Sc ie n tiflc Agricull ure ■ 



402 



students are not always drawn from the best of our rising generation, since 

 farming is looked upon as the profession to be engaged in by those " who are too 

 clever for the Army and not stupid enough for the Church " ; but now that we 

 can offer a field for a well trained man to make a name and a living in the domain 

 of agricultural research, we should secure a greater proportion of suitable men. 

 In this country, for the researcher, apart from the teacher, there is little chance 

 for a trained man to earn a livelihood, but abroad, where the resources of the 

 soil have yet to be developed, there is a good prospect of employment for men 

 who are thoroughly equipped with the requisite scientific knowledge and possess 

 the spirit of investigation. 



Another point to which Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer has directed attention is 

 the proper teaching of science in our rural elementary schools, and, I would add, 

 our rural secondary schools. How often do we see, especially in the latter class 

 of school, the teacher (who is often selected for his chemical knowledge) teaching 

 by book alone, and without reference to the conditions amid which his scholars 

 live. Chemistry is one of the least suitable of the natural sciences to teach children 

 whose lives will be, or ought to be, spent in the country. Botany or zoology taught 

 by a teacher who has learnt these subjects, and has been trained in their application 

 to outdoor life as it exists in an English farm or country village, would be far pre- 

 ferable, and I venture to think that Kew, the agricultural departments of our uni- 

 versities, and our agricultural colleges could supply such teachers, and so could 

 influence to a considerable extent the value of the teaching in country districts. 



The Board of Education has, I understand, the latter matter in hand, and I 

 trust that under the advice of their excellent rural inspector a scheme will be 

 informulated which will in some way check the tendency of modern educatiou to 

 prepare solely for town life. 



M. J. R. DUNSTAN, 

 —Nature. South Eastern Agricultural College, Wye. 



NITROGEN IN AIR AND PLANTS. 

 Sir,— With reference to the letter from R. A.* in your issue of 24th instant, I 

 send you copy of a review by Professor A. D. Hall, Principal of the Rothamsted 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, of the book by Mr. Jamieson therein referred to. 

 This is only one of many similar reviews lately published. I should take no notice 

 of the work were it not that there are so many Aberdeenshire men in Ceylon ; and 

 that they have not the scientific training to enable them to realise the utter and 



hopeless futility of the work.— Yours, &c, 



y JOHN C. WILLIS, 



Director, R.B.G, 



Peradeniya, April 25th. 



(Enclosure.) 

 A mark's nest. 



The Utilisation of Nitrogen in Air by Plants. By T. Jamieson. Pp. 82 by 18. 

 (Aberdeen : The Agricultural Research Association, 1905.) 



Matthew Arnold has somewhere a finely ironical passage in which he com- 

 ments upon the British habit of labelling its institutions with a great name without 

 considering whether they possess any great thing to correspond, and certainly the 

 name of " Research " has rarely been more taken in vain than in the present publica- 

 tion. The Agricultural Research Association appears to be a body of gentlemen in 

 the neighbourhood of Aberdeen who maintain certain experimental plots under the 

 direction of Mr. T. Jamieson. It is further assisted by grants from the County 



* Not reproduced. 



