A YORKSHIRE NATURALIST 179 



in the neighbourhood, and as these visits not in- 

 frequently bring the members into districts where 

 no branch has hitherto been organised, the stimulus 

 given by the gathering very frequently leads to one 

 being formed. On one of these occasions, whilst I 

 was in the presidential chair, we took the excursionists 

 to Malton, where there was as yet no Society, but 

 being among friends, and as there was in the town 

 a small museum sustained by a few active naturalists, 

 I had no difficulty in persuading the Maltonians to 

 establish such a branch. They only consented to do 

 so on condition that I would become its president, 

 which I promised to do. This of course involved 

 my running over to Malton from time to time, to give 

 the young Society an address on some scientific 

 subject. 



On one of these occasions, being in the midst of 

 an agricultural district, I selected for my subject the 

 manuring of the land. Brought up in the midst of 

 the Yorkshire farmers near my native town, I had 

 long been convinced that their land was inadequately 

 manured, and some of the German botanical writers 

 on plant feeding had given me further scientific light 

 on the subject. They demonstrated that the larger 

 the amount of manure the soil contained, the more 

 the plants took up. There might already be present 

 more than the plants absolutely needed, if they 

 absorbed all there was within their reach ; but this 

 was precisely what they did not do, consequently 

 they were benefited by a superabundance. On one 



