NA TURE 



621 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 13, 1921. 



Editorial and Puhlisking Offues: 



MACMILLAN t- CO., LTD., 



ST. MARTIN'S STREET. LONDON. W.C.2. 



Advertiiements and business lenerj ihouJd be 



addressed to the Publishers. 



Editorial conununicationt lo the Editor. 



Telegraphic Address : PHUSIS, LONDON. 

 Tdqihone Number: CERRARD 8830. 



The Development of Agriculture. 



THE latest annual report of the Development 

 Commissioners" takes the form of a review 

 of the work of the Commission since its establish- 

 ment in 1909. It includes another novel feature in 

 a series of reports on the past work and future 

 outlook of the research institutes supported by the 

 Commission. These reports have been prepared 

 !•> the directors of the laboratories, and, covering, 

 ■ IS they do, a large part of the field of biology,' 

 would, if space permitted, repay detailed con- 

 deration. They bear witness to a consider- 

 >le output of original work, not only in 

 plied science, but also in fundamental re- 

 irch. Of the progress made in the latter, 

 ' report on the Rothamsted Experimental 

 ition contains the most noteworthy ex- 

 nples. In 1909 the scientific staff there 

 numbered five only; the technical staff now 

 numbers nearly seventy, of whom twenty-five are 

 university graduates, and the annual grant made 

 by the Commission (through the Ministry of Agri- 

 culture) has nearly quintupled the original income 

 of the .station. The output and quality of 

 original work at this station in the last 

 decade arc well known to our readers. As 

 an example of successful technological investiga- 

 tions, the Fruit Experiment Station established at 

 ' * Mailing, in Kent, may be instanced. The 

 achieved by this station in improving 



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.NO. 2672. VOL. 106] 



the value of orchard trees is an example of 

 the rapidity with which the application of 

 science to industrial problems can achieve 

 results of economic importance. As the 

 Commissioners point out, owing largely to 

 the lack of trained workers, the advance of 

 knowledge in relation to the problems of agri- 

 culture after the great achievements of Lawes and 

 Gilbert circa i860 was inconsiderable. In a large 

 degree this sterility was caused by the need of 

 money — a need which the Development Fund has 

 supplied. In these circumstances it was not sur- 

 prising that agricultural education, too, was in 

 danger of becoming outworn. Research and 

 education are closely correlated; each is depend- 

 ent on the stimulation provided by the other. 



The scheme of the Development Act was novel 

 in so far as it provided a fund for the economic 

 development of agriculture to be expended under 

 the direction of- a quasi-judicial body without 

 executive powers, " not responsible to any Minister 

 and to that extent insusceptible to political pres- 

 sure." The Commissioners apparently wish to 

 contrast the limitation of their powers with the 

 freedom of other bodies concerned with the 

 State support of research recently established. 

 They also refer to the statutory restriction of their 

 advances to non-profit-making concerns, and seem 

 to suggest that this limitation in some degree 

 diminishes their usefulness; it certainly appears 

 to be a restriction which is not congruent with 

 the subsequent policy of the State in relation to 

 scientific research. 



Measures have also been taken to promote re- 

 search in the economic problems of our fisheries. 

 A scheme has been developed which provides, inter 

 alia, for a large measure of control by a com- 

 mittee of men of science and for the separate 

 orientation of free (or fundamental) from 

 "directed" (or technological) research. Free re- 

 search will, very properly, be regarded as the 

 function of universities and other independent 

 bodies, while "directed" research— that directly 

 concerned with economic developments — will be 

 entrusted to the various State departments con- 

 nected with fisheries. We commend the dichotomy 

 to the consideration of the Commissioners in the 

 other aspects of their activities. 



The report is noticeably silent on one adminis- 

 trative aspect of all research .schemes which is 

 the subject of active controversy at the present 

 time. In a recent issue we commented on the 

 admirable scheme fostered by the Commission 

 under which research workers in agriculture have 



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