1076 



Institute of Agricultural Botany. 



[Mar.. 



Staff. — The difference in financial treatment outlined above 

 marks out the three Branches into which the Institute is divided. 

 At the head of the whole undertaking (under the Council) is the 

 Director who has as his immediate assistants the Secretary and 

 the Accountant. The Branches are as follows : — 



(1) The Crop Improvement Branch, under the personal charge of the 

 Director. 



(2) The Official Seed Testing Station, under Mr. C. B. Saunders, as Chief 

 Officer. 



(3) The Potato Testing Station at Ormskirk, Lanes., under Mr. H. Bryan, 

 Superintendent of Potato Trials. 



The staff of the Institute (apart from farm labour) in the three 

 branches consists, in all, of 55 persons. 



The work of each of the above branches is carried on under 

 the general supervision of a Committee of the Council composed 

 of experts in the several directions in which each has its sphere of 

 activity. The activities of the several branches are described 

 below. 



Property in Land.— The properties of % Institute are as 

 follows : — 



The Headquarters Trial Ground, consisting of 36 acres of arable land on 

 the Huntingdon Road, Cambridge, on a portion of which the Headquarters 

 Buildings have been erected. 



The Hlam. Farm, St. Ices, mentioned above, which has been enlarged by 

 the purchase of a further 20 acres, making 354 acres in all, which will be 

 devoted principally to the growing on of cereals for seed. 



The Potato Testing Station, Ormskirk, Lancashire, consisting of a farm- 

 house, an office, and 39 acres of rich market-garden land. 



The Headquarters Buildings. — The decision of the Council 

 that the Headquarters of the Institute should be established at 

 Cambridge was based on two consideratious, (1) that a situa- 

 tion in the centre of an agricultural district was essential, and 

 (2) that the locality should be one in which agricultural 

 research, and particularly plant-breeding, was already thriving. 

 Cambridge was the obvious place, and a site was purchased 

 ideally situated immediately opposite the University Farm, and 

 within a quarter of a mile of the farm occupied by Professor 

 Biffen's Plant Breeding Institute. 



The planning of the buildings was entrusted to Mr. P. Mer- 

 le v Horder, and two Committees — the first accompanied by 

 the Architect — visited Svalof , and all the more important Con- 

 tinental Seed Testing Stations before the final plans were 

 drawn up. The need for economy precluded anything but the 

 plainest design, and all ornamental features were rigidly 



