58 AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENTS AND RESEARCH 



scientific officer whom it engages. Not all who go 

 through a course of scientific study at the Universities 

 are fitted for research, and special care should, therefore, 

 be taken in the selection of scientific officers. They 

 should be appointed on probation for a time, which 

 should not ordinarily exceed three years. At the end of 

 this time, or before it, the services of an unsuitable pro- 

 bationer should be rigorously dispensed with. If found 

 suitable, he should be confirmed in his appointment. 

 Thereafter, he should be left as much as possible to 

 himself. The initiative in respect of a particular line of 

 work and the method of approaching it should be almost 

 entirely left to him, for individuality and tastes play such 

 an important part that to attempt to bring about research 

 by "order" would lead assuredly to undesirable con- 

 sequences. 



The next point we may consider is that of collaboration. 

 How are the various branches of a department for agricul- 

 tural research to collaborate and yet maintain that 

 freedom which is predicated as being essential ? Were 

 we dealing with the research of a commercial or industrial 

 undertaking, where the purpose was, for example, the 

 improvement in the manufacture of certain definite 

 products, the matter would be simple, for the scientific 

 man would have to subordinate his views and his work 

 to the exigencies of the particular business he was 

 engaged in, and it is not unreasonable to expect that on 

 account of the restrictions put upon him by his agreement 

 and the promptings of common sense he would focus his 

 endeavours on the common objective. In an agricultural 

 department under the State the matter is not so simple. 

 The common goal of raising the level of agricultural 

 practice may be approached by many roads, and it is 

 conceivable for lines of work to be taken up in the various 

 branches of agricultural science without any reference to 

 collaboration. There are two kinds of collaboration : 

 one in which the contribution by one branch of science 

 to another is mere assistance given in an ancillary 

 capacity: as, for example, the economic botanist takes 

 up the improvement of the wheat plant on Mendelian 

 lines. It is certain that he will require, during the course 



