Sanborn Field is the oldest, continuous experimental field west of the Mississippi River and the third oldest in the world.
It was established in late 1888 by Dean J.W. Sanborn, who was looking to demonstrate the value of crop rotations and manure in grain crop production. Chemical fertilizer treatments were added by the early 1900s. Many of the 38 plots have the same crop rotation today as they did in 1888. Sanborn Field is unique because of its many long-term treatments on the same soil type.
Sanborn is most famous for its role in the discovery of Aureomycin, a contemporary of penicillin and tetracyclines.
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