August 20, 1896] 



NA TURE 



369 



various org^anisations which were in operation before the 

 days of County Councils, but to which these latter have 

 felt it ri^'ht to hold out a helping hand. To what extent 

 these dit^erent bodies aie carryiny out the objects for 

 which they were instituted, is a fair subject of inquiry. 



In most cases evidence is fortlicoming of two main 

 lines of activity, which, though independent of eacli other, 

 are nevertheless related. These are on the one hand the 

 instruction of students, and on the other the prosecution 

 of investigations which should prove of interest not only 

 to students but to all who arc engaged in agricultural 

 pursuits. Under the first head there "is not much room 

 for novelty. The model which was set up when, more 

 than fifty years ago, a small group of far-seeing men — the 

 I'rince Consort amongst them —unfurled upon the Cots- 

 wold Hills the banner of agricultural education, is the one 

 that, consciously or unconsciously, has always been fol- 

 lowed. In all attempts that have since been made to 

 formulate a fairly comprehensixe scheme of agricultural 

 tuition, the germs of every system will be found in the 

 curriculum of the Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 

 \c\ erthclcss, this curriculum, far from being stereotyped 

 or crystallised, is and always has been susceptible of such 

 modifications as are called for by the exigencies of the 

 times, as was exemplified by the manner in which the 

 <lairying industry, at the time of its renaissance, received 

 prompt and adequate recognition. Its permanence, 

 indeed, is due to its elasticity. Many hundreds, perhaps 

 thousands, of students are now receiving in agriculture a 

 good type of technical instruction which a score of years 

 ago could be obtained nowhere else in this country than 

 at Cirencester. 



It is to that section of their work in which institutions 

 fostered by County Councils are brought more imme- 

 diately under the notice of the general public that 

 criticism may be usefully directed. Most agricultural 

 colleges and schools, and probably the agricultural 

 departments of all university colleges which possess 

 them, are engaged in pursuits which may or may not 

 deserve to be dignified by the name of research. In the 

 majority of cases, however, the work is nothing else than 

 demonstration, and it usually takes the form of differential 

 manuring experiments upon various crops in the field. 

 I'eriodically, reports are published embodying the results. 

 These are noticed in our columns, but we are not often 

 able to point to any work that rises above the level of 

 demonstration, of the same type as the example fields 

 and example crops that are conducted under Government 

 auspices in France. In most instances the results can 

 approximately be stated beforehand. If it is necessary 

 to demonstrate in a number of localities the etifects of 

 nitrogen according as it is applied to a crop in the form 

 of nitrate of soda or of sulphate of ammonia, or to show 

 the different effects of basic slag, bones, and superphos- 

 phate of lime as sources of phosphorus — to cite these as 

 simple illustrations — then, no doubt, these many-dupli-. 

 cated field experiments serve their purpose. Nevertheless, 

 they do not alter the fact that the best experimental farm 

 — the one that is capable of teaching the most useful 

 lessons- is a farmer's own occupation, for in this case 

 the conditions are known to him with, perhaps, a minute- 

 ness of detail that cannot be approached in connection 

 with field experiments in which he is hardly likely to 

 take more than a sort of academical interest. What 

 have the County Councils, through the medium of the 

 institutions to whose support they contribute, yet done 

 towards teaching the farmer to read aright the lessons 

 which he may learn all the year round in his own fields, 

 and the capacity to make correct inferences from which 

 would be invaluable to him ? 



It is noteworthy that, with hardly an exception, the work 

 of these institutions is restricted to crops and cropping. 

 The fascinating problems associated with animal 

 nutrition have mostly failed to attract them. Perhaps 



xNO. 1399, VOL. 54] 



these are considered too difficult, possibly they may be 

 thought too costly. In one or two cases the domain of 

 bacteriology has been invaded, particularly in connection 

 with dairying. A good illustration of the general cha- 

 racter of the work undertaken is provided in the current 

 report of the Board of Agriculture on the distribution of 

 grants for agricultural education. In the financial year 

 1894-95 'hs Board distributed the sum of ^7400 amongst 

 seventeen institutions. It is not very obvious why these 

 institutions and none others were selected, but it is a 

 fact that all, or most of them, are also in receipt of 

 County Council grants. It is stated that, in at least 

 twenty counties of England and Wales, " demonstrations 

 by experimental work in field plots are now under- 

 taken," and resumi's are given of the work recently done 

 at the institutions which have received grants from the 

 Board. 



Altogether it would seem that, whilst the institutions 

 under notice are undoubtedly useful as instruments of 

 agricultural education, their value in other directions 

 might be increased were their labour less diffuse. The 

 boast that a given centre has more fields of demonstra- 

 tion scattered over a larger number of counties, and that 

 its officials have travelled a greater aggregate of miles 

 in the discharge of their duties, than in the case of any 

 other centre, may be gratifying to local pride, but it is 

 not a high object to aim at. There may possibly exist 

 an ambition to make a centre a second Rothamsted, but 

 it must be remembered that it is the " continued effort 

 along a given line," associated with " the limited number 

 of lines undertaken, although the work extends over 

 fifty years," that has secured for Rothamsted its unique 

 reputation. The warning has already gone forth officially 

 to the United States agricultural experiment stations, 

 that concentration of energy upon a few specific objects 

 of investigation is preferable to the diffuse expenditure of 

 force which has hitherto characterised many of the 

 stations. There is no coordinated effort amongst our 

 own institutions ; each goes its own way, independent of, 

 and practically ignoring, the others — unless, perchance, 

 there be rivalry. A connecting link, possibly a con- 

 trolling influence, is needed. Youth is on their side, 

 and they have furnished many proofs that they are not 

 lacking in energy. Quality rather than quantity, how- 

 ever, is the goal at which they should aim in the future 

 conduct of their work. 



THE ECLIPSE OF THE SUN. 



THE bad news which we published last week regard- 

 ing the almost general failure of the eclipse ob- 

 servations is tempered by the telegrams which ha\e since 

 been received regarding the weather in Novaya Zemlya 

 and in Siberia. 



A telegram from Hammerfest reports success at the 

 former station, though details are yet lacking. As this 

 expedition was organised at the last moment, very little 

 has been said about the instruments to be employed. It 

 may be stated, therefore, that Sir G. Baden-Powell took 

 with him Dr. Stone, of the Radcliffe Observatory, who 

 proposed to make spectroscopic observations, and Mr. 

 Shackleton, one of the computers employed at the Solar 

 Physics Observatory, South Kensington, who observed the 

 eclipse of 1893 in Brazil. Mr. Shackleton was provided 

 by Mr. Norman Lockyer with a powerful prismatic 

 camera with two 3-inch prisms of 60', and careful testings 

 gave great hopes of its performance. 



It was, therefore, to be employed chiefly in investi- 

 gating the special spectrum of the corona found on the 

 photographs of 1893. As a subsidiary instrument, a 

 telescope of four inches aperture and somewhat long 

 focal length was also arranged to photograph the corona. 

 Both instruments were to be fed with light by a Foucault 

 siderostat. 



