PROCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 19 



" That the duties of the chemist shall be — 



" To conduct investigations, researches, and experiments on such subjects connected 

 with agricultural chemistry which may be necessary, and prepare an annual report of 

 "the same for the Society's Transactions. 



"To institute a series of carefully conducted field experiments. 



" To make all the necessary analyses required for such expei'iments. 



" To examine the records or rej^orts of the field experiments kept by the agricultural 

 inspector, draw conclusions from them, taking into consideration the meteorological 

 ■condition of the station, and prepare them for publication in the Society's Transactions. 



" To report the work done in the laboratory to the half yearly General Meetings of 

 the Society, and, in analysing for members of the Society, to report any cases of gross 

 adulterations of manures and feeding stuffs that may have come imder his notice. 



"That the field experiments, or open ground practical work, be under the inspection 

 of the agricultural inspector, whose duties shall be — 



"To superintend and conduct all field experiments undertaken by the Society. 



" To be responsible for the proper, cultivation of the land, and see that when experi- 

 ments are alike, uniformity, as far as possible, be observed at all the stations. 



" To keep comjilete records of the experiments during their progress and to their 

 comjiletion, noting the peculiarities of soil, climate, altitude, and rainfall, and the 

 mode in which the land has been worked. 



"To furnish the chemist from time to time with copies of these records. 



" The Directors find that the Society has at its disposal for the purposes of the Chemi- 

 cal Department and field experiments, a sum of L.700, which they recommend should 

 be set aside for a period of seven years. 



' ' In carrying out this recommendation they suggest that the L. 700 should be expended 

 as follows : — 



Chemist's salary, L. 300 



Agricultural insjiector's salary, ....... 150 



Travelling expenses of inspector, ....... 50 



Amount for stations— say four of about 5 acres each, . . . 200 



L.700 



" After appointing a qualified cheniist and an agricultural inspector competent to 

 institute ar. I carry on such experimental stations, it w-ill be the first duty of the Directors 

 to make the necessary arrangements with proprietors or tenants for the use of suitable 

 land in diffenent districts of Scotland, for a term of years, and for the services of the 

 work-people and horses on the farms for the proper cultivation of the land, providing 

 all manures, seeds, &c., required for experiments. 



"It will afterwards be the duty of the cheniist and the agricultural inspector to 

 frame and complete a detailed scheme on the methods of conducting stations fitted to 

 the different localities where they are to be placed, and on the objects which should 

 first be made sulijects of research, and submit the same to the»Directors. 



'' The Memorial adopted at the General JMeeting in January last to the President of 

 the Board of Trade, urging on the Government the expediency of establishing agri- 

 cultural experimental stations in different districts of Scotland, was duly forwarded, 

 but the Directors at their meeting in February resolved to ask the Board of Trade to 

 delay submitting it for the consideration of Her Majesty's Government, as they were 

 then preparing the scheme now suggested, and which they thought should accompany 

 the Memorial. To this request the Board of Trade readily complied. 



"The Directors now consider that it would be advisable that a deputation from the 

 Society should wait on Government to submit this scheme and explain their views in 

 greater detail than was done in the Memorial. 



" They trust, from the great value and importance of the subject, that Government 

 will be disposed to provide for the scheme the same sum as the Society, or a larger 

 amount, in which case the Society would be enabled to have a greater number of experi- 

 mental stations, and on a more extended scale." 



Sir Thomas moved the adoption of the report. 



The Secretary read the following communication from Mr R. Macdonald, Cluny 

 Castle, Aberdeen:—" Askernish House, South Uist, Lochmaddy, June 9, 1875.— Dear 

 Sir,— When I left Cluny Castle I intended to be back in time to be present at your 

 General Meeting in Edinbiirgh, to be held on the 16th inst., so as to make an applica- 

 tion for a money grant towards the establishment and maintenance for three years 

 of three agricultural experimental stations, representing— (1) Light sharp soil, such 

 asDeeside, Aberdeenshire; (2) loamy soil, such as the Vales of the Don orDeveron; 

 and (3) stiff clay soils. I may state that proprietors ami tenants in the counties of 

 Aberdeen, Banfl^, and Kincardine have already subscribed upwards of L. 600 to be dis- 

 triViuted over three years, and the most of the committee api)ointed are members of the 

 Highland and Agricultural Society. As your Society have repeatedly, by resolutions at 



