REPORT OF THE SOCIETY 73 



difficult it is to express in dollars and cents the value of scientific research con- 

 tributions to the national wealth of Canada. Indeed, it may be somewhat 

 strange to be asked such a question, but nowadays, when everything has been 

 more or less subject to inquiry by efficiency experts, such questions have crop- 

 ped up again and again. 1 have always felt in this regard that scientific research 

 cannot be assessed justl}- as to its value to a country's development, principally 

 because development of natural and established industries is so largely' a ques- 

 tion of political economy. We may thus — as scientists — be able to solve a num- 

 ber of questions relating to increase of production from every point of view: 

 but increase of production, with all its scientific foundation, does not solve the 

 question of marketing what we have thus increased. In consequence you will 

 ag^ee that whatever we may calculate to be the dollar and cent value of scien- 

 tific work relating to crop production, it is by no means the only aspect of pro- 

 gress and prosperity of agriculture. 



Where, however, our duties commence is to aid in the production of a type 

 or quality of commodity that will give the best and safest returns to the producer 

 or consumer. Thus I wish to introduce the remarks which I wish to make 

 to-day. In general they are applicable to every phase of agriculture, forestry' 

 and horticulture — animal as well as plant life. 



A good many years ago agricultural seeds were sold in the markets of the 

 world without any restriction whatsoever. It was not until the fundamental 

 work of Stebler and Noble that attention was called to the fact that some of 

 the seeds sold for seed purposes did not germinate. Samples of agricultural 

 seed of very low percentage of germination were quite frequent in those early 

 days, and attempts ma^^ even to-day be made to occasionally dispose of seeds 

 of low germination. Gradually the sale of agricultural seeds and seeds gene- 

 rally, was made subject to germination tests, until in due time experience has 

 shown that standard of germination which would make a seed a good and 

 useful quality, and this standard eventually became compulsory by law. 



These standards are now pretty nearly uniform in all progressive agricul- 

 tural countries; but the results of such scientific observation or the application 

 of such observation, rather, to practical problems, it would seem difficult to 

 express in money values. Vet, the farmers of the world owe a great debt of 

 gratitude to the painstaking scientific worker. 



The next step in improving the quality of agricultural seeds was the deter- 

 mination of their purity. I do not need to refer here to the importance of this 

 phase, knowing that you are all quite familiar with the merits of such aims. 

 Agriculture has been immensely aided bj' the use of seeds of high germination 

 and high purity, which includes foremost of all freedom from noxious weed 

 seeds according to definite standards. 



In Canada, we know that excellent work in this regard for the benefit of all 

 users of seed, is being done in the Seed Commissioner's laboratories. I under- 



