Annual Report for 1891 of the Consulting Chemist. 835 
The general outcome of the experiments appears to be that the 
BoidlUe BoriMaise has not prevented the disease in any of the 
locaHties, but that it has decreased the amount of disease in tlie 
plots to which it has been applied, and has decidedly increased 
the yield of tubers. A single year's work does not, however, supply 
data on which generalisations of any permanent value can be based. 
Charles Whitehead, 
December 8, 1891. Chairman, 
ANNUAL REPORT FOR 1891 OF THE 
CONSULTING CHEMIST. 
The past year has shown a falling off to some extent in the number 
of samples submitted to tlie Consulting Chemist by members of the 
Society. The total number of analyses made on their behalf for the 
twelve months ending November 30, 1891, has been 1,358 as against 
1,4-17 in 1890. The most marked reduction has been that in linseed 
and other feeding cakes, whilst in manures there has been an 
increase. A large number of waters form part of the year's total. 
On February 1, I returned to my duties after a thirteen months' 
residence in India, whither I had gone by the Council's kind 
permission, and after selection by Sir James Caird, for the purpose 
of reporting to the Government of India as to the possibility of im- 
proving the agriculture of that vast country by scientific means. 
My report on that mission will veiy shortly be ready, and meantime 
I have contributed to the ]\Iarch number of the Society's Journal 
a paper on " Indian Agriculture in its Physical Aspects." 
Perhaps the chief feature of the year, in so far as the more 
immediate and every-day work of the laboi'atoiy is concerned, 
has been the agitation for better protection against tlie fraudulent 
sale of fertilisers and feeding-stufi's. Although the crowded state 
of business in the House of Commons compelled the postponement 
of the Bill which Mr. Chaplin, as President of the Board of Agri- 
culture, undertook to introduce, it is tolerably certain that this will 
come on for discussion during next Session. 
The Royal Agricultural Society will welcome a measure which 
deals fairly with a matter of so much importance to the farming com- 
munity, and which proceeds in the direction in which the Society 
has for so long been woi'king. Whether from this cause or from 
others, it is satisfactory to note that, although the actual number of 
I linseed and other cakes sent for analysis has been less, there has been 
] a very general improvement, more especially in those cakes sold as 
i "linseed "cakes. Where members have adopted the advice given, and 
I have asked for " pure " cakes, and insisted upon the signing of the 
I form of contract note issued by the Society, it is but rarely the ease 
that purchases have been found to be inferior. This may, indeed, be 
