242 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



June, 1921. 



those who are engaged in college work. You will be 

 gratified to know that the importance of thi.s subject 

 has been recognized by your executive and that it has 

 been given a prominent place in the program of this 

 Convention. > 



Even casual observation during the past few years 

 discloses the fact that long-established standards with 

 respect to personnel and creative performance in gov- 

 ^iTiment and in college circles are extremely difficult 

 to maintain. While a certain percentage of change in 

 the personnel of an organization is often desirable, and 

 sometimes even beneficial, it is nothing short of a 

 calamity when an efficient organizTTtion is disrupted, or 

 its morale lowered from the lack of financial support. 

 To-day specialized training and years of experience 

 are required before technical men attain to full effi- 

 ciency ; and it has become increasingly evident, espe- 

 cially during the last three or four years, that it is 

 well nigh impossible to maintain previous standards 

 since, in the appointments to fill vacancies caused by 

 liesignations, individuals of equal f^cademic aittain- 

 ments, ability and experience will not accept these 

 jjositions under present salary scliedules. The inevit- 

 able result iu manv cases has been a Irwering of teach- 

 ing and investigational standards. Thi? demand from 

 the busines.s world is for the liighest grade of men, men 

 trained professionally and with an aptitude for ad- 

 ministrative affairs. As a result, the colleges and the 

 Government service have found that many of their 

 most valuable men have reluctantly decided to resign ; 

 and unfortunately, in some cases, the less efficient have 

 remained. The net result has been that colleges and 

 Government Departments have in effect. l)ecomp train- 

 ing schools for private business. This is particulai'ly 

 tnie in the upper grades where the disparity between 

 the salaries paid government and college men and those 

 paid for positions of corresponding grade in business, 

 is more pronounced. Fortunately the pendubuu is be- 

 ginning to swins back, but in the interval, many of the 

 ablest men in GovornTnental or in College work have 

 been lost to the profession. 



Some technical associations have recently been form- 

 ed in Canada whose first ob.iective is increased public 

 recognition of technically trained men and adequate 

 remuneration for professional services rendered. To 

 this end they have secured protective legislation and 

 have endeavoured to discourage the bringing in of 

 technically trained men from other provinces. The 

 members of these associations base their ease upon the 

 fact that this is an era of applied science ; that know- 

 ledge and professional experience are essential in the 

 successful doing of the world's work and that this 

 knowledge and professional skill have been acquired 

 at great expense in time and. mone.v. Several of these 

 as.sociations have drawn up and have approved sche- 

 dules for pressing their claims upon individuals and 

 corporations requiring the services of their members. 

 They are now seeking to effect a Dominion-wide organ- 

 ization so that their influence may be brought to bear 

 throughout the whole country. 



Unquestionably technical knowledge and skill .lustly 

 entitle the possessor to professional standing, to merit- 

 ed recognition and to financial returns commensurate 

 with the service rendered. On the other hand, state, 

 or private individuals have contributed generously to 

 the training and education of these men — a consider- 

 ation which ought not to be lost sight of in the dis- 

 cussion of this question. 



Technical agriculturists have been among the last 



of the professional men to organize. They have much 

 to learn about themselves as members of a p\j-ofession 

 and still more as regards educating the public t« place 

 a proper valuation on their services. This in itself 

 will call for the expenditure of time, of money and the 

 development of an rsprit rlr corps on the part of the 

 members of this society. When our members speak of 

 attaining the ends sought by other organized technical 

 workers it rests with themselves to determine what 

 course shall be pursued and how far the society is pre- 

 pared to go. 



Last year no attempt was made to stress the question 

 of increases in salaries. No one is more anxious than 

 I am to see this long-overdue recognition given; but 

 subsequent events have proved the wisdom of those 

 who kept this issue in the background last year, and I 

 should add that I am not in favour of making it a 

 major i.ssue now. To increase one's own salary, or to 

 bend one's greatest efforts towards that end, is never 

 regarded by the public as constructive work. And in 

 this the public is right. 



This is the day of organization. As graduates of 

 agricultural colleges we have been pioneers in organ- 

 izing others but we oiirselves have always depended 

 very largely on individual initiative. As a result we 

 are sometimes difficult to drive in pairs. 



The interests of agriculture and of the technical men 

 engaged therein can no longer best be served by indiv- 

 iduals working singly or in small, isolated groups. The 

 issues involved have become too large and the ramific- 

 ations too numerous and far-reaching for individual 

 action to be effective. As.sociative action need not 

 take the form of an attempt primarily to improve our 

 individual or collective status, but it is important that 

 we organize so that the profession may not suffer he- 

 cause of our inability or unwillingness to act together. 



Last year, in concluding my address before this 

 society I said: "The suggestion that a small body of 

 individuals with an intimate personal knowledge of 

 the reqnii-ements of Canadian agriculture, but prefer- 

 ably not officially connected with any of the three 

 branches mentioned, make an exhaustive study of the 

 whole question of the division of fields of work and of 

 Government assistance thereto in all its phases, is one 

 ujion which I cannot now improve". Time has empha- 

 sized the necessity for some form of effective action 

 and has shown its enlarged possibilities. 



As technical workers, we profess to believe in the 

 scientific method. W.le are at a loss to know hoAV to 

 proceed unless we have the necessary data — the basic 

 facts. These, we believe to be essential to an intelligent 

 approach to any prol)lem and absolutel.v necessary to 

 the formation of wise, far-seeing policies. But I sub- 

 mit that we do not have the data required nor have 

 we made any attempt worthy the name, to get it. We 

 speak of formulating progressive, forward-looking 

 programs, but all the while we know better than an.v- 

 one else the limitations under which we contijiue to 

 labor. 



To secure the data we require on any of the main 

 points I have enumerated above, would cost more 

 money than this society has at its disposal ; but I should 

 like to see a beginning made by means of a "self 

 survey" in which an exhausted stud.v of one of these 

 larger questions would be taken up by the societ.v. 

 The information gained in this way would be of the 

 greatest value from an educational as well as from an 

 administrative point of view. Through such a survey 

 the experience of one woixld be available for all, so that 



