eriments._

Before doing so, it is fitting that reference should be made to the work
and experiments of two living English chemists, who have done much to
contribute to our knowledge in every branch of the science--viz., Sir
John Lawes, Bart., and Sir J. H. Gilbert, F.R.S.

The fame of the Rothamsted experiments is now world-wide; and no single
experiment station has ever produced such an amount of important work as
the magnificently equipped research station at Rothamsted. The
Rothamsted station may be said to date from 1843, although Sir John
Lawes was engaged in carrying out field experiments for ten years
previous to that date.[17] In 1843 Sir John Lawes associated with
himself the distinguished chemist Sir J. H. Gilbert, and the numerous
papers since published have almost invariably borne the two names. The
expense of working the station has been borne entirely by Sir John Lawes
himself; who has further set aside a sum of L100,000, the Laboratory,
and certain areas of land, for the continuance of the investigations
after his death. The fields under experimentation amount to about fifty
acres. By a Trust-deed, which was signed on February 14, 1889, Sir John
Lawes has made over the Rothamsted Experimental Station to the English
nation, to be managed by trustees.

It is impossible to enter, in any detail, into the nature and scope of
the Rothamsted experiments.[18] It may be stated that, since the year
1847, some eighty papers have been published on field experiments, and
experiments on vegetation; while thirty papers have been published
recording experiments on the feeding of animals.[19]

What has all along characterised these valuable experiments has been
their practical nature. While their aim has been entirely scientific,
the scale of the experiments and the conditions under which they have
been carried out, have been such as to render them essentially
_technical_ experiments. For this reason their results possess, and will
always possess, a peculiar interest for every practical farmer.

The greatest services the Rothamsted experiments have rendered
agricultural chemistry have been the valuable contributions they have
made to our knowledge of the function of nitrogen in agriculture; its
relation in its different chemical forms to plant-life; and the sources
of the nitrogen found in plants. Researches of a most elaborate nature
have been carried out on what is still one of the most keenly debated
questions of