president's address — SECTION G2. 523 



far as our Australian experimental farms are concerned, have to 

 a great extent been lost sight of. They have too often been made 

 revenue-producing institutions. This is altogether outside the 

 scope of experimental work, and the sooner that is realised and 

 put right the better. To carry out experiments and research with 

 the object of increasing or adding to our knowledge of a subject, 

 to put this into practice and to demonstrate to the producer the 

 benefits to be derived from such, constitute the lines upon which 

 our experimental farms and stations should be run.. 



Fui'ther, in order that these institutions may carry on such 

 work it is necessary that the^^ should be controlled by trained 

 men ; men should be in charge of them who are qualified to under- 

 take work of this kind ; men who have been trained to it, and 

 can be relied upon to do solid work and to see that the money 

 provided to carry on such work is properly spent. Then there is 

 needed the means for properly equipping them for work. Labora- 

 tories, workrooms, special implements and special conveniences 

 in building all cost money, and until such is provided independently 

 of what the revenue is to be in £ s. d., time and money spent on 

 them are but wasted. 



I would still further draw attention to another matter in 

 respect to the part to be played by these farms, and that is in the 

 need for organisation and co-operation in the work to be carried 

 out. It is not asking too much of them to require that the money 

 provided by the ratepayer should be spent to the very best 

 advantage, hence the necessity for preventing overlapping of 

 work. It is, of course, true that in each of the States there will 

 be work to be done having reference to that particular State, and 

 I can also see that in many instances it would be an advantage to 

 have certain classes of investigation work duplicated or checked, 

 and even these call for organisation and co-operation. I am 

 satisfied, however, that unless the work is organised at these 

 different stations there will be a deal of unnecessary duplication 

 and working on different lines in the same sections by different 

 investigators, provided some control is not exercised to prevent 

 it. This overlapping and want of co-operation is evident in 

 the work of the various State Departments at the present day. 

 Now, one way of overcoming these difficulties appears to me to 

 be in the establishment of a Central Research Station on the lines 

 of that great institution at Rothamsted ; that some moneyed 

 Australian should come forward and as richly endow an institution 

 of this kind as did the late Sir J ohn Lawes is much to be desired ; 

 and we have wealthy men, even among the primary producers. 

 Faihng that, the establishment of a Federal Research Station, 

 properly equipped and staffed by the very best men the Common- 

 wealth can provide, would meet the case. From such an institu- 

 tion would emanate the organisation of all research work, and 

 all results would be referred to it for classification, comparison 

 and publication. Here, research of a general nature — that is, 



