352 



NATURE 



{Sept. 3. 1874 



has received. Sir William Armstrong's view is that the 

 promoters 'have a very sound claim upon the Govern- 

 ment, considering how liberally the scheme has been sup- 

 ported locally. I think it would be a very fair thing if 

 the Government, considering how much the nation bene- 

 fits from the establishment of such colleges, in every case 

 were to contribute a sum proportional to what has been 

 raised in the locality towards the attainment of the ob- 

 ject.' .... 



" We concur to a considerable extent in the opinions 

 expressed by these witnesses. The degree of success 

 which has attended the College of Physical Science at 

 Newcastle-upon-Tyne, both in the collection of local sub- 

 scriptions and in the organisation of its system of instruc- 

 tion, leads us to express with confidence the hope that by 

 further efforts of the same kind it will before long be 

 placed in a position to establish its claim to assistance 

 from the State." 



With regard to the Catholic University of Ireland, while 

 the Commission believes that it is calculated to do much 

 good to the cause of scientific education, it cannot recom- 

 mend Government to grant it any endowment. 



" On a review of the evidence," the Report 'states, " we 

 are satisfied that the establishment of the Scientific 

 Faculty of the Catholic University has not been without 

 advantage to the instruction of the Irish people, an ad- 

 vantage which might be considerably increased if this 

 faculty could be more completely organised, and its pro- 

 fessors increased in number and supplied with adequate 

 means for practical teaching. And wc have not failed to 

 observe that at the present time fresh efforts are being 

 made by the persons interested in this institution, to 

 improve and to render more widely available the instruc- 

 tion afforded by it. 



" It is also indisputable that the Catholic University has 

 received, and still continues to receive, a large amount of 

 pecuniary support. The permanency, however, of this 

 support, which proceeds, to a large extent at all events, 

 from annnal subscriptions levied by clerical agency, 

 cannot be predicted with any certainty. 



" The peculiar organisation of this institution," the 

 Report concludes, '• the religious restrictions imposed 

 upon the selection of scientific professors and lecturers — 

 restrictions the removal of which it would be idle to anti- 

 cipate ; the incompleteness of a large portion of its 

 arrangements for the teaching of science, and the uncer- 

 tainty of its income, preclude us from recommending that 

 it should receive a grant from public funds." 



The general outcome, then, of the Fifth Report of the 

 Science Commission is, that University and King's Col- 

 leges, London, and Owens College, Manchester, ought 

 certainly to receive assistance from Government, that the 

 Newcastle College is in a fair way to prove that it deserves 

 such assistance, and that it vi'ould not be advisable to sub- 

 sidise the Catholic University of Ireland, as it is at pre- 

 sent constituted. J. S, K, 



THE APPLICATION OF THE LAWS OF 

 SELECTION TO AGRICULTURE 



IN every phase of life the law of selection comes into 

 play. At one time it is natural, at another time it is 

 more or less artificial. At every time, and in every place, 

 we see evidence of the plastic character of the materials 

 on which the vital principle operates. 



In devoting my holidays to an agricultural tour in 

 England this season, I have visited several seed-growers 

 who arc conferring great advantages on the public by care- 

 ful selection of parent-plants. I can speak on this point 



with the experience which a wide range of observation 

 gives. I have myself, by selection, doubled the quantity 

 of solid matter in turnips, and nearly doubled the number 

 of seeds in ears of wheat. 



If the principle of selection were universally applied 

 with skill and care in the raising of our seed corn, what 

 an enormous increase would thereby be made to the 

 wealth of the agricultural classes of Great Britain and 

 Ireland ! 



In our agricultural live stock a series of results, 

 which are truly marvellous, have been accomplished by 

 selection. And yet the principle is understood or prac- 

 tised only by a very small percentage of our farmers. 



If any reader wishes to understand in a general way the 

 change that has been made within the last quarter of a 

 century, which is the measure of the life-time of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society of England, let him take 

 the Society's prize lists of 1839 and 1874. In the interval, 

 several new breeds of sheep and cattle have come to be 

 recognised as having distinct types. Nature has had her 

 share in the work. The soil and climate of every district 

 impress certain characters and qualities on the animal ; 

 and, in his artificial selection, the farmer preserves these 

 in whole or part. In studying, some years ago, the origin 

 of the older breeds, I was much struck with the extent to 

 which their distinctive characters were due to the natural 

 conditions under which they rose. And in a recent in- 

 quiry into the history of the newly-estabUshed breeds, 

 the same leading truth has become still plainer. 



To give point to this short paper I derive an illustration 

 from the influence exercised on the art of sheep-breeding 

 by the remarkable change which, common observation tells 

 us, has taken place in the material of garments in com- 

 mon use. I refer to the well-known fact that tweeds and 

 coarse cloths are now much more commonly used than in 

 the last generation. To meet the demand thus created 

 the farmer has produced sheep which carry wool of longer 

 staple than the old breeds. 



My argument is well illustrated in the great plains 

 in the west of Ireland, where the flock-owners have estab- 

 lished a splendid new breed, called the Roscommon 

 Sheep. In the production of this variety the breeder has 

 of course exercised his skill in selection. He crossed 

 Leicester tups of the very best English strains of blood 

 with the native ewe ; and he repeated this over and over 

 again until he obtained an animal of the type which 

 suited him. Nature aided him in his art. It may be 

 safely asserted that some of the peculiarities of the wool, 

 as well as some of the peculiar conformations of the body, 

 have been the work of Nature. And it is in retaining 

 what was so well done by Nature that the highest skill is 

 manifested. In England the best example of the argu- 

 ment is possibly afforded by the Lincoln breed of sheep, 

 which stands so deservedly high in pubUc estimation, 

 affording as it does great weight of carcase with a remark- 

 ably heavy fleece of lustrous wool. Then, again, let us 

 take the dark-shaded breeds — South Down, Shropshire 

 Down, Oxford Down, and Hampshire Down. The South 

 Down used to be more popular than it is now. It has 

 been giving way in many places to an animal with a larger 

 frame and witli a lleece longer in the staple. The first 

 that arose to displace it was the Shropshire, wliich has 

 been followed by the Oxford Down. Each of these breeds, 



