86 ADDRESS TO THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION, 1881. 



masters have to contend with ; nevertheless, when we 

 consider what science has done and is doing for us, we 

 cannot but consider that our present system of educa- 

 tion is, in the words of the Duke of Devonshire's Com- 

 mission, ' little less than a national misfortune.' 



In Agriculture the changes which have occurred in 

 the period since 1831 have been immense. The last 

 half- century has witnessed the introduction of the mo- 

 dern system of subsoil drainage founded on the experi- 

 ments of Smith of Deanston. The thrashing and 

 drilling machines were the most advanced forms of 

 machinery in use in 1831. Since then there have been 

 introduced the steam-plough ; the mowing-machine ; 

 the reaping-machine, which not only cuts the corn but 

 binds it into sheaves ; while the steam-engine thrashes 

 out the grain and builds the ricks. Science has thus 

 greatly reduced the actual cost of labour, and yet it has 

 increased the wages of the labourer. 



It was to the British Association, at Glasgow, hi 

 1841, that Baron Liebig first communicated his work 

 ' On the Application of Chemistry to Vegetable Phy- 

 siology,' while we have also from time to time received 

 accounts of the persevering and important experiments 

 which Mr. Lawes, with the assistance of Dr. Gilbert, 

 has now carried on for more than forty years at Rotham- 

 sted, and which have given so great an impulse to 

 agriculture by directing attention to the principles of 

 cropping, and by leading to the more philosophical 

 application of manures. 



I feel that in quitting Section F so soon, I owe an 

 apology to our fellow-workers hi that branch of science, 

 but I doubt not that my shortcomings will be more than 



