life in every phase of its development. With a skill that has been unprecedented, he has recorded from year to year the variations in the growth of every kind of nutritious plant. He has examined into the meteorological conditions, the variations of climate, of soil, and of mineral agents, of drainage, and of every conceivable thing affecting the production and development of plant growth. These memoirs are admitted throughout the world to be unique in their importance. Wherever the chemist or the physiologist, the statistician or the economist has to deal with these problems, he must turn to the results of the Rothamsted experiments in order to understand the position of the science of our time. These results will be for ever memorable; they are unique and characteristic of the indomitable perseverance and energy of our venerated President, Sir Henry Gilbert."
The close association of Lawes and Gilbert in the Rothamsted experiments makes it almost impossible to separate the work of the two men. The majority of the 132 papers issued from Rothamsted between 1843 and 1901 appeared under the joint names of Lawes and Gilbert, and it would be as difficult as it is undesirable to attempt an analysis of this partnership. It was essentially a partnership devoid of any jealousy, and actuated by a feeling of mutual regard and esteem. There never was a question as to the "predominant partner." The two workers formed an unique combination, each supplying some deficiency in the other. Lawes possessed the originating mind and had a thorough knowledge of the facts and needs of practical agriculture; Gilbert was the exact scientist, the man of detail and method. Dr J. A. Voelcker, who speaks of Gilbert as his life-long friend and teacher, says, "The partnership and collaboration of 'Lawes and Gilbert' represented an excellent embodiment of the motto 'Practice with Science.' Lawes was essentially the practical agriculturist quick to see and grasp what the farmer wanted, and to become the interpreter to him. He was the man to whom the practical farmer turned, the one to write a brisk article on some subject of agricultural practice or economy, to answer a practical question, or to solve some knotty problem. Lawes was the more versatile of the two, the more inclined to introduce changes in and modifications of the
