Report of Chemical Committee. li 
the library of a French edition of 
Columella’s works, published in 1556, 
and of a brochure by the late Mr. 
Wren Hoskyns on the History and 
Characteristics of Land Tenure in 
England. The arrangements proposed 
for the next number of the Journal 
had been discussed, together with a 
variety of suggestions for Articles 
and Notes, and instructions thereon 
had been given to the Editor. 
Earl Cathcart said that he was 
happy to notice present the Earl of 
Jersey, who had now resumed his seat 
upon the Council, which he vacated on 
his appointment to the Governorship 
of New South Wales. He hoped that 
Lord Jersey would also resume his 
membership of the Journal Committee, 
and he therefore formally proposed 
that Lord Jersey should be added to 
the Committee. 
Chemical. 
Viscount Emlyn (Chairman) said 
that the Committee had carefully 
considered the arrangements for the 
future conduct of business in the 
Chemical Department, and had agreed 
upon the following report : — 
Report of the Chemical Committee as to the 
Chemical Department. 
At tbeir first meeting held after the pass- 
ing of the Fertilisers and Feeding Stuffs Act 
of last year, the Chemical Committee reported 
“ That they considered it very desirable that 
the work of the Chemical Committee and 
Dr. Yoelcker’s position as Consulting Chem- 
ist of the Society should be reconsidered ” 
(Journal, Yol. IV., 1893, page clxxx) ; and 
they have since given the matter careful 
attention. 
2. In view of the fact that in a consider- 
able number of counties the county councils 
have decided to charge upon the local rates 
a substantial part of the fees payable to dis- 
trict agricultural analysts for analyses per- 
formed under the Act (thus reducing the 
fees payable by the purchaser to a lower rate 
than those chargeable to members of the 
Royal Agricultural Society for analyses per- 
formed by the Society’s Chemist), the Com- 
mittee cannot avoid the conclusion that the 
number of samples sent to the Society for 
analysis may tend in the future to diminish, 
though this result has not, it is true, yet 
occurred, perhaps on account of the short 
length of time the Act has been in operation. 
3. Whether this should prove so or not, 
however, the original object of the Society 
in securing the establishment of a ready 
and convenient means by which farmers 
may check the quality of the goods supplied 
to them has now been realised ; and it must 
remain with members of the Society to 
decide for themselves the precise method of 
obtaining the analyses of fertilisers and 
feeding-stuffs which they may require. 
4. The Committee are of opinion that the 
fees charged to members for analyses made 
by the Society’s Consulting Chemist are not 
susceptible of further reduction, without 
making an increased demand upon the 
Society’s general funds, which they do not 
consider justified by the circumstances ; and 
it is obvious that the Society could not enter 
upon a competition with county councils 
(who have the local rates at their command) 
by reducing the fees to the lowest point 
which a county council may consider should 
be charged to the purchaser. 
5. At the same time, the Committee think 
that the superior advantages of case and 
facility in members obtaining analyses under 
the Society’s regulations may, in a great 
many cases, counteract the comparative 
cheapness of the analyses performed by dis- 
trict agricultural analysts under the neces- 
sary restrictions and formalities of the Act 
of i893 ; and they do not therefore propose 
any limitations or alterations whatever in 
the chemical privileges now enjoyed by 
members. 
6. The particular machinery employed in 
carrying out these analyses seems, however, 
to the Committee to be disproportionately 
expensive in view of the altered circum- 
stances, and it does not appear to them to 
be now necessary that a separate laboratory 
with a separate staff should be maintained 
on the Society’s own premises. 
7. If the head of the Society’s Chemical 
Department were engaged solely in scientific 
investigations and abstruse researches, there 
might be undoubted advantages in his 
laboratory being under the Society’s own 
roof ; but it is of the essence of his duties 
that he should be in touch with the trade in 
fertilisers and feeding-stuffs, as he must be 
competent to advise members as to values 
and guarantees and details of every kind re- 
specting purchases and sales. Dr. Yoelcker’s 
time can be claimed by the Society only 
four hours a day for five days in the week. 
His absence at other times makes necessary 
an assistant in charge ; and there is waste 
of power in other directions, because the 
Society’s work falls chiefly in the spring, and 
a trained staff has to be kept comparatively 
unemployed during certain months of the 
year in order to be ready to cope with the 
work when it gets heavy. 
8. It happens that Dr. Yoelcker has 
recently moved into new premises for his 
business laboratory at 22, Tudor Street, 
Blackfriars, E.C. He has one floor now quite 
unoccupied, which would give fully as much 
accommodation as the Society’s Laboratory, 
and attached to this is a private room that 
Dr. Yoelcker could set apart for Society 
purposes. 
9. The convenience to him of not having 
to go to two offices every day would be so 
great that he is willing to devote this floor 
to the Society’s work, free of any charge for 
rent and gas, if the Society will let him have 
the fittings now in the Hanover Square 
Laboratory (useless for any other purpose) 
to fit it up with. His personal attendance 
in one place throughout the day will obviate 
the necessity for a person of the rank and 
pay of senior assistant, who could be replaced 
by an ordinary assistant ; and, by greater 
economy in administration, Dr. Yoelcker 
sees his way to save the Society another 
£100 in salaries and wages. 
d 2 
