20 PHOCEEDINGS AT GENERAL MEETINGS. 



person employed. As tlie best means of carrying out the resolution tlie Directors 

 issued advertisements, in answer to which certain applications were received. These 

 were carefully gone over by the Committee, Avho reported that none of the applicants 

 combined all the qualifications necessary for the post of chemist to the Society. The 

 Committee's report was adopted by the Directors, and accordingly a motion Avas made 

 at last general meeting that the Society should rescind the restriction imposed in regard 

 to the services of the chemist being entirely devoted to the Society. This motion was, 

 after some discussion, agreed to, the Chairman of the Chemical Committee undertaking 

 on the part of the Dii'ectors that no chemist should be appointed till there was suflficient 

 work for him to do. This resolution was by the Directors, at their meeting on the 1st of 

 November, referred to the Chemical Committee, who at their first meeting thereafter 

 remitted to the Chairman and the Secretary to look out for suitable ground for con- 

 ducting experimental stations. The Committee held a second meeting on the 27th 

 December, when it was reported as the result of the conference above referred to that a 

 letter had been addressed to a certain niimber of noblemen and gentlemen in the Lothians 

 asking if they would be disposed to afford the Society say ten acres of land and labour 

 for conducting experiments, and that favourable replies had been received from several 

 of them agreeing to do so, j^rovided they approved of the conditions on which the land 

 and labour are required. The Society having now got these offers of suitable land is 

 in a position to proceed at once to establish the experimental stations. The first 

 object being to discover whether such experimental stations can be worked so as to 

 produce adequate results, it is of very great importance that whatever is undertaken 

 should be done thoroughly and well. The present availjible funds are limited, but 

 there is little doubt that larger resources w^ould be forthcoming should it be satisfac- 

 torily shown from the working of these pioneer stations that real benefit to the agricul- 

 ture of the country can be obtained from the establishment on a permanent footing of 

 similar stations in various parts of Scotland. It should therefore be the object of the 

 Society to concentrate its efforts, and to undertake in the first instance no more than 

 can be worked with thorough efiiciency with the funds at its command. It will also 

 be to the advantage of the experiment that these pioneer stations should be very readily 

 accessible from the head-quarters of the Society. Until the Directors can ascertain 

 from practical experience the expense of forming and working these stations, they con- 

 sider it prudent that they should limit themselves in the first instance to two stations 

 — the one, say, in Mid- Lothian, and the other in East Lothian. Other stations could 

 be selected and added should the funds prove sufficient, and should it appear proper 

 to do so. As regards the size of the stations, they consider that they should be aboixt 

 10 acres each, which would enable the experiments to be carried out on a sufficiently 

 extensive scale to ensure fair average results, and they accordingly asked for plots cf 

 that size in the letters before referred to. Bearing in mind that these experimental 

 stations are being formed for the benefit of agriculture generally, and with no expecta- 

 tion on the part of the Society that they will prove remunerative in themselves, it has 

 been hoped that parties Avill be found willing to aid the Society in its endeavours, by 

 making arrangements with it in a liberal spirit ; and with such an idea in view th^ 

 Directors think that the following stipulations may be found sufficient : — The Society 

 should undertake to fence their whole plot in each case with a substantial fence, and 

 to maintain it as a thoroughly sufficient fence so long as they retain the land ; to pro-- 

 vide all artificial manures, seeds, &c. ; to pay for all labour afforded by the granters of 

 land at a sufficieut rate to be agreed on ; and to offer them all j)roduce which is over 

 and above that which may be required for seed, analysis, or experiment, at market 

 rates in cases where rent is required, and gratis when the land is given free. For its 

 own security the Society should make the fence round each plot proof against ground 

 game. The granters of land should undertake to supply labour and implements when- 

 ever called upon at a full fair rate to be agreed on ; to supply farm yard manure, also 

 at a fixed rate ; to allow their overseers to protect the plots under the Society's 

 chemist ; and to continue the occu]3ation of the plots to the Society so long as they 

 may be required for these experiments, and to relieve the Society of them at" a year's 

 notice, on condition of their being left in a state at least equal to that in which they 

 were received. ' The granters of land also to supply house accommodation, or to allow 

 the Society to put up temporary erections for storage, &c. As regards the appoint- 

 ment of a chemist to organise and superintend the stations, the Society being now in a 

 position to commence operations, the Directors propose to proceed at once to select 

 and appoint a suitable person, so that the coming season may not be lost. 



Mr JMiLNE Home of Wedderburn said he was sorry that the Committee had not 

 afforded sufficient information in the report to enable the Society to form an opinion 

 on the propriety of the stations. He agreed with the report in regard to the principles 

 on which the stations should be conducted ; but as to engaging a chemist, they were 

 not told how he was to be paid imder the arrangement by which only a portion of his 

 time was to be given to the Society. They had had the experience of a chemist paid 

 by salary and giving them only a portion of his time when they had Dr Anderson and 



