184 ANIMAL LIFE AND HUMAN PROGRESS 



over had he penned that sentence forty years later. I do not 

 wish to imply that a Faraday is to be had even for a million 

 pounds to-day. I only wish to emphasise Huxley's point, 

 that a first-rate intellect is cheap at any price you are asked 

 to pay. 



I would suggest that the President of the Board of Agri- 

 culture keep a watchful eye upon the Universities 'and be 

 prepared to purchase these first-rate intellects whenever they 

 appear. They are not common. Like old masters they come 

 irregularly upon the market. A period of years may go by 

 without one, and then suddenly a single year may throw up 

 several. Some elastic system is needed which will allow of 

 their being captured whenever they chance to appear, and 

 provided with ample resources for doing the work they wish 

 to do, which they alone can do. Given the right men and 

 given the resources I have no fear of the result, even as 

 judged by the purely utilitarian standpoint. 



Take wheat alone. Biffen's work has already added 

 hundreds of thousands of pounds yearly to the wealth of this 

 country. Howard, in India, has produced a new wheat which 

 is now spreading over the Central Provinces and is expected 

 shortly to increase the annual value of the crop in that area 

 alone by 7,000,000. The experiment station in Ohio is 

 supplying the farmers of that State with a wheat that pro- 

 duces on the average an increase of two bushels to the acre 

 on those previously grown. With two million acres under 

 this cereal, the gain is obviously considerable. 



These are but trifles compared to what could be done in 

 the near future if but a few hundred skilled brains could be 

 persuaded to study the genetic properties of plants and 

 animals. Every year, in the British Empire alone, tens of 

 millions of potential wealth, the ingathering of which would 

 require no greater expenditure of labour than at present, are 

 being thrown away. It is true that a start has been made in 

 a timid fashion. We find an experiment station here and 

 another there, carrying out genetic work as best they may, 

 generally with scanty staff and often with inadequate means. 

 But one would have thought that the very success of these 



