ROTHAMSTED

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 127, 25 November 1938, Page 10

ROTHAMSTED

CENTENARY PLANS

APPEAL LAUNCHED FOP

FUNDS

(By Air Mail, from "The Post's" London

Representative.)

LONDON. November 3

To mark the centenary in 1943 ot the Rothamsted Experimental Station at Harpenden, the oldest agricultural research station in tne world, a scheme of extension is to be carried out A fund of £125,000 will be needed, and an appeal was launched by the Duka of Kent at a meeting representative of agricultural interests.

The Duke said that Rothamsted's activities began nearly 100 .years ago, and its first triumph was the working out by Lawes and Gilbert of the way-. of making and using so-called artificial fertilisers. These were first made in ihe Jbarn at Rothamsted in very small quantities. Since then farmers had learned their value, and it was estimated that no less than 41,000.000 tonswere now used annually by farmers throughout the world In spite of serious foreign competition British fertiliser manufacturers had maintained a high proportion of the world's output.

Attention was being paid to methods whereby the yield of crops . might" be increased or the cost of producing them might be decreased, thus allowing better remuneration for • tha farmer and the farm worker. Experimental work of this* kind required not only a highly skilled staff but adequately equipped laboratories It was a tremendous handicap for men of science if they were not given the necessary facilities. As science developed so rapidly it was necessary that t-he laboratories should be up to date, so that the workers could give the best of which they were capable

i Agricultural progress must he 1 based on carefully ascertained facta discovered by properly conducted experiments, and it was work of that kind Rothamsted wanted to oe able to carry out The sum • required should not be beyond the resources of those interested in the development of agriculture He was glad .to announce that the. King, through the Duchy of Cornwall, had opened the fund with £100 FREEDOM FROM DICTATION.' Sir John Russell said .the proposed chemical laboratory wing would co^t £30.000. but of this the Ministry of Agriculture would provide . £14,500. Emphasising t'ne need for an endowment, fund, he said it might be asked why the Government did not provide the money If the Government did so, the Government would be in a position to dictate policy but a research I station required an atmosphere of comI plete freedom. He announced that j donations already received totalled i £32.915. ' 1 Lord Bledisloe suggested that they might well seek support for the appe3l not only within the Empire but in other countries, such as the United States of America. Denmark. Belgium, and HollandIt is proposed that the £125,000 should be allocated as follows: — Chemical laboratory new wing, £15.000: alterations to old chemical laboratory. £3000: equipment. £"000; pot culture houses and accessories, £5000; farm buildings and cottages, £4000;* forecourt, £3000; new agricultural library, with cubicles for workers. £20,000; new building for the Imperial Bureau of Soil Science and other workers associated with oversea activities, conference hall; etc., £30,000; and addition to endowment to provide upkeep of buildings, fellowships, and salary augmentations, £42.000. ' .