306 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



OcTor.EE J, 1918. 



were to enquire concerning the changes which have 

 taken place in West Indian agriculture since the days 

 when the early settlers cultivated tobacco, indigo, and 

 ginger as their staple crops: and if one thought of the 

 changes leading to the growth and decline, followed by 

 the present revival of the sugar industry, or the 

 development of such industries as the cultivation of 

 cacao, bananas, and coco-nuts. In all of these can be 

 traced the effect of competition and the bringing in of 

 new iileas from outside for the stirring up and en- 

 couragement of planters. 



As already stated, when these changes are looked 

 at, the great effect of the written record becomes more 

 and more apparent. In the older countries, and in the 

 early days, the forward movement was largely influenced, 

 as regards its written records, by Agricultural Societies, 

 Farmers' Institutes, and kindred organizations. It was 

 soon found that there were important fields of know- 

 ledge which appeared attractive, and promised to be 

 profitable; but the busily occupied farmers, having 

 little experience of things lying outside their daily 

 duties, svere unable to deal with these to advantage; 

 so the aid of specialist enquirers and investigators 

 was invoked and welcomed. This, in turn, led to the 

 recognition of yet wider and wider fields of knowledge^ 

 but at the same time deepened the conviction that the 

 exploration of thi;se fields to advantage necessitated 

 the employment of special investigators. Hence there 

 grew up a body of scientific men, not themselves 

 fanners, and often having but an imperfect apprecia- 

 tion of the business of farming as a whole: but who 

 were able to investigate special portions of farming 

 problems, and to put forward ideas and conclusions 

 which the farmers themselves were abli- to weave into 

 *their daily practice. 



'i'hese conditions in turn reacted more wudely; the 

 fearly specialist investigators, such as Lawes and Liebig, 

 found themselves hainpere<l by their isolation and the 

 extreme imperfection of their knowledge, so that they 

 were often unable to solve the problems confronting 

 them, or found themselves drifting to wrong conclu- 

 sions owing to their imperfect knowledge. A move- 

 ment therefore quickly grew up for improving the 

 facilities of investigators, and adding to their knowledge. 

 This took many forms, amongst them the improvement 

 'and increase in academic teaching in schools and 

 universities of the sciences bearing on agriculture, and 

 the creation of agricultural departments, such as are 

 now to be found in practically every country in the 

 world, culminating in the wonderful organization to be 

 setn in the United States, with their vast Federal 



Department with its ever-increasing Divisions, supple- 

 mented by important State Departments, each aided by 

 an e.xperiment station for the advancement of know- 

 ledge, and in many cases by an agricultural college, 

 often of university rank, for the purpose of inculcat- 

 ing and difi'using that knowledge. 



.Such a survey makes it evident that agriculture 

 is no longer an isolated purs'.iit which can be carried 

 on in the light of simple tradition handed down from 

 father to son; it is perhaps the most complex industry 

 of the world. Only since the effects of the present 

 world-war have begun to be seriously felt by the con- 

 tending nations has it been realized how completely 

 dependent modern States are upon their agriculture, 

 and upon the agriculture of their neighbours. Complete 

 isolation in agricultural matters will quickly bring to 

 stagnation and ruin any State, large or small. The 

 service of agriculture is world-wide, and its modern 

 continuance is conditioned and determined by scientific 

 knowledge. 



The written record has niade this development 

 possible. In this conne.Kion an idea occurs. It is often 

 said, and more frequently thought, that once an idea 

 is placed on record its effectiveness is secured. This is 

 far from being the case; mere written records are 

 liable to lie dead or dormant, unless they fall on fertile 

 times and places, and appeal to the minds of those who 

 can use them. This may seem a mere truism, and it 

 may be so, but it is a fact which profoundly affects pro- 

 gress. The e.xiraordinary instance of Mendel's work, the 

 record of which lay enshrined, dormant and inoperative, 

 for thirty-fi\e years, from iMi.j to 1900, in the archives 

 of the Natural History Society T)f Brunn, is a case in 

 point. For the whole of that time this work was 

 practically unknown and entirely useless, but when 

 the attention of modern botanists was directed to it, 

 and it was carefully investigated, it became of the 

 greatest value, and exercised startling influence in the 

 development of many modern agricultural problems. 



Ic is necessary in every country, including. 'our 

 small West Indian communities, to make provision for 

 the means of keeping alive, and bringing into prominT 

 ence from tinn' to lim<', the ideas contained in the 

 written records of our own and other countries. Thi.s 

 forms one of the most important, but perhaps little- 

 recognized functions of the officers of our Agricultural 

 1 )epartments. ( )ne of their duties is the carrying on of 

 work and experiments directed towards the improve- 

 ment of agricultural jue'hods. the i'l'r.-iduction of 



