16 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 
It is not my intention now to indicate how this may best be done, 
much less to dictate the steps to be taken by our Universities that 
within their halls agricultural sciences may be adequately recognized. 
I feel assured that if the governing bodies once realize that agricultural 
research work is worthy of university men—and their best men—ways 
and means will be forthcoming to find a place for it on their curri- 
cula. 
In the mean time, there is one matter that I should like to em- 
phasize; it relates more particularly to the work I am personally 
interested in—chemical work. It is the desirability of greater care 
and thoroughness in the teaching of analytical chemistry at our uni- 
versities. I speak feelingly on this subject. Perhaps it is that this 
branch of chemistry is relegated to juniors who themselves are not 
well trained; possibly the classes are too large for close supervision 
and the individual guidance of its members, or possibly that analytical 
chemistry is not the vogue of to-day or thought very highly of in our 
universities as a part of a chemical education and therefore somewhat 
neglected. But whatever the cause, the fact remains that the larger 
numbers of our honour graduates in chemistry as they leave college 
are miserable analysts. They give little evidence of having been 
carefully trained in technique and manipulation. Their use and 
handling of apparatus and the conduct of analytical work is far from 
satisfactory. We ought to expect from these men a knowledge of 
correct methods in weighing, filtering, incinerating, the use of volu- 
metric apparatus, the making and putting together of simple apparatus, 
and other every-day laboratory operations in analytical work, but 
they work as if they had ‘“‘picked up” all the knowledge they have on 
such matters. The graduates of the English and Scottish Universities, 
I am sorry to say it, exhibit much better training; at least that is my 
experience. Reliable results, I am confident, cannot be obtained ftom 
sloppy, slipshod manipulation. In agricultural research work ex- 
treme accuracy is required—the highest accuracy obtainable. In this, 
I presume, it differs from much control work in manufacturing con- 
cerns. An error of -02 per cent in the amount of available potash in 
a soil may throw us all astray in the interpretation of the data. We 
do not expect from our recent graduates a knowledge of special 
methods used in agricultural work, but we do expect that the men 
should be able to perform correctly and fairly rapidly and with good ~ 
technique those operations which form a part of all analytical pro- 
cedure. And, if I may be permitted to say it, to give the men a 
hurried course of a fortnight or so towards the close of the college term 
in which a soil, a fertilizer, a cattle food and a dairy product is “put 
through”’ is worse than useless. The experience is bad, for it means 
