allotted to agriculture, but in most counties the proportion is very much less.

The mode in which this agricultural education is carried out is, of course, very varied. It may consist simply in money aid to classes under the Department of Science and Art; or the county may have its own travelling lecturers, who deliver short courses on agriculture, horticulture, dairy-work, poultry, bee-keeping, and the diseases of animals. Purely technical classes on horse-shoeing, ploughing, hedging, draining, are also common. The most popular, and certainly one of the most useful, of these technical schools is the travelling dairy, by which practical instruction in butter-making is given at many centres throughout the county. As a help to a higher grade of instruction than is furnished by these popular classes, the County Councils grant agricultural scholarships available for the courses of instruction at agricultural schools and colleges, and in some instances at institutions of university rank. In a few cases dairy institutes and agricultural colleges have been established by County Councils, usually by the united action of two or three counties, and in these cases considerable sums are annually set aside for their support. The sketch we have given of County Council work will, however, leave a far too favourable impression if we do not bear in mind that only a portion of the schemes mentioned are generally in use in any one county.

As it is clearly most important that these new schemes of agricultural education should be wisely and efficiently carried out, we may profitably devote a few minutes to the consideration of some important points upon attention to which any real success will largely depend.

With lads of the age at which they are usually in attendance at elementary schools little can be done in teaching the scientific principles of agriculture; such lads have not acquired the previous scientific knowledge necessary for understanding what is to be taught. They may indeed learn off answers to questions either from the blackboard or from a printed text-book, and thus furnished they may pass examinations; but the knowledge they have acquired is merely a knowledge of words, and will be of no value to them in after-life. The foundation of habits of observation and logical reasoning must, however, be laid in the elementary school if higher instruction is hereafter to be given. This elementary training may easily be made to have an agricultural bias. No better means of educating a boy's powers of observation can be found than a study of the individual characters and modes of development of the various crops, weeds, and insects of the farm.

When lads have passed through the elementary school their special training should immediately commence; any delay is most unfavourable to the boy's development. The time has now come when a distinction has to be made between the students; some are to be labourers, some are to be farmers. For both technical instruction is required: the arts of agriculture have to be mastered. The farmer's son, however, requires besides this a higher course of study if scientific principles are to be introduced into his future practice. One great need of the present day is the establishment of secondary agricultural schools, which shall be centres both for

In some countries, as Ireland and France, instruction in the art of agriculture is given in connection with the elementary schools: this is, of course, possible if the school engagements admit of time being thus spent, and there is convenient land adjoining.

purely technical and for scientific instruction. The farmer's son on entering such a school would commence at once his technical training, and he would at the same time commence the study of elementary chemistry and elementary biology and geology. Not till he had gone through elementary courses on these subjects would he be prepared for instruction in the scientific principles of agriculture.

It is from well-arranged schemes, in which the instruction proceeds from first to last in a proper order, that the best results are to be expected; such schemes should gradually be made to take the place of the short miscellaneous courses of instruction, imperfect in themselves, and given to an audience unprepared for them. The principal use of popular lectures is undoubtedly to arouse a general interest in the subject, and to show how much there is to be learnt on agricultural matters. Miscellaneous lectures have thus a great value in pioneer work, but it must never be supposed that they can take the place of solid, systematic instruction.

Lectures to farmers are undoubtedly of very considerable importance, as they are one of the few means of improving the practice of the present generation, but they are the most difficult of all lectures to carry on efficiently. The lecturer must be thoroughly acquainted with farming practice, and with the conditions which determine profit and loss, or he will bring his science into contempt. The teaching of science as science to an audience of farmers will soon result in an empty room; but keen, practical men will listen carefully to the conclusions drawn from scientific investigations when these can be shown to have a direct bearing upon their daily work.

One of the greatest obstacles to the teaching of scientific agriculture in the present day, whether in schools or in evening classes or lectures, is the great lack of competent teachers. The best qualification which a teacher can offer is that of graduate of one of the larger agricultural colleges, but the supply of such men is extremely small. The qualification sufficing for teaching the principles of agriculture under the Department of Science and Art is an extremely low one, and should never in itself be accepted as sufficient. A poorly qualified teacher solves all his difficulties by adopting a popular text-book, and teaching this in a literal manner. Unfortunately some of the text-books most largely used entirely fail to represent the present condition of agricultural science, and persistently teach a whole series of exploded errors. Technical committees should not sanction the use of text-books of scientific agriculture which are mere reprints of works written many years ago.

County Councils should recollect that all educational machinery requires inspection. They act unadvisedly when they try to rid themselves of trouble and responsibility by making grants to Parish Councils for technical education, and then leaving them to direct the work. It is necessary always to ascertain how a teacher does his work. Does he illustrate his lessons by specimens, diagrams, and experiments; or is his object simply to cram for a written examination? Opportunity should be given to teachers to improve themselves by further study. Schemes for Saturday

1 A person becomes qualified to conduct a class ander the Department by answering successfully six or seven questions, selected by himself out of twelve or fourteen, from a paper drawn up to suit the capacity of lads of fifteen. The new regulations for the Honours examination, which come into force next year, will provide a much higher qualification, as the successful candidates will in this case have passed two examinations subsequent to the one just named.

lectures to teachers, or classes for teachers held in the vacation months, are of the greatest use if good men can be secured as instructors.

We must now speak of the relations of County Councils to agricultural investigation. This kind of work has been undertaken at present by only a few counties, and by them to a very limited extent: public opinion is, indeed, not nearly so developed upon the subject of investigation as it is on that of education. Practical investigations are, however, urgently required if the operations of agriculture are to be carried out in a scientific manner. The science of agriculture is, in fact, as yet in its infancy, and can be perfected only by well-arranged experiment. There is room for an immense variety of work. Every substance which the farmer uses, every living organism (plant or animal) with which he is concerned, every operation he conducts, must be thoroughly understood if it is to be employed to the best advantage. Great Britain is singularly behind other civilised countries in the work of agricultural investigation. The reason has apparently been very simple. In most European countries, and in the United States and Canada, the initiative has been taken by the Government. Ministers, having a just idea of the conditions on which national prosperity depends, have succeeded in obtaining public funds for the support of experiment stations, institutions provided with laboratories and skilled workers, and devoted to the elucidation of agricultural problems. The German Empire alone has about fifty-four VersuchsStationen, without reckoning the public laboratories occupied chiefly with the analysis of manures and seed-testing. In England agricultural investigation has been left to private enterprise, which during the present century has produced one first-class experiment station-that of Rothamsted of which we are all rightly proud, but which is wholly inadequate for the growing needs of the country.

I am not at this moment advocating the immediate creation of many first-class experiment stations, though there is ample scope for such in the hands of competent workers. One first-class station should certainly be at once started under the immediate control of a reorganised Department of Agriculture, as without this the national investigations, which would become one of the functions of this department, could not be carried

out.

The great need at the present time is the creation of numerous local stations, to work upon the practical problems of each locality, and so become centres of scientific teaching and scientific demonstration. If Parliament were to offer to give 1,000%. a year' towards the support of a county experiment station, erected and maintained by the County Council, and subject to the inspection and approval of the Department of Agriculture, a great start would be at once made in the right. direction.

A few words may be said as to the kind of investigations to be undertaken by a local experiment station. The subjects taken up will of course depend upon the style of farming in the neighbourhood, the object being in every case to bring scientific knowledge and methods into actual touch with the farmer's work. Some of the experiments would be carried out on selected farms, possessing soils and climates typical of considerable areas in the county. Comparative trials of different

This should be regarded as a minimum sum. In the United States each State receives 3,000l. annually from the National Exchequer towards the maintenance of its experiment station.

varieties of grain, root, or fodder crops upon the various soils of the locality would be most useful.1 Farmers usually go on sowing the same kind of seed, or make a change only to something that is well advertised, without ever ascertaining by actual experiment which of the manifold varieties in the market is best fitted for the conditions of their own soil and climate. Other experiments could only be conducted at the experiment station. It is to be hoped that comparative trials of the nutritive value of different foods would in all cases be undertaken on this point our knowledge is sadly deficient." The chemical analysis of foods, as conducted at the present day, is no sufficient guide to their feeding value. We need facts as to the actual effect of different foods upon the animal, and we must then seek to bring our methods of analysis into consonance with these facts.

Besides actual investigations these local agricultural stations might be made to supply demonstrations which would be invaluable for teaching purposes. If, however, agricultural secondary schools are established, such demonstrations would find their most suitable home in these establishments. It will probably be desired in some cases to make the experiment station a place for the analysis of manures and feeding stuffs for the farmers round. If a special assistant is allotted to this kind of work there can be no objection to it; but it would be folly to allow investigations to be interrupted by attention to such matters.

At the present time the majority of the County Councils have not made any commencement in agricultural investigations. Those councils which have taken up the subject appear generally to have avoided any responsibility of their own in the matter. The usual course has been to make a grant to some agricultural college, or to some local Chamber of Agriculture, on the understanding that they will carry on experiments in the county. There is surely, however, no reason why a strong agricultural committee should not be formed in every county by the addition to their number of experts residing in the county. The experiments at present carried on through the medium of agricultural colleges and Chambers of Agriculture are almost all of one type: they consist of the comparative trials of manures. This style of experiment is indeed the only one which has found general favour in this country. The fact is certainly regrettable, as it exhibits a poverty of idea on the part of the experimenter, and a lack of apprehension of the many serious problems which are awaiting solution.

Many important topics have been left unmentioned which will doubtless be taken up during the discussion which is to follow. My object has been merely to give a brief sketch of the kind of national and local work required if a real effort is to be made to give agriculture the aid of science.

In Essex and Nottinghamshire a commencement has been made of work of this kind.

2 In Norfolk valuable experiments have been made on the feeding value of oilcake containing different percentages of oil.

High-level Flint-drift of the Chalk.-Report of the Committee, consisting of Sir JOHN EVANS (Chairman), Mr. B. HARRISON (Secretary), Professor J. PRESTWICH, and Professor H. G. SEELEY. Drawn up by Mr. B. HARRISON.

THE Committee were appointed to investigate the nature and probable age of the High-level Flint-drift in the face of the chalk escarpment near Ightham, which appears to be productive of flakes and other forms of flint probably wrought by the hand of man.

This patch of gravel has been preserved upon a promontory of the chalk escarpment, at an altitude of 658 feet. It extends for some 70 yards, and attains a maximum thickness of 5 feet.

It is composed chiefly of sharp angular flint, varying in colour from bluish-white to bleached-white. Accompanying this is a quantity of deeply-stained ochreous flints, with here and there pieces of chert, Oldbury stone, and rag.

Flakes made by man exist in thousands, and they preponderate over the more elaborately worked specimens. Numerous scrapers, hollownotched and of horse-shoe shape, were obtained, as well as partially finished implements; but no perfect large tools, and none with any sign of polishing.

The worked-flint material is similar to that spread out in the Holmesdale valley, where it is accompanied by large somewhat rude implements. Amongst the deep ochreous flints some bear the look characteristic of the plateau specimens. The matrix is usually clayey, of a dark red colour, but in places it is quite chalky, and unstratified. A large quantity of the flints are encrusted with carbonate of lime. With the view of tracing the origin of this bed attention was directed to the ground above, in hope of finding either a Neolithic settlement, or plateau implements in sitú. The latter having been traced to a position where an excavation had brought them from a depth of six or seven feet (Pit A), it was decided to dig a pit to obtain a section upon Parsonage Farm, Stanstead, by the kind permission of the owner, Mr. Pink.

The excavation was closely watched by Mr. W. J. Lewis Abbott, F.G.S., and myself, and occasional visits were made by the Rev. R. Ashington Bullen, F.G.S., acting under direction of Professor Prestwich, Mr. F. J. C. Spurrel, Mr. Corner, F.G.S., and others interested in the subject.

The following is the section (see p. 350).

Work was commenced on October 19, 1894, by digging a pit 12 feet by 6 across. At the top, 2 feet consisted of a stony loam, with a large percentage of ochreous flint, much worn, angular white flint, Tertiary pebbles, and some evidence of southern drift. With a fairly even line of demarcation came a grey loam containing some small fragments of flint, a few small Tertiary pebbles, and small rudely worked stones scattered throughout at places. At about 5 feet this loam became more clayey, and of a deep rich ochreous colour, overlying a gravel, about 12 inches in thickness, composed of much-worn ochreous flints, some very large, and many Tertiary pebbles. This gravel was hard and compact. From it I secured very many worked implements. Heavy rain now hindered work by filling the pit. Measuring off 12 feet in line we began to dig another