PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 7 



are considered to be greater care of infant life, better sanita- 

 tion, temperance, general prosperity leading to more abundant 

 and wholesome nutrition, and perhaps also more attention 

 to athletics and ablutions. Sine 3 our supplies have been 

 seriously threatened by submarines, much has been written 

 about the sustaining qualities of different foods, and many 

 lists of economical meals have been published. There are 

 some obscure substances which are developed in plants, 

 called vitamines, which have hitherto, I believe, eluded the 

 skill of chemists, but are well known by their effects, and 

 certain foods when deprived of them by over heating or 

 otherwise are insufficient to sustain life, though no chemical 

 change may be perceptible. This difficulty may, however, be 

 overcome by the addition of a small quantity of some other 

 food containing them, so that the question becomes compli- 

 cated. 



BOTANY AND AGRICULTURE. 



In my address a year ago I spoke of Agriculture as being 

 then the most important of the two heads of this section, 

 and it would have been well for the country if some of the 

 stringent measures which have been taken lately to increase 

 our most important crops had been taken a year before. 

 But it is easy to criticise, and far more difficult to plan 

 successfully, especially in a complicated matter like this in 

 which so many opposite interests are involved. The claims 

 of farm labour in opposition to those of th.3 Army, the 

 encouragement of farmers on the one side, and a moderate 

 price for bread and other farm products on the other, 

 as well as many other points, require to b3 balanced with 

 great discrimination, whilst the scarcity of artificial manures 

 makes furth3r difficulties. Peat treated in certain ways 

 and other substitutes have been proposed, and I believe 

 used, with more or less success, and it would seem that thsre 

 are large deposits in Naw Zealand of a mica schist containing 

 potash, which may be valuable for the future when it can 



