November 28, [918] 



NATURE 



-47 



work. The Roseworth\ Vgricultural College Ex- 

 perimental Farm in South Australia covers about 

 ... with 100 acres in permanent experi- 

 ments; the Hawkesburj College Farm in New 

 Wales extends to 3500 acre-, with more 

 than joo acres of experimental ;>l<>ts; whilst the 

 Victorian State College Farm at Dookie has an 



area of about 1 with sonic 400 acres 



1 experimental work with cereal and 



: ts. In all there are in the various 



■ s about thirt) experimental stations, with a 



total farm area ol nearly 50,000 acres, in addition 



win rous experimental orchards, vineyards, 



and other areas. 



\rmcd with this extensive equipment, the Aus- 

 tralian State and college workers have achieved 

 very substantial advances in agricultural produc- 

 tion, ol which the development ol new varieties of 

 wheat deserves special mention. Since the federa- 

 tion of the States into the Commonwealth in 1901, 

 however, there has been a growing feeling in 

 favour of a central Federal organisation to secure 

 ir co-ordination of effort and reduce the 

 lapping inevitable under the existing State 

 systems. Main important problems that are re- 

 ceiving or require attention are common to the 

 ter pari of Australia, and could obviously be 

 dealt with more effectively and with greater 

 omj of means and men by a central organisa- 

 tion than by independent investigation in the 

 I nt States. 



\ similar need has also been felt in connection 

 with other industries, and the whole movement 

 lias culminated in the recommendation by the 

 Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and 

 Industry for the immediate creation of a perma- 

 nent Commonwealth Institute ol Science and In- 

 dustry, organised purely for research, and entirel) 

 •• iated from routine administrative work. The 

 executive committee, under Prof. D. Orme 



Masson, and including other prominent agricul- 

 tural investigators, has devoted a large share of 

 its attention to agricultural research, and in the 

 final report has formulated a definite programme 

 gricultural research for the initial years of 

 ation of the institute, which includes studies 

 in soil fertility, plant patholog) and insect pests, 

 plant breeding, animal breeding and feeding, 

 animal diseases, cotton and flax growing, forestry, 

 subjects. The Advisor) Council has 

 Oi immediate at ti< >n, and the -cue 1 al 

 features of the organisation and lines of work 

 idy received the provisional approval of 

 the ( ommon wealth Government, and doubtless 



formal adoption will not long be delayed. 



Vmong the mam activities of the executive 

 imittee of the Council, spe: ial interest attaches 



to the week's conference ol agricultural men of 

 science held under its auspices in Melbourne 

 in November, [917, and reported in full in 

 Bulletin No. 7 of the Vdvisor) Council. Limita- 

 tions., I space prevent more than the briefest refer- 

 to the varied programme dealt with by the 

 conference, the topics discussed including cereal 



2561, VOL. I02] 



breeding, the acclimatisati 1 plants, the utilisa- 

 tion of Australian phosphate deposits, the tobacco 

 and sugar industries, fibre-plants, native grasses 

 and fodder plants, and crops for the production of 

 power alcohol. 



One session was devoted entirely to a general 

 .si,,n on the endowment and co-ordination of 

 agricultural research in the Commonwealth, 

 papers on the subject being read by Prof. A. J. 

 Perkins, Director of Agriculture in South Aus- 

 . 1 alia, and Prof. R. I). Watt, professor of agri- 

 culture in the University of Sydney. 



Prof. Perkins urged that the research worker 

 should be free from State control, and advocated 

 the development of agricultural research at the 

 universities rather than in the State agricultural 

 colleges. For this purpose central research institu- 

 tions, financed by the central Government, should 

 be located at the different universities. The Uni- 

 versity of Adelaide has already secured land for 

 the purpose, but financial assistance is required 

 to develop the scheme. 



Prof. Watt also emphasised the importance of 

 developing agricultural research at the universi- 

 ties, but pointed out that the rate of increase in 

 the number of trained research workers must be 

 slow, owing to the small numbers of agricultural 

 students at the universities and the consequent 

 limitations of staff. He hoped for better con- 

 ditions in this respect after the war, especially 

 if provision could be made for research scholar- 

 ships and fellowships. 



The shortage of adequately trained research 

 workers was generally agreed to be one of the 

 chief difficulties in the way of the necessary ex- 

 pansion of research activities, and a resolution 

 was adopted requesting the Advisory Council to 

 bring the need for training more research workers 

 to the attention of the universities. The difficulty 

 is by no means peculiar to Australia, and all con- 

 cerned with the promotion of agricultural research 

 will await with interest the steps taken in Australia 

 to solve this particular problem. 



REGINALD PHILIP GREGORY. 



BY the death on Sunday, November 24, of Mr. 

 Reginald Philip Gregory, from pneumonia 

 following influenza, the University of Cambridge 

 lias lost an able botanist, a man for whom young 

 and old felt a warm affection. Mr. Gregory was 

 born on June 7, 1879, at Trowbridge, Wilts ; he 

 received practically the whole of his early educa- 

 tion in a preparatory school established in 1887 

 by his mother at Weston-super-Mare, where- 

 special attention was paid to natural history. At 

 the suggestion of Prof. Reynolds, of University 

 College, Bristol, from whom he received some 

 additional training, he successfully competed for 

 an entrance scholarship at St. John's College, 

 Cambridge, in 1897. He came into residence in 

 October, [898, and in igoo obtained a first class 

 in the first part of the Natural Sciences Tripos; in 



