522 president's address — section G2. 



we do nothing more than draw more prominent attention to the 

 need for work of this kind being done, good will come of it. 



I have drawn your attention to the need for action in regard 

 to these matters, not in any spirit of carping criticism, but in order 

 that an endeavour may be made to put things on a proper basis. 

 The opportunity seems a good one for this Association, and more 

 particularly this Section, to more intimately associate itself with 

 questions of practical importance to the agricultural industry, 

 and I have no doubt but that the Section will rise to the level of 

 the opportunities offered. 



The Future. — Any consideration of the future, and any action 

 taken in regard to it, must have the following points in view : — 



1. The work now requiring doing, and the means provided. 



2. The necessity for science to come more intimately in 



touch with the practical problems of production. 



3. The necessity for bringing the producer and the scientist 



as close to one another as possible. 



4. The direction of future development — more intense agri- 



culture — the production of the best in everything. 



That we must move in the direction of developing a more 

 intense form of production must be evident — the very best of 

 everything, and plenty of it. This means that agriculture has to 

 be run upon much more scientific lines, and that consequently 

 the farmer must be even more of a trained producer than in the 

 past. This means that there must be a re- organisation — a change 

 in the relation of the scientist and the farmer ; they must become 

 more and more co-workers ; be much more intimately in touch 

 each with the other, and have many more interests in common. 

 The scientist must come to know more of the producer and his 

 production, while the latter requires to know more of the nature 

 and meaning of the laboratory and the experimental field. Hence 

 it would appear that there must be instituted some means by which 

 this can take place — some half-way meeting place — and I can 

 conceive of no institution better suited to these ends than the 

 experimental farm, properly equipped and rightly conducted. 

 This is the right place at which to carry out the investigation of 

 those problems urgently requiring solution. There, too, the 

 scientist and the producer can meet halfway and bring about 

 that mutual respect which is so essential to a proper understanding 

 of each other. There the farmer can learn more of the scientist's 

 real work and aims, and there, too, the investigator can study 

 more closely the difficulties connected with production, and by 

 controlling these institutions he can not only use them for his 

 actual investigations, but for demonstrating their advantage to 

 the farmer by actual trial. Hence, just briefly : — 



And first, as to what an Experimental Farm should be. It 

 has two functions — investigation and demonstration. These, so 



