194 



NATURE 



I') 



Vote, and the other salaries and exponses of the tiovcrn- 

 ment Laboratory were charged to the Customs and Excise 



Vote. 



The Estimate for the Depiirlment of Agriculture and 

 Technical Instruction, Ireland, exhibits a net incn-asc of 

 ^<''2S3'- Of this amount, 3275/. is due to an increased 

 grant-in-aid to the Royal CollVge of Science, and 5500/. 

 to an increase in the annual grants to schools and claxses 

 of science and art and technical instruction. The sums of 

 17, OCX)/, granted from the Development Fund for the pur- 

 chase of areas of alTorfstation, &c., and 10,000/. for the 

 improvement of horse breeding, .ire appropriated in aid 

 of the Vote for this Department to cover the expenses 

 incurred for tht>se purposes. 



The total provision for education, science, and art is 

 19,141,204/., being a net increase of 468,900/. on the 

 amount voted in 1910. The Estimate for the Board of 

 Education shows a net increase of 310,840/., of which 

 229,355/. arises under grants in respect of public elementary 

 schools, 13,000/. under grants for training of teachers, 

 and 64,500/. under grants for technical institutions, schools 

 of art, evening schools, &c. 



The Estimate for Universities and Colleges, Great 

 Britain, and Intermediate Education, Wales,* exceeds that 

 for 1910-U by 64,700/., after taking into account a Sup- 

 plementary Grant of 21,000/. in 19 10. Of this increase, 

 10,500/. occurs under the subhead for Scottish Universi- 

 ties, and 50,000/. under Colleges, Great Britain. 



The Estimate for Public Education, Scotland, shows an 

 increase of 82,869/. The estimated number of scholars 

 in day schools has risen from 737,576 to 764,397 for the 

 year, and the annual grants for day scholars arc increased 

 by 64,647/. The provision for grants for continuation 

 classes and secondary schools shows an increase of 

 16,800/. 



The increase of 18,176/. in the Estimates for Universi- 

 ties and Colleges, Ireland, is due to additional grants for 

 land, buildings, and equipment for the Irish universities. 



Among the amounts required for different purposes, the 

 following are interesting : — art and science buildings, 

 Great Britain, 99,900/. ; surveys of the United Kingdom, 

 '87. 344^- ; Government chemist, 19,088/. ; Board of Educa- 

 tion, 14,375,442/. ; scientific investigation, 61,603/.; uni- 

 versities and colleges. Great Britain, and intermediate 

 education, Wales, 303,800/. ; public education in Scotland, 

 2.336,504^- ; public education in Ireland, 1,653,324/. ; and 

 universities and colleges, Ireland, 186,256/. 



A table included in the paper provides interesting in- 

 formation as to the growth of expenditure or otherwise 

 under different headings. Take, for instance, the cases of 

 the Board of Education, and the universities and colleges 

 in Great Britain and intermediate education in Wales, 

 the grants have steadily increased since 1902-3. Under 

 the heading scientific investigations there is no such 

 decided increase to record, as the following table shows •— 



1902-3 



1903-4 

 1904-5 

 1905-') 



62,932 

 87.300 

 54,484 

 53.343 



1906 7 



1907 8 

 1908-9 

 1909-10 



Grants in Session 1910 for 1910-11, ;^74,228 

 Estimates 1911-1912, ;^6i,6o3. 



56,8^8 

 53.823 

 55.349 

 83.338 



THE IMPERIAL EDUCATION CONFERENCE. 

 "^HE following representatives from the self-governing 

 dominions are expected at the forthcoming Imperial 

 Education Conference, which will be held on April 25-28 

 Inclusive .—The Dominion of Canada : The Hon. R. A. 

 Pyne, Minister of Education, Ontario, or Dr. A. H. W. 

 Colquhoun, Deputy Minister of Education. Ontario; Dr. 

 A. H. McKay, Superintendent of Education, Nova Scotia, 

 with whom will be associated the Rev. Dr. MacGill, pro- 

 fessor of philosophy, Universitv of Dalhousie ; the Hon. 

 ^eorge R. Coldwell. Minister of Education, Manitoba; the 

 Hon. Henry E. Young, Minister of Education, British 

 Columbia; the Hon. W. F. A. Turgeon, Attornev-General, 

 Saskatchewan. The Commonwealth of Australia : Mr. P. 

 Board, Under Secretary in the Department of Public 

 Instruction and Director of Education, New South Wales ; 

 Mr. C. R. P. Andrews, Inspector-General of Schools. 

 Western Australia. The Union of South Africa : Dr. 

 NO. 2162, VOL. 86] 



Thomas Muir, C.M.G., F.R.>>., mij.i rint. 1x1. i)i-«,.i),i 

 Cape of GtxxJ Hop*- ; Dr. W. J. Viljoen, Director 

 Education, Orange Free State. 



The Dominion of New Zealand will be represented : 

 the Hon. Sir William Hall-Jones, K.C.M.G., High O.: 

 missioner in London for the Dominion, and the State<i 

 South Australia and Tasmania will be represent<Hl, : 

 spectively, by the Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick, .-Xgi-nt-Gen. : 

 in London for the State of .South Australia, and the H< 

 John McCall, Agent-General in London for the State 

 Tasmania. 



The following local Governments in India have arran^ 

 to be represented as follows: — the Government of Ma<li ^ 

 by Dr. A. G. Bourne, F.R.S., Director of Public In^u i 

 tion in the Presidency of Madras; the Govcrnn 

 liombay by Mr. A. L. Covernton, principal and \<: 

 of English literature, Elphinstone College, liomb.n , 

 (}overnment of Bengal by .Mr. B. Heaton, principal of ti 

 Sibpur Civil F-ngineering College, Ii«;ngal ; the Governnii ; 

 of the Central Provinces by Mr. .S. C. Hill, late Direi 

 of Public Instruction in the Central Provinces, and M 

 C. E. W'. Jones, principal of the Morris College, Nagpur , 

 the Government of Burma by Mr. W. G. Wedderspoon, 

 Inspector of Normal Schools, Burma. 



The representation of the Crown Colonies will be as 

 follows : — Falkland Islands, Mr. T. A. \'. Best, Colonial 

 Secretary; Gold Coast Colony, Mr. J. W. Church, Director 

 of Education ; Jamaica, Mr. G. H. Deerr, Inspector of 

 Schools; Leeward Islands, Mr. H. E. W. Grant, Colonial 

 Secretary ; Malta, the Hon. Prof. Enrico Magro, Director 

 of Public Instruction and Rector of the University of 

 Malta ; Straits Settlements, Mr. H. T. Clark, principal of 

 the Malay College, Malacca ; Trinidad, Mr. George Good- 

 wille, formerly a Member of the Legislative Council. 



The conference will be attended by representatives of 

 the India and Colonial Offices and of all the Home Educa- 

 tion Departments — English, Scotch, and Irish. The States 

 of Guernsey, Jersey, and the Isle of Man have been asked 

 to nominate representatives. 



The morning sessions of the conference will be con- 

 fined to official representatives, and devoted to the con- 

 sideration by them of such matters as the various overseas 

 Governments have suggested for discussion or any delegate 

 may wish to bring before the conference. The arrange- 

 ments for the afternoon sessions will be announced later.. 

 .•\ preliminary meeting of official representatives will be 

 held on Monday, April 24, for the purpose of settling 

 finally the programme for the morning sessions of the 

 conference. 



A GRICULTURA L B ULLETINS. 

 'T'HE .'\gricultural Experiment Station of the University of 

 W'isconsin is one of the most active centres of scientific 

 work in agriculture in the United States. Problems are 

 attacked from two distinct points of view : the economic, 

 in which the object is to show how crops may be pro- 

 duced a little more cheaply than at present, and the scien- 

 tific, the problem being investigated for the sake of the 

 general principles it may bring out. Two sets of bulletins 

 are therefore issued, the popular bulletin, intended for 

 farmers, dealing mainly with local problems, and always 

 from the local point of view, and the research bulletins. 

 The popular bulletins are fully equal to any others in the 

 United States, and much ahead of anything we publish 

 here for farmers ; in the series before us the subjects dealt 

 with include land drainage, curing of seed corn, control of 

 various weeds, draft-horse judging, a discussion of the 

 methods of paying for milk at cheese factories, and so on. 

 The research bulletins are the scientific papers of the 

 staff ; as usual in the United States, each paper is pub- 

 lished separately, and there is no common journal in which 

 they all appear. 



Three of the papers referred to above deal with cheese- 

 making, perhaps the least understood of all agricultural 

 processes. Messrs. Sammis, Suzuki, and Laabs discuss the 

 factors regulating the rate at which whey separates from 

 curd in the cheese vat. High acidity, high temperature, 

 and pressure applied to the curd all facilitate rapid separa- 

 tion, but, on the other hand, variations in the proportions 

 of rennet and the time of action of the rennet have no 

 effect. In another paper Messrs. Suzuki, Hastings, and 



