I70 



NA. TURE 



[June 24, 1897 



founded during Her Majesty's reign. At the same time 

 the establishment of similar institutions in other localities 

 is encouraged by the promise of grants to them also 

 under certain specified conditions. But in relation to 

 our advance in this direction, it is a matter of regret to 

 all friends of the higher education that the so-called 

 University of London, which was established in the year 

 before Her Majesty came to the throne, is not yet a 

 University in the true sense. Is it too late to hope that 

 the Jubilee year may yet be signalised by bringing 

 London in this matter up to the level of the smaller cities 

 of the world ? 



In still another direction an important advance must be 

 noted. We refer to the inclusion of men of science among 

 those upon whom the Sovereign confers distinction for 

 services rendered to the State. More than forty years 

 ago the Queen expressed her desire to include among her 

 Privy Councillors two distinguished men of science, and 

 yet, owing to one cause and another, the conferring of this 

 distinction upon a man of science did not take place till 

 a few years ago, when Huxley was enrolled among 

 the members of that body. There are signs that 

 the opinion is rapidly growing that if the function of a 

 Privy Council is to give wise counsel in the nation's need, 

 the increased utilisation of science in every part of the 

 national machinery, whether it deal withthie arts of peace 

 or war, renders it not only desirable but necessary that 

 the ranks of the Privy Council shall be strengthened 

 in this direction. There can be little doubt that in a not 

 distant future the Lords of the Committee of the Privy 

 Council who deal with matters concerning science will 

 contain among them many members of the Royal 

 Society. 



There is also another matter to be considered in re- 

 lation to the Queen's reign. It is the steady increase in 

 the usefulness, the utilisation, and the dignity of the 

 Royal Society. This throws an ever-increasing responsi- 

 bility upon its Officers, Council and Fellows, among 

 other things in the selection of their successors. 



Other vast fields of activity are gradually and neces- 

 sarily being added to the original ones of discussion and 

 publication, and wisdom as well as knowledge is now 

 essential in the proper direction of its energies. The 

 view, therefore, still held by some, that the Society is a 

 kind of superior college of preceptors of a strictly limited 

 number of branches of knowledge, is rapidly disappearing 

 as Her Majesty's reign continues. 



At the present time, on the one hand, the Government 

 does not hesitate to consult the Society when need arises, 

 and, on the other, it rarely refuses to accede to demands 

 made upon it to assist research in various directions 

 where the State influence or machinery, or both, can be 

 utilised. The memorable voyage of the Challenger and 

 various eclipse expeditions are excellent cases in point. 

 The gigantic work recently undertaken by the Society 

 in organising the production of an International Cata- 

 logue of Scientific Literature has only been rendered 

 possible by the sympathy and assistance of the Govern- 

 ment ; and the more similar works of large grasp the 



ociety is connected with in the future, the more 

 respected British science will be all the world over, for 

 the responsibility of the Royal Society is no longer 

 confined to these islands. 



NO. 1443. VOL. 56] 



DUCAL HUSBANDMEN. 

 A Great Agricultural Estate, being the Story of the 



Origin and Administration of IVoburn and Thorney. 



By the Duke of Bedford. Pp. 254. (London : John 



Murray, 1897.) 

 First Report on the Working and Results of the Woburn 



Experimental Fruit Farm. By the Duke of Bedford 



and Spencer Pickering, F.R.S. Pp. iv -f 194. (London: 



Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1897.) 



ONE is tempted to believe that agriculture has been 

 in the blood of the Russell family not only by in- 

 heritance, but by heredity. It has been to the Earls and 

 Dukes of Bedford what politics has been to some families 

 and drink to others — a deadly recurrent outbreak. It 

 apparently began with a lady, the wife of the third Earl, 

 who, according to Sir William Temple, contrived '' the 

 perfectest figure of a garden " at Moor Park. Her off- 

 spring in successive generations have been famous 

 improvers of estates, plantations, fields and gardens. It 

 was John, the fourth Duke, who in defiance of the 

 remonstrance of the celebrated Philip Miller, his gardener, 

 thinned his famous plantation of pines and firs, and so 

 that there might result no injury to Miller's reputation as 

 a planter, caused a board to be fixed in the plantation, 

 facing the road, on which was inscribed, " This plantation 

 has been thinned by John, Duke of Bedford, contrary to 

 the advice and opinion of his gardener." The draining^, 

 planting and experimenting has gone forward almost 

 continuously from the time when Francis, the fourth Earl, 

 devoted attention, capital and reputation to draining the 

 fen lands. The great drainage works of the Romans, 

 maintained by the monks of Thorney, Crowland, Ely, &c., 

 had fallen out of repair by the end of the sixteenth 

 century, and " it was only on the maps that the rivers [of 

 the fen country] ran into the sea" when he undertook the 

 task afresh. The reward for this, as related by the pre- 

 sent Duke, was that Charles I. sent Earl Francis to the 

 Tower, and his son Earl William, who incurred the 

 enmity of the Parliament during the Civil War, had his 

 estates sequestrated for a time. But through bad times 

 and good the Bedfords have been of like mind with Sir 

 Walter's Laird of Dumbiedikes, who, on his death-bed, 

 remarked, "Jock, when ye hae naething else to do, ye 

 may be aye sticking in a tree ; it will be growmg, Jock, 

 when ye're sleeping." The present Duke has, fortunately 

 both for science and practice, not only maintained the 

 famous Woburn experiments, but has broken out in a 

 new place with the establishment of a splendid experi- 

 mental fruit farm, designed quite as much for purely 

 scientific as for economic ends. With the scientific 

 advice of Mr. Pickering, who in this matter also appears 

 to his fellow scientific workers in a new character, this 

 great garden has been laid out and the work of record 

 begun. Even in these first years results of interest 

 appear, but they are small compared with what future 

 generations will reap. It is difficult from this first Report 

 to gather more than admiration of the plan ; but those 

 who have seen the fruit farm, cannot fail to have carried 

 away the conviction that it is one of the most notable 

 experiments in rural economy now in progress. 



In addition to this solid service, his Grace has compiled 

 a statistical account of the management of the estates of 



