■2V2 



THE AGKICULTUKAL .NKWS 



Ar,a>i 10, laie. 



tropical lands. The trouble has been, however, that 

 the few scientific workers have had their hands too full 

 of routine work to carry out the enquiries that are 

 necessary to obtain anything even approaching to 

 A complete knowledge of tropical plant physiology. 

 Professor Farmer in the course of his paper renuirked: 



'It must 1 think be clear to anyone who has 

 ■watched the progress of most of our great commercial 

 enterprises, that one of the commonest causes of arrest 

 or decline lies in a certain lack of imagination which 

 seems to be one of our national defects. The bird in the 

 hand is not always really worth two in the bush, but 

 we are rather too apt to grudge expenditure which gives 

 no immeiliate promise of a tangible return. Our atti- 

 tude to so-called "applied science' affords an illustration 

 4if this. Thus, when we have grasped the fact that we 

 require scientific assistance to enable us to cope with 

 the natural difticulties of disease and so on, we get out 

 our mycologists, entomologists, and what not, and then 

 set them down mainly to do routine work — to deal with 

 current difficulties only. No serious attempt is made 

 to tackle the really big problems. We have, as I have 

 -already remarked, no adequate establishments to deal 

 with the important matter of breeding. Provision in 

 the tropics should be made for such work on a liberal 

 scale, and there ought to be no question of a five or 

 ten-years' scheme, but it will have to be secured on a 

 permanent basis, if any real good is to come of it. A 

 well- staffed and well founded establishment will cer- 

 tainly, in the long run, repay all the expenditure many 

 times over, but results of immediate practical value are 

 not likely to come in this or next year, nor ought they 

 to be ejepected or demanded. 



•'I'his is perhaps not the occasion on which to raise 

 or to discuss details of high policy, but, in general terms, 

 it is safe to say that the matter ought to be taken in 

 hand by the (jovernments specially concerned, and 

 a^Jministered by a body on which the planting industry, 

 and also the relevant branches of science are properly 

 represented. Such a combination of official, practical, 

 and scientific men ought to be able to ensure that the 

 work would be carried out on well-considered lines. 

 The three lines of interest, if I may use such a term, 

 would view the matter from different angles, and 

 although there might bo differences of opinion as 

 regards iletails, the general outcome of such co-operation 

 should make for real efficiency. But, as I have already 

 said, it should be essential that the enterprise should 

 be definitely freed from the start from all demands for 

 early practical results. And furthermore, when once 

 4be general lines have been laid down, and good men 



have been secui I, those responsible for conducting the 

 experiments must, be given ns free a hand as possible 

 — and the less said about lime- limits the better. 



'I believe it would be of great advantage if a 

 suitably constituted committee were formed to serve in 

 this country in connexion with any such scheme. The 

 functions of such a committee evidently should not be 

 administrative, otherwise friction would almost certainly 

 arise, and it might seriously impede the usefulness of 

 an institute working in a distant country, and con- 

 fronted with conditions that might be imperfectly 

 understood by persons living at home and unfamiliar 

 with local circumstances. But a home committee, 

 charged with advisory functions only, would serve 

 the useful purpose of bringing the tropical insti- 

 tutes into direct contact with the clearing-house 

 of European knowledge, both economic and scien- 

 tific. From the latter point of view at any rate, 

 such a connexion would seem to be eminently 

 desirable, inasmuch as the results of the rapid 

 advances which are being made in .scientific knowledge 

 and outlook would thus be rendered easily and natu- 

 rally available to those engaged on the more sp<'cialized 

 work of the institute or institutes. ,\nd such an associ- 

 ation or committee, by furthering the aims and objects 

 of the several institutes that may be brought into 

 being, could not tail to react beneficially on the plant- 

 ing industry as a whole. Its efforts should be the 

 more acceptable, since matters affecting individual trade 

 interests would lie entirely outside the terms of its 

 reference. 



'The germs from which such organized institutes 

 as I have indicated might be developed, are already in 

 existence in the various agricultural departments of 

 Colonial Governments, while influential bodies of men 

 interested in the plantations have shown that they 

 take an enlightened view of the situation. If they so 

 chose, ihey obviously could do much, both by inHuence 

 and material support, to promote the establishment of 

 real research institutes. 



(Jf course the scheme would cost money, but the 

 expense would be very small in coniparison with the 

 magnitude of the interests at stake.' 



The Professor points out, in conclusion, that science 

 has been invaluable in the service of the tropical 

 agricultural industries, both from the chemical, and 

 also, and especially, from the biological side. If these 

 industries are to continue to prosper, it has becsme 

 essential thatthe investigations of disease and immunity, 

 of the mode and significance of the vital processes 

 within the plants, as well as of the breeding of better 

 races of plants, shall not only be uiaintaine<l at their 



