PROCEEDINGS OF THE CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. 387 



kind of experiments, the districts in which they were to be made, 

 and to exercise a general control over the whole, and that local 

 committees should be formed in each of the districts to advise 

 as to those circumstances .which might arise within them. The 

 Committee further recommended that the experiments should 

 in the first instance be confined within as narrow limits as pos- 

 sible, and gradually extended as occasion offered, and that 

 they should as far as possible be directed towards the eluci- 

 dation of the principles of agriculture. 



The Field Experiment Committee, which was appointed in the 

 summer of 1865, entered on their duties with a full sense of their 

 difficulty and importance. They felt that it was especially 

 necessary to proceed by cautious steps so as to ascertain by de- 

 grees the best modes of working, and to accustom the experi- 

 menters to act well together, which they could scarcely be ex- 

 pected to do at first. It was resolved that the number of districts 

 in which experiments were made should in the first instance be 

 restricted to four, and after some discussion regarding the re- 

 lative claims, the choice fell on East Lothian, Roxburgh, Forfar, 

 and Ayr, which seemed to afford as wide a range of climate as 

 possible. Circumstances having occurred by which the Com- 

 mittee had the means of having a set of experiments made in 

 W iltshire by a member of the Society well accustomed to ex- 

 periment, the opportunity was taken of having a similar series 

 of experiments made in a district so widely different in all re- 

 spects from any part of Scotland. 



The task of selecting the experimenters was undertaken by 

 the Chairmen of the Local Committees, and in this matter we 

 have been much indebted to the exertions of Mr. Hope, Fenton 

 Barns ; Mr. Roberton, Ladyrig ; Mr. Drennan, Ayr ; and Mr. 

 Goodlet, Bolshan ; through whose good offices the assistance of a 

 number of able experimenters was secured. Some of the gen- 

 tlemen who had originally undertaken to conduct the experi- 

 ments were compelled afterwards to withdraw their uames, but 

 finally the following list was arranged : — 



East Lotl dan — 



Joseph Harper, Snawdon, Gifford. 

 George Hope, Fenton Barns, Drem. 

 John Richardson, Drylawhill, Prestonkirk. 

 S. D. Shirriff, Saltcoats, Drem. 



Roxburgh — 



J. Dove, Ecclesnewton, Kelso. 



Robert Hardie, Harrietfield, Kelso. 



J. Nisbet, Rumbleton, Greenlaw, Dunse. 



