580 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1355 



November 5, 1920: J. W. Beede, "Geology of the 



Mackenzie River district. ' ' 

 December 3, 1920: Ira Edwards, "Geological field 



work in Wisconsin." 

 January 7, 1921: W. S. Adkins, "The Solitario." 

 February 4, 1921: H. P. Bybee, "The Hewitt, 



Oklahoma, oil field." 

 March 4, 1921: B. A. Liddle, "Faulting and 



structure in Medina County, Texas. ' ' 



In an editorial note Nature says : There can 

 be no doubt that scientific progress in relation 

 to agriculture has been seriously hampered in 

 the past by the poor material prospects offered 

 to the scientific worker, and the Ministry of 

 Agricultiu-e, in recognizing the fact and in 

 attempting to remove the defect, has shown a 

 spirit of enlightened goodwill which is of 

 hopeful augury. The provision of a grant 

 earmarked to cover the salaries of workers in 

 universities and in institutions such as the 

 Eothamsted Experimental Station, in addi- 

 tion to, and separate from, a grant for lab- 

 oratory and general research expenses, is a 

 real effort to ensure that the workers shall 

 have some security of tenure and some pros- 

 pect of a settled career in the prosecution of 

 research. The principle is sound, but the 

 practical application is as yet not entirely 

 successftil. A system of grading the workers 

 is perhaps inevitable, and the salaries allotted 

 to the different grades are in some respects 

 not reasonable. But the annual increments 

 are too small, espceially during the years when 

 the average worker is marrying and his ex- 

 penses are increasing, and there is not suffi- 

 cient range between the extremes of the scale, 

 e.g., a worker recently graduated and begin- 

 ning his career receives £450; the same man 

 ten years later, with a wife, two or more chil- 

 dren, and a position to maintain, receives 

 only twice that amount, and is actually worse 

 off than before. The total number of graded 

 posts is much too small even to cover only 

 those already working in agricultural re- 

 search. That will, no doubt, be improved as 

 time goes on, but meanwhile it leads to stag- 

 nant promotion and invidious selection. 

 There must be something seriously at fault 

 when (to take only one particular instance) 

 a worker of more than thirteen years' experi- 



ence in research, of acknowledged eminence 

 and authority in an important subject, should 

 be offered, and have in the meantime to ac- 

 cept, a post in the third grade (called " junior 

 assistants "), and be classed along with those 

 at the start of their career with no record of 

 solid achievement behind them. 



According to the Dublin correspondent of 

 the Christian Science Monitor the nineteenth 

 annual report of the Department of Agricul- 

 ture and Teclmical Instruction for Ireland 

 has just been issued showing how its annual 

 income of £190,000 has been spent. Agricul- 

 tural purposes alone absorb £124,000 of this, 

 £55,000 being reserved for technical instruc- 

 tion, and £10,000 for fisheries. During the 

 academic year 1918—1919, 258 students at- 

 tended the Royal College of Science. In ad- 

 dition to these there were three research stu- 

 dents. As a result of the war there was a 

 temporary decline in the attendance of read- 

 ers at the ISTational Library of Ireland. Many 

 valuable additions have been made to this li- 

 brary. Visits to the Musetmi of Science and 

 Art showed an increase from the previous 

 year of neary 24,000 and many of these were 

 serious students. There is a growing demand 

 for homegrown timber, consequent on the re- 

 duction of supplies from abroad during the 

 war, which demonstrates the inadequate pro- 

 vision hitherto made for the encouragement 

 of forestry. The reconstructive committee, 

 therefore, has turned its attention in this 

 direction and the result of an investigation 

 has been given effect to in the Forestry Act 

 which came into force on September 1, 1919. 

 The Forestry Act provides for the formation 

 of a forestry fund amotmting to £3,500,000 

 during the next ten years and the appoint- 

 ment of eight commissioners whose duty it 

 will be to promote the interest of forestry 

 and its developments, and the production and 

 supply of timber. The powers and duties of 

 the AgTicultural Department are to be trans- 

 ferred to these commissioners. To assist them 

 in their duties under the act provision is 

 made for the appointment of four consultative 

 committees, one of which will deal with 

 Ireland. 



