NATURE 



[July 27, 191 1 



An interim application was considered bj the com- 

 missioners at their meeting held on March 15, when it 

 ivas resolved : — 



(a) To recommend an advance of a sum not exceeding 

 4000Z. for the purchase of a dredger, on the production 



uisfactory tenders for the approval of the com- 

 missioners. 



(b) To postpone consideration of the application in 

 respect of Ballinagoul until the next meeting, for the pro- 

 duction of plans of the proposed works. 



Summary and Conclusion. 



It will be gathered from this brief review of their 

 action that during the first nine months of their opera- 

 tions the commissioners (and also, they believe, the 

 Government departments most concerned with the Develop- 

 ment Fund) have been largely occupied in necessary pre- 

 liminary work. Although they have received under the 

 Act but a small proportion of the applications actually 

 made to the Treasury, yet it must be remembered that the 

 settlement of a comprehensive scheme for such a purpose 

 as agricultural research is in practice equivalent to dis- 

 posing of many individual applications ; and for reasons 

 already stated, that procedure, though apparently slow, is, 

 in the commissioners' view, the only ultimately satis- 

 factory method of dealing with schemes for several at 

 least of the purposes mentioned in the Act. 



The sums of which the commissioners have either recom- 

 mended the allocation, or agreed to recommend it so soon 

 as satisfactory schemes are framed, amount roughly to 

 165,000!. per annum, and 100,000/. non-recurring 

 advances. By far the larger proportion of this expendi- 

 ture, if ultimately approved by the Treasury, will go 

 in agricultural research and instruction, viz. England 

 and Wales 105,000!. per annum, Scotland a lump 

 sum of 6o,ooo£. and 5000/. per annum, Ireland 9000!. per 

 annum. 



These figures do not take account of the considerable 

 sums, of which no definite estimate can yet be given, but 

 for which schemes were either being prepared or were 

 under examination by the commissioners at the close of 

 the year, e.g. forestry in England and Wales, the purchase 

 of a demonstration area in Scotland and the establishment 

 of a central school of forestry, the development of 

 Irish fisheries and fishery harbours, and the encouragement 

 of the organisation of cooperation throughout the United 

 Kingdom. Nor do they take account of applications which 

 had not reached the commissioners, though known as 

 having been made, or about to be made, to the Treasury — 

 as, for instance, schemes for the development and improve- 

 ment of British fisheries and of Scotch harbours ; nor, 

 again, of possible expenditure on such projects as the 

 revival of the flax and hemp industries, the encourage- 

 ment of tobacco and beet cultivation, or the establishment 

 of an institution for the study of rural economics. 



In the first nine months of their work the com- 

 missioners, so far as the] rned, have allocated 

 and, as they think, rightly allocated, one-third of the 

 annual income guaranteed to the Development Fund for 

 five years. Out of the two-thirds which now remain they 

 hope to provide during the coming year for considerable 

 annual expenditure on such purposes as forestry and 

 forestry instruction and the organisation of cooperation ; 

 and it cannot be supposed that expenditure on the put - 

 with which they have already dealt ought to or 

 will remain stationary at the amounts provisionally fixed. 

 Looking to these farts, they cannot but feel some appre 

 hension thai unless Parliament comes to the aid "I the 

 fund its position in a very few years will not be a 



They will, however, be far more able to form an 

 opinion on this important question at the end of the 

 financial year 1911-12, by which lope that all 



the applications hitherto made to the Treasury will have 

 reached them from the Government departments, that con- 

 siderable schemes known to be in preparation will have 

 been submitted, and that the inquiries which they are 

 making into surli subjects as flax, hemp, and tobacco 

 Hon will hrv the point of 



completion. 



NO. 2178. VOL. 87] 



XOTES. 



On Saturday last, July 22, nineteen aeroplanes started 

 from Brooklands, near Weybridge, in a race for which a 

 prize of 10,000!. was offered by The Daily Mail. The 

 specified route was a circuit of Great Britain, with a 

 number of landing-places, or control stations, at each of 

 which a descent had to be made ; these places, with their 

 distances in miles from one another, were : — Brooklands 

 to Hendon, 20 ; Hendon to Harrogate, 182 ; Harrogate to 

 Newcastle, 6S ; Newcastle to Edinburgh, 93 ; Edinburgh 

 to Stirling, 31 ; Stirling to Glasgow, 22 ; Glasgow to 

 Carlisle, 86; Carlisle to Manchester, 103; Manchester to 

 Bristol, 141 ; Bristol to Exeter, 65 ; Exeter to Salisbury 

 Plain, 83 ; Salisbury Plain to Brighton, 76 ; Brighton to 

 Brooklands, 40; total distance, 1010 miles. The first 

 section of the race was covered by J. Y^drines in 

 19m. 48s., and ten other airmen accomplished the journey 

 in less than half an hour. On Monday morning the 

 following machines and pilots started from Hendon for 

 Edinburgh, with official control descents at Harrogate and 

 Newcastle: — J. Yedrines, Morane-Borel monoplane; Lieut. 

 Conneau (" Beaumont "), Bleriot monoplane; J4 Valentine, 

 Deperdussin monoplane ; G. W. Hamel, Bleriot mono- 

 plane ; S. F. Cody, Cody biplane; H. J. D. Astley, Birdling 

 monoplane; C. Howard Pixton, Bristol biplane; Lieut. 

 R. A. Cammell, R.E., Blenot monoplane; O. de Monta- 

 lent, Breguet biplane ; C. T. Weymann, Nieuport mono- 

 plane ; C. P. Pizey, Bristol biplane; G. Blanchet, Bn 

 biplane; B. C. Hucks, Blackburn monoplane; Lieut. H. 

 Bier (and passenger), Etrich monoplane ; Lieut. H. R. P. 

 Reynolds, R.E., Howard Wright biplane; E. Audemars, 

 Bleriot monoplane. 



Yesterday afternoon, when we went to press, two air- 

 men, namely, "Beaumont" and Verlrines, had reached 

 Brooklands, having completed the circuit, and it was 

 announced that the prize had been awarded to 

 "Beaumont." The race was a severe test of the 

 efficiency of aeroplanes and their control by the pilots. 

 The circuit of 1010 miles had to be completed without any 

 airman changing his engine or aeroplane. Five parts in 

 each aeroplane and five in each engine were stamped, and 

 at least two parts in each case had to be in place at the 

 end of the race, the object of the contest being to 

 encourage the construction of trustworthy and enduring 

 flying machines. That it should be possible for airmen to 

 travel over such an extended course of strange country 

 with nothing but maps and compasses to dire, 1 them i-. 

 however, a remarkable achievement, independent of the 

 capabilities of the aeroplanes. No doubt much experi- 

 mental data and mathematical investigations will be 

 required before aeroplane architecture can reach the posi- 

 tion of naval architecture, but meanwhile aviation 

 engineers and pilots are bringing us nearer that conquest 

 of the air which will be the distinguishing characti 

 of the present century ; and one of the historic events of 

 this era of aerial navigation will lie the trying contest 

 u liii li has just l" n concluded. 



We gather from a circular lately received that a testi- 

 monial honour of Sir Patrick Manson, 

 K.C.M.G., F.R.S international memorial was an 

 on by Prof. Blanchard, of the Faculty of Medicine, 

 Paris, and with him are associated the names of mm 

 known in trop It was felt, however, that it 



would ill be ic S I B ' ; 1 ires did they 



not . ome foi ward 1 ; > spei ial appreciation of 



the work he has done in the field of tropical medicine. 

 I h, intei na I is pi oposed to take the form 



