EDITORIAL. 205 



try. The taxpayer of to-day naturally wishes to see a return for his 

 contribution, if not in his own lifetime at least in that of his chil- 

 dren. It is obvious therefore that, as a matter of elementary justice, 

 the question of time must receive consideration from any department 

 intrusted with the expenditure of state funds on research. This obli- 

 gation may make it difficult to resist the demands of those who call 

 for early results; but on the other hand these demands must be re- 

 sisted if the state is to avoid squandering its resources. Nothing is 

 more certain than that much of the best work, and the work which 

 most deserves the aid of the state, is of a kind which can not be hur- 

 ried, or than that no genuine scientific worker can grind out results 

 to order. ... As the claims of agriculture on the development fund 

 are obviously greater than the claims of agriculturists, the first en- 

 deavor should be to find out and aid those scientific men who, whether 

 agriculturists or not, are best qualified to give the industry the assist- 

 ance which it needs." 



The British Science Guild urges that "the value of investigation 

 can rarely be translated directly into terms of pecuniary gain. The 

 benefits lie more in the method of thought that is induced among the 

 farmers and those concerned in advising them, in the stimulus it gives 

 to a more exact conduct of the business of farming, in the confidence 

 with which men take up the fresh resources which science and the 

 industries are always putting at the disposal of agriculture, than in 

 any sudden revolutions effected by research. The fact that the coun- 

 tries whose agriculture has made the greatest advances in recent years 

 are those which pay the greatest attention to research is itself suffi- 

 cient justification for the action of the British Science Guild in urg- 

 ing the British Government to move in this direction." 



The secretary of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries expresses 

 the conviction that the research work in agriculture should be de- 

 veloped at local centers and largely in connection with educational 

 institutions, where its influence on the teaching would at once be 

 potent, and where the conditions are most favorable for it, a view 

 which in general harmonizes with experience in this country. While 

 he admits that from a purely administrative point of view a state 

 research station would offer certain advantages, he argues that the 

 local character of the studies to be made and the application of the 

 results to local farming conditions are against the establishment of 

 one central station. He says : " In the immediate future there is little 

 doubt that the major portion of the funds available for agricultural 

 research should go to a small number of institutions, qualified by staff 

 and equipment to undertake research; but this does not settle the 

 question of the system at which the state should aim." 



The development of the plans for research under this new fund, as 

 well as of many other enterprises which may be inaugurated under 



