United States or Albania ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
The oldest agricultural experiment station in the world is at Rothamsted, England.
Where these five elements were supplied regularly to land on the Rothamsted Experiment Station the average yield of wheat for the thirty years, 1852 to 1881, was 35.9 bushels an acre, while 13.6 was the average yield of similar unfertilized land; and during the next thirty years 1882 to 1911 the corresponding average yields were 38 bushels an acre on the fertilized land, and 11.7 bushels where no plant food was applied.
"Sir John Bennett Lawes, the founder of the Rothamsted Experiment Station, the oldest in the world, on his own private estate at Harpenden, England, began his investigations in the interest of practical agricultural science soon after coming into possession of Rothamsted in 1834.
In the following brief notes I propose to consider in the first place the present position of the theory of nitrification, and next to give a short account of the results of some recent experiments conducted in the Rothamsted Laboratory. The Theory of Nitrification. The production of nitrates in soils, and in waters contaminated with sewage, are facts thoroughly familiar to chemists.
The Distribution of the Nitrifying Organism in the Soil. Three series of experiments have been made on the distribution of the nitrifying organism in the clay soil and subsoil at Rothamsted. Advantage was taken of the fact that deep pits had been dug in one of the experimental fields for the purpose of obtaining samples of the soil and subsoil.
The unfertilized soil at the Rothamsted station contains, in 2,000,000 pounds corresponding to about 6-2/3 inches to the acre 1000 pounds of phosphorus and 35,000 of potassium, while an acre of plowed soil of the same weight at State College, Pennsylvania, contains 1100 pounds of phosphorus and 50,700 of potassium.
J.H. Gilbert, and myself, in a recent volume of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. In the Rothamsted Laboratory, experiments have also been made on the nitrification of solutions of various substances. Besides solutions containing ammonium salts and urea, I have succeeded in nitrifying solutions of asparagine, milk, and rape cake.
But beware of the land that has been truly worn out under a good rotation, which avoids the insects and diseases of the single crop system, and also furnishes regularly a moderate amount of clover roots which decay very rapidly and thus stimulate the decomposition of the old humus and the liberation of mineral plant food from the soil. Perhaps you have heard of Rothamsted.
Betts a gold medal and there was an American gentleman who spoke and he said as how this place of Mr. Betts next to that place, Harpenden way Rothamsted, I think they call it was most 'ighly thought of in the States and Mr. Betts had done fine. And that's the cattle-station over there, miss, where they fattens 'em, and weighs 'em.
In all cases phosphorus was used for these yields. Even more encouraging than these six-year average results from Illinois are the results of sixty years from Agdell Field at Rothamsted. Barley, 42.8 bushels in 1849 and 22.1 in 1909 Clover, 5586 pounds in 1850 and 7190 in 1910. Wheat, 32 bushels in 1851 and 37.8 in 1911.
Word Of The Day