THE CHEMIST AS FARMER.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 12014, 15 October 1904, Page 6

THE CHEMIST AS FARMER.

When everything possible has been said against fhe British apaihy with regard to tin application of science to indust-ry, there remains ono argument which can Im> brought to the British credit. To the experimental farm at Rothamsted, conducted* by the late Sir J. B. Lawes for many years at hw own exponf*, t-ho world owes j moro than is generally known. The pioneer in this, branch of .research, it was tie model for many similar institutions in other ports of tho world, and Uβ results still remain a. fountain of knowledge for who teach agricultural science. Its werk is a monument, of invaluable private ciiif'mrire, directed ■ by a public-spirited de.-ir;* for the benefit of-the world. When the young Squire Lawes. bignn his task, f&nning was still in the dark ages, and he and his. coadjutors had to grope their way to t<ho light- "Little was really known." remarks a writer in tlwS "World's Work," "as to tiha way in which crops obtained their nutriment and all sorts of substances—rice, starch, and what not— were tried as possible fertilising agents. One of the queerest was drawing ropee of wool, dawbed -with honey, across the ears of corn, with the notion that insects trould bo attracted, and co promote the . more complete fertilisation of the grain." Many of the paths attempted proved to be blind alleys—these, at least, served the useful purpose of showing tlve cxperhnenter< witat to avoid. It is the unique distinction ' of the BothamAtod agricultural research station that it was not only the first in the world, but that the experiments have been continued uninterruptedly, on one system, for more than sixty_ years. It was in 1842'

thai Lawes began' *y6t«nat;ic experiments ori wheal end. turnips. Beans, clover, Sowcourse rotation, «riS gww latiil followed at and «ne field which was sown in wheat sixty-two years ago, "has been a wheat field ever eince." If it divided into some twenty plots, in each of which some different kind of manuring h«e been appUek contintioualy «ver sine*. One of thesis plotew declared to bo the most extraordinary piece of cultivated ground open to the observation of the ngnoultnral student in the whole world. For sixty-two years it, has grown wheat \i rthout the aid of a single ounce of any kind of manure, and its average yield during a period covering two generations of human life, baa been thirteen bushels to the acre, "an amount equal to the average wheat yield of the world, and in esceas of the average yield of Canada and America*" ~ It is a proof of what can l>o dono by means of thorough cultivation Alongside it is a wheat plot which has received no cultivation for a number of years. 'Ifc may be termed, a wheat plot, because wheat was sown on. it, and it produced twcnly-sax bushels of wheat to the acre. The crop wae not cut, and the plot was "carefully allowed to go wild Next year the self-eeeded crop was only half what it waa the previous year, the following harvest it yielded two bushels to the aare, and in the fourt-h year after the original sowing, the wheat had entirely disappeared, giving place to grace, pixty diffonont exrts of weeds and tree seedlings. In another plot is to be wen a sixteen bushel crop of barley, grown on land that received its laet dressing of fertilisers, ordinary farmyard manure, thirty one years ago, and it is believed that a century will elapse before the effect of-Uiat one application ia exhausted.' That, however, is not an argument against the oee 'of .the ittificial fertiliseiß with which the Rothamsted ■experiments have so largely dealt, since still better results can be obtained by their use. Rothameted bns done much for farming, but muoh more remains to be done. The full importance of many of the results obtained has yet to be ascertained, and the knowledge thos gained applied to practice. The farmer, as a class, has y4t a great deal to learn about the relative value of different fertilisers for different crops/ In too many cases, apparently, he.believes one is as good as another, ond instances are.quoted of the use, for various reasons,, of fertilisers as useless,-for the purpose for which they were applied ac sulphur would be instead of sugar in one's tea, or magnesia instead of pepper on one'e meat. Kothanwted hae yet to learn the secret of "clover sickness." .: It to enxioM to make experiments on the nutrition of animals, so that it ; may arrest, :if ■'.poeriWe/..-;;.- i .-'tJie- ? present waste, in the feeding of stock. It JwanU to be able to show the farmer how to improve the quality of his grain, co that tlie British milter need not have to buy the .tardea , foreign wheate.to mix, all I things-it WieheVfto purau*i'tjie atndy of i the soil and tofind out'much- more -than! it. knows at present of *he influence <A the soil bacteria and-how they "turn the nitrogenous material in < the- soil into the nitrate upon /which corn' and roots 5 can feed." This is io a great extent unexplored country. Something \ the possibilities that lie in its thorough investigation is eeen in the fact that the Aipenonn Department of Agriculture ; can : supply farmers with bacteria in "cakes" like'jeast cakes, one of which is sufficient to "inoculate" an acre of land in need of nitrogen. Thus what has been termed the "New Stockrkeeping"— Cultivation, of beneficial, bacteria—may yet. become the most valuable work of agricultural experimental stations.', The farmer has; long ago learned to. respect;the egrioul|hxraLchemi*t t and the time when he will look upon him as absolutely indispensable—as only a little less important to a good harvest than runehfae or rain.