44 report — 1859. 



or by the top-dressing with wheat-manure an increase of 12^ bushels ; and by 

 that of guano an increase of 13 bushels of corn was obtained at an expense 

 of£l 125.6c?. 



5. The larger supply of a mixed mineral and ammoniacal fertilizer gave 

 an increase of 17 bushels of corn and 9 cwt. of straw over the yield of the 

 undressed plot. 



It will thus appear — 



1. That nitrates applied by themselves materially increase the yield of 

 both straw and corn. 



2. That the admixture of salt to nitrate of soda is beneficial. 



3. That ammonia and nitrogenized matters, which proved ineffective or 

 even injurious in relation to turnips grown on a similar soil on which the 

 wheat was grown, had a most marked and decidedly beneficial effect upon 

 the wheat-crop. 



In conclusion, I would observe that I purpose to record the effect of the 

 top-dressings used in the preceding experiments upon the succeeding crops. 



Report on the Aberdeen Industrial Feeding Schools. 

 By Alexander Thomson, Esq., of Banchory. 



The study of the possible prevention of crime has of late years received much 

 attention, though not yet so much as it deserves and requires ; nor are the 

 principles on which alone crime can be prevented hitherto fully and generally 

 known and admitted. 



One very important movement in connexion with this subject originated 

 in Aberdeen, and it seems appropriate to lay before the Statistical Section of 

 the British Association, when met in Aberdeen, a brief statement of the 

 origin and results of the Aberdeen Industrial Feeding Schools, and of the 

 principles on which they were established and have been conducted. 



The origin of these schools was very simple : they arose out of a felt 

 necessity. 



Crime in all the large towns of Britain had been visibly increasing for 

 many years in a ratio exceeding that of the increase of the population ; a 

 distinctly-marked class or race of criminals had arisen, causing much incon- 

 venience to society, and forcing upon thinking men the consideration of what 

 could be done to check so great an evil. 



Several instructive facts gradually became evident. The stern, harsh 

 system of punishment, long prevalent, was found to have failed alike in pre- 

 venting crime and in reforming criminals, and to have had, on the contrary, 

 the effect of hardening and emboldening in crime those who had been sub- 

 jected to it, and of thereby forming a distinct class of criminals, marked by 

 peculiar features, and highly injurious to the community. 



It was also observed that certain classes of the population produced more 

 than their numerical proportion of criminals. 



Nothing, however, attracted so much attention, from the great annoyance 

 which it caused, as the steady increase of the number of youthful offenders, 

 undeniably guilty of actions which deserved punishment, and who evidently 

 required moral and physical treatment of some sort or other, but who by 

 that which had been applied to them were only made worse until they even- 

 tually took their places, as they advanced in years, in the ranks of confirmed, 

 bold, dangerous criminals. 



