The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-09-04 00:00:00

CHEMISTRY AND AGRICULTURE.

At the meeting of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science (Chemical Science Section), Mr. J. M.
Cameron, of London, read a paper on the position of agri-
cultural education and research in this country as compared
with that on the continent of Europe.

Mr. Cameron pointed out in the first place the im-
portant influence which chemical reearch had on
manufactures, and regretted the apathy displayed by
the agricultural population in not seizing upon and
applying chemical researches bearing upon agriculture.
But for their default in this respect he was sanguine
enough to believe that there would be less depression,
and that protection would not be as often pointed to
as the haven of refuge for what he believed to
be largely due to ignorance and incapacity. In
face of the indifference of the farmers however,
chemists were pursuing their investigations. In
Great Britain there were, he calculated, 255 farmers'
societies, but these, with the exception of the Royal
Agricultural Society and the Highland and Agricul-
tural Society of Scotland, had done nothing for ari-
cultural education, and our farmers could not tell the
difference between soluble and insoluble phosphate or
between nitrate of soda and ammonia, nor could they
give an intelligent opinion as to the origin and com-
position of the soil which they tilled. The position
which the landed proprietors had taken up was most
unsatisfactory. One would have expected that they
would have identified themselves with the subject
much more closely than they had done. They had not
sufficiently recognized the duties which in common
with right attached to property. The facilities for
acquiring a knowledge of scientific agriculture in this
country were exceedingly meagre. In England there
were only three institutions for such a purpose, two of
which were new. In Scotland there were two, and
in Ireland there were some 240, while in Germany there
were 1,305. In England the subsidies granted b the
Government in this matter amounted to one
hundredth part of a farthing per head of the popula-
tion, in Scotland to one-tenth part of a farthing, and
in Ireland to two-fifths of a farthing; whereas in
Holland they reached to one halfpenny and three-fifths
of a farthing.
With respect to agricultural research, Mr. Cameron
spoke highly of the work done by Messrs. Lames and
Gilbert at Rothamsted, and mentioned that the Royal
Society had established an experimental station at
Woburn, that the Scottish Society had taken a similar
step, that the Royal Agricultural College had formed
a committee for the purpose of establishing experi-
mental stations, and that he himself had established
such stations in Kent, Sussex, and Scotland. The
Aberdeenshire Agricultural Society had also taken
action.
The latter portion of the paper was devoted to a
variety of suggestions. Mr, Cameron euggesteci among
other things that in every elelnentary school there
should be taught to children in the la.st year of com-
pulsory attendance the first principles of agficulture ;
that a teacher should not be considered qualified un-
less he had the agricqltnral certificate of the Science
and Art Department ; that there shoul4 be in each
parish at least one central school in which instruction
in agriculture should be given, and connected with
which there should be an experimental station; and
that committees of farmers should be established to
arrange for lectures in tha winter months, and the
like.

Th,e, Konstanzer Zeitung says that two bicyclists,
one an Englishman, the other a Frenchman, have arrived on
the shores of the Lake of Constance, after unusually long
journeys. The former, Mr. Be 4, a Cambridge under-
graduate, mounted his vehicle at Hamburg, and, in the
course of eleven days, made a tour, by the way of Berlin,
Prague, Munich, and Lindau' to Constanz, from whence he
started for Paris by way of Basel. The Frenchman, M.
EsperOn, of Bordeaux, started from that port, and reached
Constance, after a ride of seventeen days, by way of Toulouse,
arseillea, Genoa, Milan, Chiavenna, mid Eheinea. He
crossed the Alps by the Julier Pass,

Madrid, says the correspondent of the Daily News,
has beep visited by gales and a heavy thunderstorm that in-
jured the vineyards near the capital and deluged the streets
for twentyrfour hours. On Saturday all thp morning trains were
stopped in the mountains north south, and arrived in Madrid
bet Ween pipe and twelve at night. The floods intercepted
the Aragon lines near the baths of Alhama, the water rising
eiT metres in many valleys. Avalanches and rain washed
away the northern.linesip the Gu,,adarrarna Mountains, near
Escorial. Oae tralP ran off
.t 4 line, causing a b loch of fifteenmj
hours and some personal npes,

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