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farmers. On 21st January 1874 Dr Anderson resigned owing to ill health and he concluded his half yearly report in these terms: "I shall leave it to Mr James Dewar, of whom I have a very high opinion to report on the work which he has done." During the previous six months James Dewar had received only five samples of manure for analysis and "during the whole of that period no application had been received from any agricultural association requesting lectures on the application of chemistry to agriculture or the execution of the field experiments proposed by the Society". This part of the Directors' plan had fallen flat, much to the disappointment of the keen and innovative as well as outstandingly able young chemist whom they had chosen. Six months later he reported that the work of his department had increased and that he had found no grave adulteration of manures, as the supplying firms were now buying the ingredients and mixing them according to soil and crops (note 13). He added a note about training well educated young men "who might be induced by the quality of the instruction training they received to become, after some time, useful assistants in the discharge of the Society's work". True to form James Dewar was looking ahead and envisaging beneficial developments. At the General Meeting of the Society on 20th January 1875 he remarked that the number of requests for analyses of guanos, manures, feeding stuffs and other substances had exceeded that of any previous year. The farming community was beginning to realise the worth of the service he was offering. He had noticed no grave cases of adulteration but several samples of oilcake which contained "large proportions of nutritive substances were rendered dangerous and inferior from the presence of a large proportion of sand". As oilcake was sold by weight and as sand is heavy, farmers were being seriously cheated by some unscrupulous suppliers. Thorough in everything he did, James Dewar appended to the analysis what he considered to be the real value of the product, manure or oilcake, which had been sent to him in order that his clients could appreciate the margin by which they were swindled by the supplier. Not content with examining only the samples of guano sent to him James Dewar obtained others from Berry Barclay and Co. of Leith, one of the principal importers of Peruvian guano. This raw guano was found to be of good quality and of the dissolved guano, he wrote, "it continues to contain the amount of ammonia and phosphates guaranteed by Ohlendorf and Co. who hold the special concession of manufacture from the Peruvian Government". This comment indicated clearly to farmers a reliable source from which they could obtain good quality guano - a very useful service indeed! In scientific investigation he was ever ready to go the second mile. He was always looking for uncultivated fields which he could till for the benefit of the community he served. In his role as chemist to those who were almost wholly dependent on wells for potable water, he began to analyse the water used for domestic purposes by some members of the Society. He found that it was often "contaminated with sewage matter generating on exposure to light numerous infusoria. Confirmation of the unhealthy state of people using such waters has been derived from their medical attendant and the attention of all members of the Society ought to be directed to the danger of using waters in any way liable to get surface or sewage drainage, as often occurs in wells sunk near farms". This report, issued nationwide to the members of the Agricultural Society, alerted the farming community to the urgent need to examine the location of the sources of potable water and to the advisability of stinking deep wells at appropriate places.
In April 1875 the Secretary of the Society received from James Dewar a letter addressed from St Peter's College, Cambridge, submitting his resignation as assistant chemist in consequence of his having been elected to the Jacksonian Chair of Chemistry in the University of Cambridge. In his letter he indicated that he had "intended prosecuting investigations in vegetable physiology". Ever an investigator, had he remained in the employment of the Society he would not have confined his energies to analysis but would have broadened his activities, as a real agricultural chemist should, by relating the knowledge he gained through research to every aspect of farming and thus leading the farmers, whom he was engaged to serve, on towards maximising both quality and output from the soil. In his letter he could not refrain from talking a swipe at the dullards on the committee who failed to understand the difference between a mere analyser and an agricultural chemist (note 14). In accepting his resignation the Directors of the Society adopted unanimously the following resolution: "The Directors cannot accept Professor Dewar's resignation of the office of assistant chemist without recording in... NEXT PAGE
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