6 AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND THE FARMER : 



establishment of more principles on which reasoned experiments 

 may be based. This class of work, however, is usually highly 

 technical ; it is not easily described in popular language, and 

 it is sometimes remote from practical application. Although 

 many of the investigations described in this volume, however, 

 may not be of immediate practical value to the agriculturist, 

 it is hoped that the account will stimulate his interest in 

 research, and show him that the scientists who are engaged in 

 Research Institutions up and down the country are not 

 indulging in a favourite hobby, but are working at problems 

 of fundamental importance to agriculture, and exploring new 

 country from which rich provision may in future years be 

 expected. Perhaps, also, the report will serve to indicate some 

 of the difficulties against which research workers have to 

 contend, and the amount of time and labour which is often 

 required to secure even a small advance in knowledge. 



Under the Ministry's scheme of research, each Research 

 Institution makes a special study of one important branch of 

 agricultural science. A list of the Research Institutions, indi- 

 cating the main problem which each is engaged in investigating, is 

 printed as Appendix I to this Report. In addition, a considerable 

 amount of research work is done by the technical advisers (also 

 referred to in the Appendix) attached to University Depart- 

 ments of Agriculture and Agricultural Colleges. Their duties 

 are partly advisory in character, but they are often confronted 

 with local farming problems which require investigation, and 

 these are dealt with so far as opportunities permit. This appHes 

 particularly to diseases of plants, and the chapter devoted to this 

 subject is mainly a record of the results of research Vv^ork recently 

 carried out by the technical advisers in plant pathology. 



It would not be possible, within the hmits of a Report of this 

 character, to deal with all the research v.'ork that is now being 

 conducted. Moreover, some parts of it are too highly technical to 

 be described in language which would be easily understood by a 

 non-scientific reader. The Report, therefore, refers only to the 

 main lines of investigation, and in some cases, perhaps, undue 

 emphasis may have been laid on work which lends itself to 

 popular description, although the research may not be more 

 valuable than other work which has been described very briefly, 

 or even omitted. 



