700 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1037 



whence they may obtain a general notion of its 

 Btrueture. . . . Admission to its sanctuary and to 

 the privileges and feelings of a votary is only to 

 he gained iy one means — sound and sufficient 

 Tcnowledge of mathematics, the great vnstrument 

 of all exact inquiry, without which no man can 

 ever mahe such advances in this or in any other of 

 the higher departments of science as can entitle 

 him to form an independent opinion on, any sub- 

 ject of discussion within their range. 



Samuel G. Baeton 

 Flower Observatory, 



University of Pennsylvania 



TBE LATE WILLIAM SAUNDEBS, C.M.G., 

 LL.D. 

 In the death of Dr. William Saunders, 

 C.M.G., late director of the Dominion Experi- 

 mental Farms, vifhich took place at London, 

 Ontario, on September 13, there passed away 

 -■a notable pioneer in the field of Canadian 

 agricultural investigation, one who had worked 

 iard and successfully in the best interests of 

 Jhis country for more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury and who, we rejoice to say, had lived to 

 see in a large measure the fruits of his labor 

 in a very material improvement of our basic 

 industry, in methods, in crops and in stock 

 throughout the length and breadth of the land. 

 Comparing the agriculture of this country to- 

 day with that of 1886, when Dr. Saunders 

 entered upon what we may term his life work — 

 the establishment of the Experimental Earm 

 System — it is abundantly apparent that farm- 

 ing in all its branches has developed and pros- 

 pered and we can not doubt that the varied 

 activities of this system, in research and in 

 the wide dissemination of information among 

 our farmers, carried forward as they have been 

 by Dr. Saunders and his co-workers with en- 

 thusiasm and skill, must have played a very 

 important part in this agricultural progress. 

 It has been a valuable and national work, and 

 stands to-day as a monument to the initiative, 

 the unflagging zeal and the untiring energy of 

 Dr. Saunders, who held the directorship of the 

 farms from their establishment to April, 1911, 

 when be retired, owing to failing health and 

 advancing years. 



William Saunders was bom in Devonshire, 



England, in 1836, and came at the age of 12 

 years to this country with his parents, who 

 settled in London, Ontario. In early manhood 

 he studied chemistry and pharmacy and sub- 

 sequently established a business for the manu- 

 facture of pharmaceutical preparations, a 

 business which he successfully carried on tUl 

 1886,^ when it was handed over to his eldest 

 son, William E., who has remained since that 

 date as head of the firm. In 1882, we find 

 that his chemical knowledge had gained for 

 him the post of public analyst for Western 

 Ontario. Previous to that date he had taken 

 a leading part in the founding of the Ontario 

 College of Pharmacy, of which he was presi- 

 dent for two years. He was also on the pro- 

 fessoriate of the medical faculty of the 

 Western University. His interest in entomol- 

 ogy led him to assist in establishing the Ento- 

 mological Society of Ontario, of which he was 

 president for the period 1883-6. In the prac- 

 tical work of this society he maintained an 

 active and warm interest throughout his life, 

 acting as editor of its organ, the Canadian 

 Entomologist, for thirteen years. As a result 

 of his entomological studies, which were 

 mainly of an economic character, he published 

 in 1882 his work entitled "Insects Injurious 

 to Eruit," a book that has been widely used 

 as a text in agricultural colleges and by 

 orchardists in the United States and Canada.- 



In 1868 Dr. Saunders purchased a small 

 farm in the neighborhood of London and 

 there, it may be said, he laid the foundation of 

 his future work in horticulture, always his 

 favorite study. This area of land, which he 

 planted largely to fruit, enabled him to inves- 

 tigate and observe in the fields of experimental 

 agriculture and horticulture, and no doubt fur- 

 nished him with those qualities and that 

 knowledge which led to his selection as the 

 one best qualified to undertake the important 

 task of establishing the Experimental Earm 

 system. His many successes in the production 

 of new fruits, flowers and grains during this 

 period testify to his skill as an hybridist of the 

 first rank. 



Of his work as head of the Experimental 

 Earms it wUl only be possible to give the 



I 



