September 16, 1922] 



NA TURE 



399 



ment it has been urged that association with other 

 students tends to divert a certain number of agri- 

 cultural men to other subjects. But it is probable 

 that an agricultural department of a university tends 

 to attract more men than it loses. The courses 

 provided in university departments of agriculture are 

 intended for the education of future landowners, land 

 agents, and large farmers, but for investigators it is 

 found best that they should pass through an honours 

 school in pure science before taking up the study of 

 the application of science to agriculture. The report 

 lays special emphasis on the need for the study of 

 accountancy, which in its application to costs of 

 production may be a powerful instrument in deter- 

 mining the economic success of a farm. 



It is pointed out that the cost of providing the 

 necessary staffs in a university or college is now so 

 great that it is impossible for each college to provide 

 highly specialised instruction in every branch of 

 agricultural education, but that extreme specialisa- 

 tion must be left to individual colleges. Again, 

 tutorial instruction and encouragement of private 

 reading are urged as a means of relieving pressure 

 on formal lectures, and so of keeping down 

 expenses. 



While agricultural departments in universities and 

 agricultural colleges are the agency of providing 

 instruction to prospective landowners, large farmers, 

 and public servants, the needs of the ordinary farmer's 

 son are best supplied through farm institutes. The 

 latter have been developed in recent years as the result 

 of the recommendations of Lord Reay's Committee 

 which in 1905 strongly urged their creation. These 

 farm institutes are under the authority of County 

 Councils, directed by the Ministry of Agriculture. 

 An agricultural education committee having been set 

 up, it submits its scheme to the ministry, and this, if 

 approved, is supported by grants. The staff of an 

 institute consists in most cases of an organiser, a 

 director of agriculture, and certain teachers. The 

 county organiser is usually the head of the farm 

 institute, and towards his salary the ministry may 

 contribute as much as four-fifths. It also pays annual 

 grants up to two-thirds of the total general expendi- 

 ture. Classes are provided as a rule for twenty-four 

 weeks during winter, at a time, namely, when young 

 farmers can leave their farms and devote their time 

 to study. While a certain amount of manual train- 

 ing is possible at farm institutes, it is recognised that 

 the best place for getting such instruction is on the 

 farm of the student's father. The teaching of science 

 is in close contact with practice, and is concerned 

 principally with such subjects as varieties of crops, 

 methods of cultivation, rotations, manures and 

 feeding stuffs, principles of feeding and breeding, 

 dairying, poultry, and farm book-keeping. Such 

 farm institutes have been established in Cumberland, 

 Essex, Hampshire, Carnarvonshire, Monmouthshire, 

 Cheshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire, Somerset, 

 Staffordshire, Suffolk, and Denbigh, while others 

 are contemplated in Durham, Kent, Carmarthen, 

 West Sussex, and the Holland Division of Lincoln- 

 shire. 



Besides providing instruction for students, the 

 colleges and institutes are intended to serve as 

 advisory centres for farmers generally. Such ad- 

 visory officers are usually specialists in plant patho- 

 logy, botany, chemistry, and general agriculture, and 

 to these farmers are encouraged to turn in case of 

 difficulty. This they are doing in increasing numbers 

 every year, and one of the most gratifying features 

 of the present position is the disappearance of pre- 

 judice on the part of cultivators to education and 

 science. 



NO. 2759, VOL. I IO] 



University and Educational Intelligence. 



Aberdeen. — Mr. G. P. Thomson, lecturer in 

 mathematics at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, 

 has been appointed professor of natural philosophy in 

 succession to Prof. C. Niven, who has retired. 



Leeds. — The honorary degree of Doctor of Science 

 has been awarded to Prof. A. F. Holleman, of the 

 L'niversitv of Amsterdam. 



Prof. Charles Crowther has been appointed 

 Principal of the Harper-Adams Agricultural College, 

 Newport, Salop, in succession to Mr. P. Hedworth 

 Foulkes, who has been Principal since the College 

 opened in 1900. 



Ax important conference of representatives of 

 British and Swiss universities took place at Basle 

 last month. There were present fifteen delegates 

 from Great Britain and Ireland, Oxford being re- 

 presented by the Vice-Chancellor and the Warden 

 (■1 All Souls, Manchester by the Vice-Chancellor and 

 Prof. T. F. Tout, Edinburgh by Sir Richard Ledge 

 and Prof. J. Mackinnon, and Birmingham, Bristol, 

 Cambridge, Leeds, London, Wales, St. Andrews, 

 Dublin, and the National University of Ireland each 

 by one delegate. Each of the seven Swiss cantonal 

 universities was represented. At the three formal 

 sessions of the conference, held on August 22 and 23 

 in the great hall of the University, the topics of 

 discussion were the recognition by the British 

 universities of universitv entrance examinations 

 passed, university studies pursued, and degrees 

 conferred in Switzerland, and vice versa, and inter- 

 change of university teachers. Of perhaps even 

 greater importance than the formal discussions were 

 the conversations for which ample opportunities 

 were provided in the course of the numerous social 

 functions at which the visitors were entertained. 

 The Federal Ecole Polytechnique of Zurich was 

 unfortunately not represented at the conference. 

 Before the war this institution, like the cantonal 

 universities, drew a large proportion of its students 

 from other countries where economic conditions are 

 at present unfavourable to the migration of students 

 to Switzerland. Consequently there are plenty of 

 vacant places in its laboratories, which are well 

 equipped for advanced work in, for example, industrial 

 chemistry and electrical engineering. 



A provisional programme has been issued by the 

 Sociological Society, Leplav House, 65 Belgrave Road, 

 Westminster, S.W.I, of a conference on the correla- 

 tion of the social sciences, which it is proposed to 

 hold at Oxford on October 7-9. The conference will 

 not be open to the public, but invitations are being 

 issued to members of the Sociological Society and to 

 representatives of the social sciences from the uni- 

 versities of Great Britain. The object of the confer- 

 ence is to provide an opportunity for the discussion 

 by specialists of various branches of social science 

 with the view of co-ordination. Mr. F, S. Marvin 

 (history), Sir Halford Mackinder (geography), Mr. 

 Julian' Huxlev (biology), Prof. C. E. Spearman 

 (psychology), Prof. L. T. Hobhouse (philosophy), Dr. 

 K.'R. Marett (anthropology), Prof. J. E. G. de 

 Montmorency (law), and the Rev. A. J. Carlyle 

 (political science), will probably address the confer- 

 ence, dealing with the various aspects of sociology 

 named. 



