Tlii> Neod for Soil Invest} gaivyns. 21)5 



THE NEED FOR SOIL INVESTIGATIONS. 



Bij S. l\ ill/inii.sO)i ]\'a/l(iri, Dinctiii- nf Agrindtun'.. 



TliL' functions (if an Agi-i(.-iiltural DupHvtnient are not onlv 

 educatioual aiul iuspectional — tliev are, or slionld be, in tlie highest 

 degree investigational also. It is, in fact, upon the support we sliall 

 give to research work, and the vigour with which it is carried out, 

 that all advances in our agricultural practice will depend. In a new 

 country such as this, with little or nothing of the accuuudated 

 (■x})erience belonging to centi'es with an old established agriculture, 

 there is naturally a very great deal still to do in the dissemination of 

 some of the facts from the great mass of knowledge ac(|uired by 

 investigators elsewhere. A few years of vigorous lecture work is 

 sufficient, however, to exhaust this source, and without an equally 

 vigorous concurrent system of research the educational agencies of 

 the future must ])e confined in their activity to a mere repetition of 

 stale facts. It is doubtless true that, were never a moment's time 

 given to research work in Victoria, we should still benefit to an 

 extent from investigations carried out elsewhere, but it nuist be 

 ap})arent to the most casual observer that we have onr nnm])erless 

 local problems ^\'hich can only be solved by local effort. 



If we look into our own De|)artment of Agriculture, it appears to 

 me that the investigational side of its activities has suffered a go(jd 

 (leal of neglect — not, very probably, an intentional neglect, but one 

 that followed as a natural course from a tendency, common in new- 

 countries looking to bone and muscle as the main factors to success, 

 to regard as worthless all investigation which does not end in an 

 immediate possible ])ractical application. If there is one fact which 

 p()ints more strongly than another in the direction referred to, it is, 

 I think, the absence of a properly eipiipjied ' Kxperiment Station in 

 Victoria. One of my earliest suggestions, it will be remembcu'cd, 

 was the establishment of such a station. 



With the establishment of such a statiiiii, which is now a recog- 

 nised necessary institution in all parts of the world, oia* Departmt-nt 

 could enter u))on a systematic and truly scientific set of investigations 

 which would, 1 feel sure, exercise a lu-ofound influence u])on onr 

 agricultural practice. 



In the al)sence of such a station, it must be recognised that great 

 work has been done through other agencies, and the solution of the 

 fertilization requirements of our Xortheru soils by the Chemical 

 Branch is an achievement of which the Department feels justly jjroud. 

 Soil investigations of a similar character in the South have already 

 resulted in facts of gri'at value, and with a few years of vigorous 

 field work, and the co-operative support of the farmer — for success, 

 uiuler presen,t conditions, depends primarily upon this — we shall 

 ]»robably have a mass of \ery valuable information t<» impart. Jt is 



