Buildings near the manor house

The Rothamsted Experimental Station, one of the oldest agricultural research institutions in the world, is located at Harpenden in Hertfordshire, England. It is now known as Rothamsted Research Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3038x2012, 1452 KB) Description: Buildings near the manor house, Rothamsted agricultural research station, Hertfordshire, England. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (3038x2012, 1452 KB) Description: Buildings near the manor house, Rothamsted agricultural research station, Hertfordshire, England. ... An agricultural experiment station is a research center that conducts scientific investigations to solve problems and suggest improvements in the food and agriculture industry. ... Harpenden is a town in the City and District of St Albans of Hertfordshire in the East of England. ... Hertfordshire (pronounced Hartfordshire and abbreviated as Herts) is an inland county in the United Kingdom and part of the East of England Government Office region. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my right) Englands location (dark green) within the United Kingdom (light green), with the Republic of Ireland (blue) to its west Languages English Capital London Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population –mid-2004...

It was founded in 1843 by John Bennet Lawes on his inherited 16th century estate, Rothamsted Manor, to investigate the impact of inorganic and organic fertilizers on crop yield. Lawes, a noted Victorian era entrepreneur and scientist, had founded one of the first artificial fertilizer manufacturing factories one year earlier in 1842. 1843 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Caricature from Vanity Fair, 8 July 1882 Sir John Bennet Lawes (1814–1900) was an English entrepreneur and agricultural scientist. ... (15th century - 16th century - 17th century - more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 16th century was that century which lasted from 1501 to 1600. ... Queen Victoria (shown here on the morning of her Accession to the Throne, 20 June 1837) gave her name to the historic era The Victorian era of Great Britain is considered the height of the British industrial revolution and the apex of the British Empire. ... 1842 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...

Appointing a young chemist, Joseph Henry Gilbert, as his scientific collaborator, Lawes launched the first of a series of long-term field experiments, some of which continue to this day. Over the next 57 years, Lawes and Gilbert established the foundations of modern scientific agriculture and the principles of crop nutrition. Sir Joseph Henry Gilbert (1817-1901) was an English chemist born at Hull on the 1st of August 1817. ...

In 1902 Sir Alfred Daniel Hall moved from Wye College to became director. Hall took a lower salary to join an establishment lacking money, staff, and direction. Hall decided that Rothamsted needed to specialise and that it needed new sources of finance. He was eventually successful in obtaining state support for agricultural research. In 1912 Sir [[John Russell] who had come from Wye in 1907 took over as director and continued in the post until 1943. Russell saw through a major expansion in the 1920s. In 1943 Russell retired and was replaced by Sir William Gammie Ogg. During Ogg's directorship which ended in 1958 the number of staff increased from 140 to 471 and new departments of biochemistry, nematology, and pedology were formed. Wye College was founded in 1447 by John Kempe, the Archbishop of York, as a college for the training of priests. ...

Many distinguished scientists have been associated with Rothamsted. In 1919 Russell hired Ronald Fisher to investigate the possibility of analysing the vast amount of data accumulated from the "Classical Field Experiments." Fisher analysed the data and stayed to create the theory of experimental design, making Rothamsted a major centre for research in statistics and genetics. Among his appointments and successors in the Statistics department were Oscar Irwin, John Wishart, Frank Yates, William Cochran and John Nelder. Indeed, many consider Rothamsted to be the birthplace of modern statistical theory and practice. Sir Ronald Fisher Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher, FRS (17 February 1890 – 29 July 1962) was a British eugenicist, evolutionary biologist, geneticist and statistician. ... A graph of a bell curve in a normal distribution showing statistics used in educational assessment, comparing various grading methods. ... Genetics (from the Greek genno γεννώ= give birth) is the science of genes, heredity, and the variation of organisms. ... Joseph Oscar Irwin (December 17, 1898 - July 27, 1982) British statistician who advanced the use of statistical methods in biological assay and other fields of laboratory medicine. ... John Wishart (28 November 1898 – 14 July 1956) was a Scottish agricultural statistician. ... Frank Yates Frank Yates (1902 - 1994) was one of the pioneers of 20th century statistics. ... William Gemmell Cochran (15 July 1909 – 29 March 1980) a prominent statistician who was born in Scotland but spent most of his life in the United States. ... John Ashworth Nelder FRS (born 8 October 1924) is a British statistician. ...

Partly through these methods, researchers at Rothamsted have made significant contributions to agricultural science, including the discovery and development of systemic herbicides and pyrethroid insecticides, as well as pioneering contributions to the fields of virology, nematology, soil science and pesticide resistance. During World War II, aiming to increase crop yields for a nation at war, a team under the leadership of Judah Hirsch Quastel developed 2,4-D, still the most widely used weed-killer in the world. Combatants Allies: Soviet Union United Kingdom United States and others Axis Powers: Germany Japan Italy and others Commanders Winston Churchill, Josef Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead: 8 million Civilian dead: 4... Judah Hirsch Quastel, British-Canadian biochemist and Companion of the Order of Canada Juda Hirsch Quastel (1899-1987), a British-Canadian biochemist who pioneered diverse research in neurochemistry, soil metabolism, cell metabolism, and cancer. ... 2,4-D (or 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) is a common systemic herbicide used in the control of broadleaf weeds. ...

In 1987 Rothamsted, the Long Ashton Research Station, and Broom's Barn Experimental Station merged to form the Institute of Arable Crops Research (IACR). The station is now operated by a grouping of private organizations under the name of Rothamsted Research and is mainly funded by various branches of the UK government through the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council. Long Ashton Research Station (LARS) was an agricultural and horticultural government research centre in the village of Long Ashton near Bristol, UK. It was created in 1903 to study and improve the West Country cider industry, expanded into fruit research (particularly apples, pears, plums, strawberries and blackcurrants), and was redirected... The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) is a British Research Council supporting several scientific research institutes and UK. Receiving its funding through the Office of Science and Technology, the BBSRCs responsibility is to increase basic knowledge and understanding in biology and develop biological technology and applications. ...

Books

• A History of Agricultural Science in Great Britain 1620-1954, by E. J. Russell (1966) London, George Allen & Unwin. Sir John Russell was director of Rothamsted from 1912 to 1943, and his book emphasises the role of Rothamsted in the development of agricultural science in Britain.
• The early directors Lawes and Gilbert, Hall, Russell and Ogg all have entries in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004).

External links

• Rothamsted Research
• Lawes Agricultural Trust
• Rothamsted Origins
• Rothamsted Manor
• "Classical Field Experiments"

Directors 1902-1958

• A. D. (Sir Alfred) Daniel Hall FRS
• E. J. (Sir John) Russell FRS photograph
• Sir William Gammie Ogg.