PEOCEEDINGS AT GENEBAL MEETINGS. 21 



-coTifsideralile numlDer of years, and they knew that Dr Anderson was highly qnalified 

 for the work devolving upon him ; but if they were to take a sheet of pajier with 

 two columns, and put on one side the money paid to Dr Anderson by the Society, 

 and on the other the practical result, he thought that these two columns would pre- 

 sent a strange contrast. Tliat should make them cautious about spending their 

 money in that way again. He moved as follows :—" The meeting having had sub- 

 mitted to it by the Directors a re]iort on the Chemical Department, approves of the 

 arrangements, in so far as explained in the report, for organising and carrying on 

 •experimental stations of the kind described in the Society's memorial to the Board of 

 Trade, and for a period of seven years, if the Directors and Society see lit, but disap- 

 proves of the proposal contained in the report to appoint a chemist for the Society, 

 it being understood that whenever chemical analyses are required, or chemical advice 

 wished for in connection with the exiserimental stations or otherwise, the Directors are 

 empowered to empiloy or consult qualified agricultural chemists practising in any part 

 of the country." 



Mr Milne Home of Wedderburn seconded Mr Wilson's amendment. He was sorry 

 to ditt'er from the Directors on this point. He had all liis life felt the immense benefit 

 of the application of cheniistiy to agriculture, and he was one of those who assisted 

 in establisliing the Agricultural Chemistry Association, which brought Professoi- 

 Johnston to this country ; but he, like his friend Mr Wilson, deprecated being tied 

 hand and foot to one individual whom they were to appoint and Iceep as long as lie 

 held office for a particular salary, without any guarantee l)eing obtained as to tlie 

 amount of work lie was to perform for the society. They knew well what hap- 

 pened during the past four years. Unfortunately Dr Anderson, for whom he had 

 the greatest possible respect, got into bad health, and for two years drew his salary 

 without doing anything for tlie Society ; and his assistant, Mr Dewar, to whom l)e 

 had listened in tlie Royal Society with nurch admiration, had told them in a letter 

 -which he recently published that he was not so much an agricultural as a scientific 

 •chemist. Accordingly, his papers before that Society had not been on agriculture. 

 He had not devoted his attention to that part of the snliject. They liad, therefore, 

 been paying for two years L. 1,000 to^these two gentlemen, and they had not had a bit 

 of work done for the special benefit of the Society. That was a system they should 

 avoi<l in future. There were chemists who devoted themselves to organic and otliers 

 to inorganic chemistry. The Society reejuired sometimes the one and sometimes the 

 other; and if theyj, tied themselves up to one man, they dejirived themselves of 

 having the best means of advice tliey could acquire. The two reasons assigned in the 

 report for the permanent appointment scarcely met his view. Tlie first was that the 

 Directors were desirous of carrying on researches on all subjects connected with 

 agricultui'e. He would be glad to know what guarantee there would be for such 

 researches further than by the terms of the engagement, imder which they appointed 

 the chemist at a salary of L. 300, andjeft him to carry on such investigations and 

 researches as he could find time for? Then as to the chemical analyses of the soil and 

 products at the experimental stations, the Directors could get all that information in 

 the way which he and Mr Wilson had pointed out. He had consulted on this jioiiit 

 the highest agricultural authority in Britain, Mr Lawes of Rothamstead— a gentleman 

 who had for twenty or thirty years had more experience in carrying on experiments in 

 the field than any other gentleman in Britain, and who had made discoveries that 

 were likely to revolutionise the whole agriculture in Scotland and in England. He 

 said they should wait until they saw the result of their experimental stations, and that 

 if they found it necessary they should employ a chemist — an outsider, and not an 

 officer — and request him to make such analyses as they required. He was most 

 highly delighted with the fact that these experimental stations were about to bt; 

 estabiished in different parts of the country. His proposal wouhl be that the L.3(i() 

 should be disposed of in this way — L.lOO should be reserved for the purpose of carrying 

 on any chemical analyses that miglit be required in connection with these stations ; 

 -another L.lOO should be set apart to assist such stations as they had heard of in Jlr 

 Macdonald's letter, and from Colonel Innes of Learney, and L.lOO for rewarding any 

 chemist wlio came forward and made any important researches or discoveries in the 

 previous year. 



Mr Melvin, Bennington, said that it occurred to him that this matter was not yet 

 ripe for settlement, and that it should still be continued. When Mr Dundas proposeil 

 in January that this matter be deferred until the present meeting, Mr Maclagan of 

 Pumpherston, who seconded the motion, stated that it would be his objectlo apply to 

 the Foreign Office, through Lord Derby, and obtain information from those countries 

 on the Continent where experimental stations had been formed. Lord Derby, he 

 believed, favourably received the application, and had, through tlie consular agents, 

 •obtained reports from those countries. He understood that Mr Maclagan had received 

 a large bundle of them, and he tliought they should be in the hands of the Directors, 

 and examined, before any conclusion was come to. The proposal of having no chemist 



