original plan; and he has been known to say, jokingly, that if he had been left to have his own way, he would have ploughed up many of his experimental plots before they had yielded the full results, which continuance on the old lines alone brought out. Gilbert, on the other hand, was possessed of indomitable perseverance, combined with extreme patience and careful watching of results. His was the power of forecasting, as it were, what might, in the end, lead to useful results. With the determination to carry out an experiment to the very close he united scrupulous accuracy and attention to detail. Gilbert, it may be said, was not so much the man for the farmer, but for the scientist, and he it was who gave scientific expression to the work at Rothamsted, and who established field experiments on a scientific basis in this country."
To describe in detail Gilbert's work it would be necessary to write an account of the Rothamsted experiments, a task beyond our present limits seeing that the collected reports occupy nine volumes.
The last published "Rothamsted Memoranda" gives a list of 132 papers. They are divided into two series, one relating to plants, the other to animals.
Series I. deals with "Reports of Field Experiments, Experiments on Vegetation, &c., published 1847—1900 inclusive," and contains 101 papers. These reports on plants are concerned chiefly with the results obtained by growing some of the most important crops of rotation separately, year after year, for many years in succession, on the same land without manure, with farm-yard manure, and with various chemical manures, the same description of manure being, as a rule, applied year after year on the same plot.
Amongst the numerous field experiments conducted on these lines one of the most interesting is the field known as Broadbalk field, in which wheat has been grown continuously for over 60 years. The results show that wheat can be grown for many years in succession on ordinary arable land if suitable manure be provided and the land be kept clean. Even without manure of any kind the average produce for 46 years—1852 to 1897 was nearly 13 bushels per acre, about the average yield
