  a  sandy  belt  a  few  miles  away,  and  reports  are  very 
satisfactory  both  as  to  quantity  and  quality.  The  roots  are  very  clean 
and  good.  Owing  to  the  mild  season  the  crop  has  been  allowed  to 
grow  later  than  usual,  bub  it  is  now  being  stored.  Prices  are  falling, 
and  good  stuff  is  hardly  worth  SOs.  per  ton  on  rails. 
The  earlier  sown  Wheats  are  well  up,  and  show  thickly  in  the  row. 
The  land  is  fairly  firm,  bub  if  the  present  drying  winds  should  make 
another  rolling  possible  the  opportunity  must  be  made  use  of,  for  we  do 
not  know  how  long  we  may  have  to  wait  for  another  chance. 
The  land  has  dried  very  much  since  last  week,  surprisingly  so  for 
November,  and  ploughing  is  now  being  accomplished  under  perfect 
conditions.  It  is  a  case  of  all  hands  to  the  plough,  and  the  work  will 
soon  be  finished.  The  next  two  items  will  be  Swede  storing  and 
manuring  seeds  for  next  year’s  Potatoes.  The  ley  will  have  to  be 
ploughed  deeply  in  December,  and  the  muck  must  be  on  and  well 
spread  before  then. 
To  grow  Potatoes  properly  a  large  amount  of  yard  manure  should  be 
used,  or  to  put  it  differently,  nothing  gives  a  better  return  for  muck 
than  does  the  Potato  crop,  but  it  is  undesirable  to  put  twenty  loads  per 
acre  in  the  furrows  when  planting.  The  better  plan  is  to  apply  a  good 
dressing  now,  and  plough  it  in  with  the  turf,  giving  another  dressing  at. 
planting  time  if  the  manure  is  available. 
We  fear  there  is  too  much  avoidable  waste  of  labour  on  many  farms. 
We  have  observed  just  now  two  striking  examples  of  loss  through  want 
of  balance  in  a  farm  gang.  One  instance.  One  man  to  empty  baskets, 
fill  bags,  weigh,  carry  away  offal,  and  generally  wait  on  seven  women 
sorting  Potatoes.  With  a  second  man  the  women  would  have  done 
twice  the  work.  Another.  An  old  man  and  a  young  lad  on  the  stack 
on  thrashing  day,  the  machine  doing  70  per  cent,  of  the  work  it  might 
do,  and  the  full  force  of  men  in  other  positions  doing  the  same 
proportion  and  having  an  easy  time.  £1  worth  of  work  lost  for  the 
sake  of  saving  2s.  or  23.  6d.  What  splendid  economy  ! 
