322 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



October 14, 1911. 



another, with consequent waste of time, resources and 

 energ}'. It should hardly be necessary to point out 

 that the provision of a central agricultural organization 

 possessing a wide knowledge of agricultural matter.sand 

 the ijowcr to direct the energies of the officers under 

 its charge forms the most useful means of preventing 

 the loss that arises in this way. 



One necessity for the experimenter is the posses- 

 sion of the imaginative faculty. He must be able to 

 take a broad view of the field in which his activities 

 are to be confined, so that he may see plainly where 

 his work is required, and be able to devise the best 

 methods for experimentation. Without such a view, 

 he will be likely to make his research a matter, merely, 

 of attention to inconsiderable details. 



He also requires patience. In agriculture, par- 

 ticularly, years of careful observation and many repeti- 

 tions of experiments are generally needed before any 

 dependable results can be obtained. Attention may be 

 drawn, for illustration, to manurial experiments, par- 

 ticularly with the sugar-cane and cacao, that have been 

 carried out during long periods in the West Indies. 



Another requisite is a proper realization of the 

 necessity for the fair and honest presentation of his 

 results. As far as is humanly possible, the direction 

 of the experiments and the presentation of what they 

 appear to demonstrate in fact should be free from bias 

 arising from preconceived theories. There should be 

 no ignoring of indications contrary to existing ideas; 

 nor, on the other hand, should too great a stress be laid on 

 isolated circumstances that appear to give support to 

 some favourite theory. Theories of the latter kind will 

 often have to be discarded, and there should be no 

 hesitation in dismissing them from further considera- 

 tion, once they have been proved untenable. 



The advantage of the fair treatment of results 

 appears in another light. It may lead to the forming 

 of conclusions that are of the greatest use, although 

 totally unexpected. Such conclusions are of all the 

 more value because they have been formulated after 

 ignorance of their existence and in the coiisc(iuent 

 absence of bias in their favour. 



In presenting reports of work, much care should be 

 taken that such presentation is etfected with the great- 

 est clearness, and fairness to the evidence that is avail- 

 able. Where this is the case, the clearness of thi; 

 account is of the largest use to other experimenters, 

 and may even enable them to elucidate useful facts in 



connexion with their own work. 'J"he importance of 

 this indirect use 5f negative conclusions will be evident. 



Where positive results of certain application have 

 been obtained, they have two use.«. The first is 

 the obvicius matter of their utilization in existing 

 circumstances; the second is their employment to 

 suggest other lines of work. .Such results actually 

 have their place in a larger scheme; they comprise 

 a necessary step for its completi.jn. The provision of 

 all the results in the scheme are in the hands of no 

 single investigator. One takes up the work where 

 another leaves it; but the conclusions reached by those 

 who succeed the pioneers could not have been obtained 

 without the existence of the preliinin^tiy conscientious 

 investigations. 



Lastly, the use of the results of experimentation is 

 not confined to the line of work in which they have 

 their special place; it exists for other, probably quite 

 dissimilar, interests. It was not obvious that the observa- 

 tion of Cavendish, that the oxygen and nitrogen of 

 the air unite in the presence of an electric spark, 

 would be a necessary preliminary to obtaining an 

 artificial manure, using the nitrogen of the atmosphere; 

 the agriculturists of the time did not regard the work 

 with bacteria, of Pasteur, as the commencement of stud- 

 ies which would lead to the devising of proper systems of 

 tillage and agricultural conservation. 



The agricultural investigator h,is before him 

 a large field of work. He cannot enter it alone. He 

 must survey it with an open mind, and decide which 

 part of it to occupy; for this he will most probably 

 require the guidance of those who can more easily see 

 hiiw his work must be correlated with that of others. 

 Lastly, he will find it partly occupied with the results of 

 former activities. These ho will employ for the conduct 

 of his researches, in order that he may leave at least 

 sonipthing of use to those who will take the place in 

 which he once laboured conscientious!}'. 



DEPARTMENT NEWS. 



The Inq)erial Commissioner of Agriculture returned 

 to Barbados, from duty leave in England, by the 

 R.M.S. ' Thames', on October 9. 



Mr. P. T. Saunders, M.R.C.V.S., Veterinary Officer 

 on the Staff of the Imperial Department of Agriculture, 

 arrived at Barbados from Antigua, on October 4, by 

 the R.M.S. ' Magdalena'. 



