15 



"Discoveries are not made by a stroke of a magician's wand. 

 What the State or any Research Institute should provide for the 

 scientific worker is the means of research. It should not impose 

 methods or predetermined ideas, otherwise all initiative will be 

 stifled." 



Now I think that we in New Zealand may learn something from 

 thie article which I have here summarised. Mr. Cawthron has 

 provided the means for research ; and it is not sufficient to know what 

 has been done as the result of previous researches. It is necessary, 

 if orchardry is to improve to have really competent scientific men 

 who are capable of initiating research, of adding to the already 

 existing stock of knowledge, and these men must be left untram- 

 melled by laymen, and allowed to pursue their investigations on 

 their own lines, even if no immediate beneficial results are ob- 

 tained. Merely to treat the fruit trees as they have been treated 

 hitherto by some one else in some other part of thfe world is not 

 going to lead to any real improvement in cultivation. 



I am glad to hear that recently a body of New Zealand industrial- 

 ists have come to recognise that it would pay them to employ science 

 in certain difficulties that had met them in their work. The Flax- 

 millers' Association and the owners of the Makerua flax swamp a few 

 months ago requested Dr Leonard Cockayne, F.R.S., to investigate 

 a certain diseased condition that had appeared in the flax plants. 

 The value of this industry is somewhere about a million pounds 

 annually, and it employs a large number of people. It seemed likely 

 that this important industry would in a few years be wiped out unless 

 something could be done to stop the disease. I do not know that 

 he has finished the work, but I understand that he has satisfied him- 

 self as to the cause of the disease, and no doubt his observations 

 and experiments will have beneficial results. It is, I believe, the 

 first time that any extensive industry in New Zealand has called in 

 the aid of the scientific man to solve its difficulties. Yet surely an 

 industrv of this monetary value was wise to expend a few pounds 

 in getting scientific advice. This is the kind of thing that the or- 

 chardists mio-ht do, ^ven if it is at present impossible to build and 

 onmD the Cawthron Institute. Let them band themselves together 

 PTH! employ men trained in scientific method in order to overcome 

 the troubles that some of them suffer from. 



To use Bordeaux mixture or some other fungicide for every sort 

 of fungoid pest is good enough for small farmers who can carry out 

 the excellent instructions given by the experts of the Agricultural 

 Department, but the aim of the Research Institute should be some- 

 thing more than this to find out the life history of each particular 

 pest which in this particular district attacks this or that particular 

 variety of apple or other fruit tree, whether it be the leaves, the bark 

 or the fruit to track it down and find out in this way what means 

 can be devised to put a stop to its development before it attacks any 

 more trees. "Prevention is better than cure" is an old adage with 

 much truth in it. 



There is here any amount of work and abundant opportunity for 

 a well-trained, and by that I mean a scientifically-trained, plant 



