44 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



are made by Native States, the Irrigation Department 

 and private persons. The number of such specimens 

 examined is about Jth of what it formerly v^as. This 

 section of the work is now nominal and does not seriously 

 interfere with other work. 



14. Students. — Three students, two from the Punjab 

 and one from Eastern Bengal and Assam, attended for a 

 course in general chemistry from October 1908 till 

 March 1909. These were all students taking the general 

 course in agriculture. In June 1909, one student came 

 to be trained as Analytical Assistant to the Agricultural 

 Chemist of Bengal. 



15. Establishment. — Mr. J. N. Sen, M.A., senior 

 laboratory assistant, was, on the opening of the College 

 in July 1908, appointed teaching assistant. Mr. D. B. 

 Darab Sett, B.Sc, resigned his appointment to take up the 

 post of Senior Assistant to the Agricultural Chemist, 

 Burma. Mr. S. C. Kar took his M.A. degree at Calcutta 

 University. Mr. D. N. Chatterjee, B.A., B.Sc, and Mr. 

 C. S. Rama Aiyer, B.A., were appointed Junior Assistants. 

 All the establishment have worked well and given great 

 satisfaction. 



16. Programme for 1909-10. — The programme of work 

 for the coming year is chiefly a continuation of that de- 

 scribed in the foregoing report which may be briefly sum- 

 marised as follows : — 



(1) Maintenance of drainage records. 

 {2) Determination of the rate at which water is lost 

 by soils. 



(3) Ascertainment of the water requirements of 



plants. 



(4) Investigation of the work on the availability of 



plant food in soils. 



(5) Investigation of the nature of the dark colour 



of black cotton soil. 



The investigation of nitrification in Indian soils will 

 be taken up if possible. 



