SCIENCE BULLETIN, No. 22. 



The present trustees, 1922, are 



Mr. G. Valder, Under-Secretary and Director of Agriculture. 



Mr. F. B. Guthrie, chemist, Department of Agriculture. 



Mr. E. A. Southee, principal, Hawkesbury Agricultural College. 



Mr. G. W.JWalker, Lindley Walker Co-operative Grain Company, Ltd, 



Mr. H. W. Potts (late principal Hawkesbury Agricultural College), 

 Lindley Walker Co-operative Grain Company, Ltd. 



Mr. T. I. Campbell, general secretary, Farmers and Settlers' Association. 



The amount originally subscribed for the Farrer Memorial Fund has been 

 invested in interest-bearing securities, and, with the addition of an annual 

 grant received from the Government, the amount held on 31st December., 

 1921, after meeting all obligations as to scholarships, &c., amounted to about 

 .2,000. The trustees have applied the revenue from the fund towards 

 carrying out the original objects for which the subscriptions were raised. 



The first Farrer Memorial Scholar was Mr. W. L. Waterhouse, B.Sc. (Agr.),, 

 who held the scholarship in 1912-13, and undertook valuable research work 

 at Sydney University into the effects of superphosphate on our wheat-yields.* 

 The scholarship was not awarded in 1914, but in 1915 it was offered to Mr. 

 W. R. Birks, B.Sc., of the New South Wales Department of Agriculture. 

 Mr. Birks, however, elected to join the A.I.F. for active service abroad, and 

 was thus not able to avail himself of the scholarship. 



During the war no aws.rd was made, but the Farrer Research Scholarship 

 for 1919 was awarded to Mr. 3. P. Shelton, scientific cadet in the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, for two years' research work at Cambridge and an 

 American University, with further extension of the scholarship if necessary. 

 It is of interest to note that Miv Shelton held the first Government Farrer 

 Scholarship at Hawkesbury Agricultural College. In the year in which he 

 secured his diploma he was dux of the college. He then secured a scientific 

 cadetship in the Department of Agriculture, and in due course obtained his 

 degree of B.Sc. (Agr.) Mr. Shelton returned from America in 1921, and is 

 now employed in plant-breeding work in,the Department, so that the utmost 

 value is being obtained from his research work abroad. 



No further award of the scholarship was made, but the trustees propose 

 inviting applications for another research scholar at an early date. 



A short statement by Mr. 3. P. Shelton, B.Sc. (Agri.), Farrer Research 

 Scholar, gives a brief and interesting review of his scientific investigations 

 and experiences in England and the United States : 



On being appointed Farrer "Research Scholar for 1919, I left for England in June of 

 that year in order to take up work with Professor Biffen, the noted English plant- 

 breeder. The British Ministry for Agriculture has for the past fifteen years maintained 

 at Cambridge University a national plant-breeding Institute of which Professor Biffen is 

 director. 



The institute is charged with the work of plant-breeding and selection in cereals, 

 potatoes and root crops for the whole of England. It developed from work undertaken 

 privately by Professor Biffen in 1901 as an investigation of the application to cereals of 



* The results of this investigation were piiblished as a Special Science Bulletin by 

 the Department of Agriculture (Science Bulletin, No. 10, July, 1913, " The Effect of 

 Superphosphates on the Wheat-yield in New South Wales"). 



