Beport of the Chemist for Agriculture. 217 



Field Operations. 



Tlie field operations of the past year were conducted on a more 

 extensive scale than at any time in the history of the branch. The 

 work of this section increases in popularity each year, a popularity 

 based upon the results of immediate benefit to the farmer which have 

 followed, and continue to follow, its operations. The wonderful effects 

 following the use of appropriate manures on the poorei soils of the 

 South have opened a new chapter of possibilities in this part of Vic- 

 toria, and give promise of converting immense areas considered almost 

 worthless into good profitable holdings. The field manure tests 

 of last year were numerous and covered a variety of crops. The re- 

 sults will be given in a separate paper. The forage crop experiments 

 formed a prominent feature in the field operations of the year. A 

 report dealing with the outcome of these experiments has already ap- 

 peared in the pages of the Journal. The field tests with the sugar 

 beet covered an immense area, and practically took in the whole of 

 Southern Victoria. The results of these tests will also require a 

 separate report. 



Improvements in the Methods op Conducting Field Tests. 



The advisability of training young men for field work possessing 

 a fairly good scientific education has been suggested ; and the desir- 

 ability of making such employment continuous instead of intermittent 

 as at present has also been pointed out. Field experiments, without 

 absolute accuracy and honesty in every detail, are worse than use- 

 less. It is only a scientific training — and more especially a chemical 

 training — which can give this accuracy. The intellectual honesty, 

 also, which will truthfully record failures and not exaggerate 

 successes is the outcome, also, of a moral training associated generally 

 with the higher social stages in life. Our field otticers have all been 

 drawn from the ranks of farming life. Excellent work has been done 

 with this material ; but much better and more satisfactory might be 

 achieyed under the altered arrangements referred to. The inter- 

 mittent nature of the employment under present conditions is 

 calculated to place considerations of self too much above consider- 

 ations of the I)epartment. I should prefer for my field work a body 

 of well-educated young enthusiasts, who would regard themselves as 

 possible future instructors in the great field of agricultural education 

 which lies before us. 



Impeovements in the System of Experiments. 



The field manure tests might, I think, be made much more 

 scientific, and of a much wider value, if the district as a whole instead 

 of the individual could receive consideration. Under present con- 

 ditions, we are dependent upon the individual or individuals making 

 application for co-operation in the field tests carried out in a district. 

 There may be half a dozen types of soil in a district, and opportunity is 

 afforded of testing one only, through farmers or the others declining 

 to go to the trouble of engaging in the work with the Department. 



