president's address — SECTION G2. 517 



these innovations have been, and hence his altered attitude 

 towards science. 



1. There has been a great development in our agriculture 



within the last half-century — more an expansion in the 

 area than an improvement in our methods of cultivation. 



2. Scientific teaching has been responsible for considerable 



improvement in all departments of production. 



3. This teaching has been more in the application to our 



conditions of the experience of older countries than in 

 active investigation work on problems affecting our 

 peculiar conditions. 



4. The attitude of the producer has changed considerably 



within the last quarter of a century, a better under- 

 standing existing between him and the scientist. 



II. Work Requiring to he Done. — How this Section may help 

 it on. — It would seem that we have come to a stage in the develop- 

 ment of our agriculture at which much greater changes must be 

 brought about, and in which the research worker is to be in 

 evidence. Mr. A. D. Hall, of Rothamsted, has said : — " Agricul- 

 tural science involves some of the most complex and difiicult 

 problems the world is ever likely to have to solve, and if it is to 

 continue to be of benefit to the working farmer these investiga- 

 tions, so far as their actual conduct goes, must very quickly pass 

 into regions where only the professional scientific man can hope 

 to follow them." 



With this statement we are in full agreement, and there is in 

 Australian agriculture at the present time a great need for research 

 work of the kind Hall refers to. The farmer and stockbreeder 

 to-day are face to face with problems urgently requiring solution. 

 They recognise that science can help them, and in many cases they 

 are calling attention to the need for means to undertake their 

 investigation. Some of these problems are causing a loss of 

 thousands of pounds from year to year. In the investigation of 

 several of them really good work has been done, but it has been 

 left just at a stage in which it is of little practical use to anyone. 

 The want of finality in much of this work has been due to a number 

 of causes, some of which may be mentioned : — The want of investi- 

 gators, trained men ; the multiplicity of occupation of those who 

 are qualified to do the work ; the want of means and convenience 

 to carry the work farther ; and the want of co-operation of effort 

 amongst those who are working at a subject, and who, if they 

 were working in conjunction, could bring about results that no 

 single individual is capable of doing, however well qualified he 

 may be. Let us now deal with a few of these. 



1. — " Take-all." [Ophiobolus graminis, or the wheat stem- 

 killing fungus). This disease of wheat is rapidly spreading in 

 Australia, and especially in South Australia, where I have seen it 



