The washing out of nitrates by drainage water from uncropped and unmanured land

Abstract

In 1870 Lawes and Gilbert constructed the famous drain gauges at Rothamsted and commenced a series of measurements of the amount and nitrate content of water draining through uncropped and unmanured land. The essential feature of the experiment, and one wherein it differs from many others, is that the soil in the gauges is in its natural condition and has never been disturbed: the gauge was constructed by building a wall around a block of soil and then tunnelling underneath to allow of the construction of a chamber in which the collecting and measuring cylinders could be set up.