president's address. — SECTI0^^ G". '577 



The estimate of the live stock of the -world, together with the 

 figures for the Australian Commonwealth, is as follows : — 



The WoilJ. AustvHlrt. 



Horses ... 77,191,000 ... 1,868,000 



Cattle ... 343,483,000 ... 10,101,000 



Sheep ... 496,557,000 ... 87,422,000 



Swine ... 121,287,000 ... 769,000 



It will be seen that while one-sixth of the sheep of the world ai^e 

 depastured in Australia we have only an insignificant proportion of 

 the other stock. 



It would be difficult to enumerate or even approximately attach 

 a value to the benefits which science has conferred upon the agrarian 

 industries. Where in former times many operations were carried 

 out by more or less haphazard rules science has established rational 

 methods. Biological research gave us in 1887 the scientific explana- 

 tion for the well-known method of preceding a crop of wheat with 

 clover as the best preparation. Such has been practised from the 

 time of the Romans. 



We are constantly reminded that the conditions of modern agri- 

 cultural practice must be harmonised with the facts of pure science. 

 The benefit of applying farmyard manure was proven long before 

 science showed how certain chemical constituents are essential to plant 

 life. So, also, simple observation, prior to scientific confirmation, 

 taught the benefits derivable from feeding live stock on the more con- 

 centrated foods. 



Attention was first called by Liebig nearly 80 years ago to the 

 gradual deterioration of arable soils in his " Chemistiy in its Relation 

 to Agriculture." Science has afforded the essential stimulus in the 

 establishment of new industries. The first attempts at extracting 

 beet sugar were failures; now more than half the sugar production 

 of the world is obtained from this source. 



.Scientific direction is required to combat insect and fungus pests 

 as well as noxious vegetation. 



The geologist and the chemist have classified our soils, and 

 assisted us in determining conditions for effective fertilisation. Prob- 

 ably the greatest service to the man on the land has been afiorded 

 by the study of bacterial life in soils. The fixation of atmospheric 

 nitrogen by leguminous ci'ops and the liberation of plant food in 

 soils through bacterial action have explained obscure phenomena of 

 intense interest. 



The concern created by the possibility of exhausting our stores 

 of nitrates in Chili has been relieved by the production of fertilising 

 nitrates from the atmosphere at Notodden, in Noi'way. The nitrate 

 of lime thus produced is found in practice to be quite equal to the . 

 fertilising power of commercial Chili saltpetre, and the manufacturing 

 cost of this scientific product is not much more than half. 



Science, again, has brought our distant markets into closer touch 

 with us for our perishable products by means of refrigeration. Science 

 has assumed a controlling feature iTi every operation at the dairy. 



The improvement of crops and +he breeding of new varieties of 

 plants have been brought within our reach by Burbank, Garton, and 

 Farrer. With the labours of the last-named distinguished scientist 



2m 



