July. 1922 



SCIEXTIFIC AGRICL-LTL'RE 



363 



Presidential Address 



BY L. S. KLIXCK, 



President of the University of Briti.sii Columbia, Vaneouvei- 



It is in a spirit of satisfaction at much 

 good work accomplished that I rise this 

 evening to deliver the Presidential Ad- 

 dress at this the second annual convention 

 of the Canadian Society of Technical Agri- 

 culturists. 



Two years have passed since the Society 

 was organized. Although the movement 

 arose naturally and spontaneously, there 

 was not a little suspicion and prejudice and 

 a great deal of indifference to overcome. 

 Confidence had to be created; objections 

 had to be met and the thick atmosphere 

 of doubt which prevailed in some quarters 

 had to be dispelled. As a result, the So- 

 ciety was on trial during the fir.st year 

 of its existence. 



The first annual convention, which was 

 lield last year in Winnipeg, allayed, but 

 did not wholly di.spel, the fears of the more 

 conservative. The Society, they said, had 

 grown too rapidly. Slow development they 

 regarded as half-sister to wisdom. They 

 thought that an organization of such gourd- 

 like growth would naturally be short-lived 

 and its influence problematical. 



This evening, I thinly all those wlio ques- 

 tioned the Avisdom of forming the Society 

 have ample evidence to justify them in a 

 change of attitude. Time has demonstrat- 

 ed that the organization was not the crea- 

 tion of the exigencies of the moment, but 

 the mature and considered outcome of a 

 Dominion-wide sentiment. 



Each year since the organizing conven- 

 tion, the measure of the Society's oppor- 

 tunities has become increasingly evident, 

 and the record of work accomplished is 

 the highest tribute that can be paid to the 

 splendid idealism and the sound, practical 

 judgment of those who were responsible 

 for the calling of the Ottawa meeting in 

 May. 1920. Some have regarded these men 

 as having been too optimistic ; others, as 

 not having been optimistic enough. How- 

 ever that may be, I do not think that the 

 boldest among them have ventured to pre- 

 dict a gathering such as this within a little 

 more than two years from the time the 

 call for the fir.st national convention was 

 issued. 



The progress made during the past year 

 has not been spectacular, but it has been 



steady and uninterrupted. Since the Win- 

 nipeg Convention, the Society has strength- 

 ened its position, has made some notable 

 advances, and has consolidated its gains. 

 The record of the work accomplished since 

 the last annual meeting, as set forth in the 

 report of the General Secretary-Treasurer 

 this evening, is a most gratifying one, not 

 alone because of the measure of success 

 achieved, but also because it foreshadows 

 a future bright with promise. 



During the year the scope of the Socie- 

 ty "s activities has been extended and en- 

 larged. Objectives which were not so im- 

 mediate and pressing as those taken up 

 at the organizing convention have received 

 consideration. The locals have become bet- 

 ter organized; and provincial workers, 

 without respect to departmental affilia- 

 tions, have evinced new interest in the 

 study of the wider aspects of agricultural 

 education and agricultural organization 

 as those relate to provincial needs or 

 to those of national import. These studies, 

 prosecuted in a broader spirit and in a 

 more systematic way than heretofore, have 

 proved most .stimulating and suggestive and 

 have gone far toward bringing about a 

 better undestanding among technical agri- 

 culturists in Canada. 



In the local conferences which have been 

 held, .a serious attempt has been made to 

 discover and to apply the main principles 

 which underlie the more closely related 

 problems to which agriculturists are direct- 

 ing their attention. By this means the 

 working interest of the members' has been 

 sustained and greatly increased. Xowhere 

 is there evidence of waning enthusiasm. 

 The objectives of the Society still present. 



The freshness of a new appeal. 



I would not have you infer from this 

 that the duties of the Dominion Execu- 

 tive have been purely nominal. Many dif- 

 ficulties incident to the inception of the 

 movement, although not peculiar to it, have 

 been met and some of them have been suc- 

 cessfully solved. Your Executive has not al- 

 ways given evidence of "wisdom incar- 

 nate", but again freedom of action 

 has been justified of her children. Res- 

 ponsibility, when delegated, has been gladly 

 assumed and I trust, has been unreservedly 

 respected. There remains, however, much 



