ABSTRACT
The Duke of Bedford (Hastings Russell) offered the use of land on his estate at Woburn and funds to pay the cost of direct experiment on different soils and under different conditions, provided that the Royal Agricultural Society would direct and manage them. Since 1926 the major changes and developments in the field experiments have been the adoption of the modern experimental designs developed by R. A. Fisher and his successors at Rothamsted. The chief effect sought in the original plan of the experiments was that of nitrogen, and phosphatic and potash manures were always applied together. Whether organic manures are needed to maintain the fertility of land is often discussed and an experiment was started in 1930 in which crops in a six-course rotation were supplied with inorganic fertilizers but no organic manures. In 1951 experiments to measure the value of irrigating field crops and grass leys at Woburn, and this has since continued with some modifications.
