514 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION B. 



ments, equipped with the means of experimental workin;^, are only now in process 

 of organisation. One of the most recently orgauised of these is that of the 

 Transvaal which, at Lord Milner's initiation, has been completely equipped on 

 the lines of that model for all such effort, the agricultural department of the 

 United States. This department has as its chief chemist Mr. Herbert Ingles, of 

 the Yorkshire College, now the University of Leeds. 



If we are to compete successfully with foreign countries it is necessary that 

 the position of science in relation to tropical agriculture should be definitely 

 recognised. The days when a botanical garden served the purpose of an entire 

 scientific establishment in a Colony have passed away, and we now require, in 

 order that a proper return should be obtained, and the natives assisted in their 

 agricultural practice, a scientific department with a proper complement of specially 

 trained oflicers, including a consulting chemist, other specialists being added to 

 the staff as the requirements arise. These officers should be remunerated on a 

 scale likely to attract some of the best educated men from this country, which is 

 at present far from being the case. 



It would be out of place to discuss here the detailed organisations of these 

 scientific departments. I merely desire to urge the necessity of their functions 

 being extended, and of their receiving adequate financial support. 



It is important that the scientific work which is being accomplished by 

 these various departments should be brought to a focus, and that the results 

 obtained in one Colony should be available for the information of the departments 

 in other Colonies. The work of all such establishments requires to be unified by 

 co-operation with a Central Department which can extend the investigations con- 

 ducted in the Colonies, carry out investigations and inquiries which cannot be 

 undertaken on the spot, maintain the necessary touch with the manufacturers, and 

 co-ordinate the wori undertaken and the results obtained in each of the separate 

 Colonial establishments and systematically collate it, so that each maybe aware 

 of the results that are being obtained in other countries. In our African Posses- 

 sions at present the same investigations and inquiries have to be conducted inde- 

 pendently, and often without the knowlege that the problem in question has been 

 already solved. 



Another increasingly urgent duty of the Central Department is to inform 

 the Colonial establishments of the results of the work which is being conducted 

 in foreign countries, and of the progress which is being made in the utilisation of 

 raw materials all over the world, and to bring to their notice the constantly 

 changing requirements of the manufacturers and users of raw materials. 



So far as botany is concerned, this co-ordination has been to a large extent effected 

 through the agency of the Royal Gardens, Kew, which is in touch, through the 

 Colonial Office, with all the botanical gardens in the Crown Colonies and Protecto- 

 rates. In chemistry, as well as in certain other subjects, these duties have been per- 

 formed in recent years by the Scientific and Technical Department of the Imperial 

 Institute, which is now working in co-operation, not only with the Governments 

 of the Crown Colonies and Protectorates, but also with those of several of the 

 eelf-governing Colonies, and also with the Scientific Departments which have been 

 brought into existence in India, where at last the importance of scientific 

 agriculture is receiving due recognition from the Government. 



So little has hitherto been done in this direction that the number of problems 

 'requiring attention is exceedingly large ; and even with a specially trained staff of 

 workers and extensive laboratories, such as now exist at the Imperial Institute, it 

 becomes necessary to select as the principal subjects for investigation those which are 

 regarded by the Governments of the countries concerned as of the most practical im- 

 portance, and in which the British manufacturer is at the moment most concerned. 

 There must therefore remain a large number of materials of unknown com- 

 position and of problems of purely scientific interest which offer an attractive field 

 for the chemical investigator. Already steps have been taken to provide for the 

 investigation of these subjects by scientific men who are willing to undertake 

 them m communication with the Institute. For example, Mr. A. (}. Perlun, 

 F.K.S., has been furnished with material which has led to the identification and 



