Eighty-year-old Bessie bursts into the recreation room of the retirement home.
She holds her clenched fist in the air and announces, “Anyone who can guess what’s in my hand, can take me out to dinner tonight!”
A witty, elderly gentleman in the rear shouts out, “An elephant?”
Bessie thinks a minute and replies, “Close enough!”
Sir John Bennet LawesDied 31 Aug 1900 at age 85 (born 28 Dec 1814).(1st Baronet) English agronomist who initiated the artificial fertiliser industry and founded the world's first agricultural research station. While a young man, he studied how manures improved growth of potted plants and crops. In 1842, having patented a method to make superphosphate by treating phosphate rock with sulphuric acid, he started the first artificial fertiliser factory. In 1843, Lawes opened the Rothamsted Experimental Station where he began a 57-yr collaboration with chemist Joseph Henry Gilbert. They developed modern scientific agriculture, researching animal nutrition with different fodders, and the effect on crop yields of inorganic and organic fertilisers. Some of their long-term field experiments continue to this day.« |
