2 8o 



NATURE 



[August 31, 191 1 



distributed by the Board in accordance with the 

 general principles set out below. The total maximum 

 sum which will be expended when the scheme is in 

 full operation will be about 50,000/. per annum. 

 The scheme provides for — 



(1) A system of agricultural research which will secure 

 for each group of the problems affecting rural industry a 

 share of attention roughly proportional to its economic 

 importance. 



(2) The concentration of the scientific work on each 

 group at one institution or at institutions working in 

 combination. 



(3) Grants for special investigations for which provision 

 may not otherwise be made. 



(4) The grant of scholarships with a view to the increase 

 of the number of men fully qualified to undertake agri- 

 cultural research. 



(5) The carrying out of investigations into problems of 

 local importance, especially those involving the application 

 of modern research to local practice, and the provision of 

 scientific advice for farmers on important technical ques- 

 tions. 



Subjects of Research. 



In making arrangements for the separate investi- 

 gation, so tar as possible, of each group of allied 

 subjects the commissioners and the Board have been 

 impressed with the importance of securing con- 

 tinuity in work which is necessarily of considerable 

 duration, and at the same time of providing stalls of 

 specialists and experts who will be permanently en- 

 gaged on work arising from the investigation of the 

 same group of problems. By this means concentra- 

 tion and economy of effort will be better secured than 

 it would be if a number of institutions were dealing 

 at the same time with the same group of problems. 



It is neither desirable nor possible to prevent all 

 overlapping or duplication of work, but it is obvi- 

 ously necessary to proceed on a plan by which re- 

 search work subsidised from public funds will not be 

 unnecessarily duplicated. It is also desirable to 

 arrange that each problem shall be undertaken bv the 

 institution best fitted to deal with it, and usually by 

 the institution which has specially devoted its atten- 

 tion to problems of an allied nature. 



It is also important to avoid the giving of undue 

 attention to one part of the field of agricultural re- 

 search, to the exclusion of other parts which are of 

 equal scientific and economic importance. 



With these considerations in view, it has been 

 arranged that grants should be made for research in 

 the following groups of subjects : — 



(1) Plant physiology. 



(2) Plant pathology and mycology. 



(3) Plant breeding. 



(4) Fruil growing, including the practical treatment of 

 plant diseases. 



(5) Planl nutrition and soil problems. 



(6) Animal nutrition. 



(7) Animal breeding. 



(8) Animal pathology. 



(9) Dairying. 



(10) Agricultural zoology. 



(11) Economics of agriculture. 



Special Grants fur Research. 

 A sum not exceeding joooJ. per annum will be 



available for assistance in respect of special investiga- 

 tions for which provision is nol oth rwise made. 



Grants from this fund will be made on the recom- 

 mendation oi tie- Board's Advisory Committee on 

 Agricultural Science, which will consider, not only 

 whether the proposed investigation is desirable in 

 itself, but whether if could nol be better carried out 

 ai one oi the special research institutions referred to 

 Th. -rant, will he made from vear to vear, 

 and will be for one year onlv in each case. 



J 183, VOL. 87] 



Scholarships. 



In order to secure the services of a number ol care- 

 fully trained men for work in connection with the 

 scheme, the Board proposes in each of the years 

 1911, 1912, and 1913 to offer twelve scholarships of 

 the value of 1501. per annum, tenable for three years. 



It is proposed that candidates for scholarship 

 should be selected by a special committee, represent- 

 ing the institutions in which the selected candi- 

 dates will subsequently work. The award of twelve 

 scholarships will be conditional on a sufficient number 

 of thoroughly suitable candidates presenting them- 

 selves. 



Local Advice and Investigations. 



Grants will also be made to certain universities, 

 university colleges, and agricultural colleges in Eng- 

 land and Wales, for the purpose of enabling them to 

 supply scientific advice to farmers on important 

 technical questions, and to carry out investigations 

 into problems of local interest, which can be more 

 conveniently studied on the spot than at one of the 

 research institutions. 



By means of these grants it is hoped to provide 

 an expert staff possessing both scientific and practical 

 qualifications, the members of which will devote 

 themselves to solving difficult local problems, and in 

 other ways endeavour to secure the application of 

 science to practice. 



THE RECOGNITION OF PALEOBOTANY. 



IN The Times of August 24 a correspondent appeals 

 for the adequate official recognition of paleo- 

 botany in Britain, and suggests that "some million- 

 aire, anxious to be of service to his day and 

 generation" might "do a unique and serviceable deed 

 in endowing this neglected but important science." It 

 is indeed strange, though true, that there is no 

 professorship or lectureship in palaeobotany in any of 

 our universities, Cambridge alone having an ill-paid 

 demonstratorship ; and hitherto there has been no 

 special curatorship of fossil plants even in the British 

 Museum. This country only takes an honourable 

 place in the promotion of the science at present be- 

 cause a few distinguished men of private means, and 

 some enthusiastic students working in the midst of 

 other duties, are devoted to it ; and also because the 

 actual occupants of the chairs of botany in Cam- 

 bridge, London, and Manchester happen to make it 

 their chief line of research. 



When, however. The Times correspondent com- 

 pares the general recognition of paleobotany in 

 Britain and the British possessions with that which 

 it receives in other countries, his statement is 

 weakened by a tendency to special pleading. The 

 distinguished professor of the Swedish State Museum. 

 who is mentioned as "decorated with Royal Orders," 

 is not merely a palaeobotanist, but also a great geo- 

 grapher, the hero of several important Arctic expedi- 

 tions. The United States Geological Survey may be 

 well equipped for the study of fossil plants; but it 

 should be added that no more important and funda- 

 mental contribution to palaeobotany has emanated 

 from America during recent years than that of the 

 assistant curator of a university museum who pursues 

 hi- researches in the intervals of many other duties. 

 The Canadian Geological Survey may not have a 

 palasobotanisl en its permanent staff; but it does not 

 fail to recognise the importance of fossil plants when 

 necessity arises, and it is employing a professional 

 palseobotanist on special service at the present time. 



Finally, the statement that "our country, with all 

 Iter colonies anil dependencies, with their thousands 

 of square miles of coal-bearing, fossil plant-bearing 



