14 PEOCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



sion of opinion ou tlie part of the Directoi-s that the site of the house in George Street 

 is desiralile, and tlie price fair ; and tliat if the Society's Cliambers are to be moved to 

 a suitaljle position in the New Town, the expense of nialciug the change will in all 

 probaljility be increased by further delay. 



New Members. — The list of candidates for admission as Members at the General 

 Meeting was submitted. 



Finance. — Abstracts of the accounts for 1874-75 were submitted and signed, in terms 

 of the bye-laws, by two members of the Finance Committee and by the aviditor. 



Chemical Department.- The following report by the Special Committee was 

 read : — 



Remit to Cmiiviittee. — " It was remitted to a committee — con-sisting of Sir Thomas 

 Buchan Hepbuni, Bart., convener ; Mr Pettigrew Wilson of Polquhairn ; MrSwinton, 

 Holyn Bank ; and Mr Walker of Bowland— to draw up a report for the consideration 

 of tlie next meeting of the Board 'with reference to the resolution by the General 

 Meeting in June on the establishment of agricultural e.xperimental stations." 



Documents svhmitted in Committee. — 1. Report to General Meeting, 16th June 1875. 

 2. Kesolution by General Meeting. 3. Proposals by Colonel Junes of Learney. 4. 

 Letter from Mr Macdonald, Chiny Castle. 5. Proceedings of the AVjerdeenshire Agri- 

 cultural Association. 



Report by Committee. — In terms of the above remit, your committee met on the 22d 

 of December, when the various documents were -taken up seriatim, and received the 

 most careful consideration. 



1. —Report to Oeneral Meeting. — Your committee find that the report to the General 

 Meeting was in the following terms : — [This appears in the Report of the General 

 Meeting on 16th June 1875.] 



To the above report your committee can see no possilile objection, though no doTibt 

 there are details which the Directors may find it necessary to rearrange ; but at present 

 they do not see any reason to alter it. 



2. — Re.iolutioii by Oeneral Alerting. — The resolution passed by the General Meeting 

 on 16th June was in the following terms : — " The meeting having had submitted to it by 

 the Directors a report 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 fit ; but disapproves of the proposal con- 

 tained in the rej^ort 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 experimental stations or otherwise, the Directors are empowered to employ or 

 consult qualified agricultural chemists practising in any part of the country." Your 

 committee are glad that the General Meeting approved of the organisation and carrying 

 on of agricultural experimental stations. They cannot, however, help expressing their 

 regret at the result of the vote taken at the General Meeting, whereby it was resolved 

 by the small majority of three to discontinue the services of a permanent chemist 

 attached to the Society — an office which had existed for twenty-eight years. Your 

 committee would add that the resolution had been in substance -jireviously moved at a 

 meeting of Directors, and negatived by all the members except the mover. No doubt the 

 resolution gives the Directors power to employ the services of chemists resident in any 

 part of the country when required. But your committee cannot reconnuend the adop- 

 tion of these experimental stations without in the first place selecting a chemist 

 thoroughly trained in scientific research, whose duties it shall be, along with the agri- 

 cultural inspector, to confer with the Directors, or a committee of them appointed for 

 the purpose, in drawing up the regulations and conditions under which these stations 

 are to be conducted, and who, from being an officer of the Society, would take a deep 

 and lively interest in their success. By the resolution which apjjroves of part of the 

 Directors' report, they are required to institute a system oi experimental investigations 

 at several stations to be selected by them, with the view of testing tlie relative values of 

 diff'erent climates, soils, and moiles of cultivation, manuring, cropping, &c. This was 

 precisely what the Directors proposed to do, guided and aided by a scientific chemist 

 in whom they would have confidence, but the resolution referred to debars tliem from 

 engaging the continuous services of such an officer. Now, both at the very outset and 

 throughout the whole of their proceedings in this matter, it appears to your committee 

 that the Board requires the constant advice of a chemist who shall be responsible for 

 the scientific conduct and results of the experiments to be undertaken. Such an officer 

 would be required to a.scertaiu among other facts — (1.) the constituents of the soil of 

 the several stations ; (2.) the constituents of the manures intended to be applied to 

 each particular crop ; and (3.) he will afterwards have to ascertain what portion of each 

 manure the particular crop has taken up, what remains in the ground after the crop is 

 removed, how much of the manure has been carried of liy drainage or other causes, 

 and if any of the manures combining chemically with other substances have become 

 unavailable for the food of plants. Your committee would repeat that it is their 



