402 



NATURE 



[September 21, igu 



lines for scientific attack arc, in the main, three : Physio- 

 logical, Pathological, and Genetic. All are closely inter- 

 reiated, and for -.uccessful dealing with the problems of 

 any one of these departments of research, knowledge of the 

 results attained in the others is now almost indispensable. 

 I myself can claim personal acquaintance with the third or 

 genetic group alone, and therefore in considering how 

 science is to be applied to the practical operations of 

 agriculture, I must necessarily choose it as the more special 

 subject of this address. I know very well that wider 

 experience of those other branches of agricultural science or 

 practical agriculture would give to my remarks a weight to 

 which they cannot now pretend. 



Before, however, proceeding to these topics of special 

 consideration, I have thought it not unfitting to say some- 

 thing of a more general nature as to the scope of an 

 applied science, such as that to which we here are devoted. 

 We are witnessing a very remarkable outburst of activity 

 in the promotion of science in its application to agriculture. 

 Public bodies distributed throughout this country and our 

 possessions are organising various enterprises with that 

 object. Agricultural research is now everywhere admitted 

 as a proper subject for University support and direction. 



With the institution of the Development Grant a national 

 subsidy is provided on a considerable scale in England for 

 the first time. 



At such a moment the scope of this applied science and 

 the conditions under which it may most successfully be 

 advanced are prominent matters of consideration in the 

 minds of most of us. We hope great things from these new 

 ventures. We are, however, by no means the first to 

 embark upon them. Many of the other great nations have 

 already made enormous efforts in the same direction. We 

 have their experience for a guide. 



Now, it is not in dispute that wherever agricultural 

 science has been properly organised valuable results have 

 been attained, some of very high importance indeed ; vet 

 with full appreciation of these achievements, it is possible 

 to ask whether the whole outcome might not have been 

 greater still. In the course of recent years I have come a 

 good deal into contact with those who in various countries 

 are taking part in such work, and I have been struck with 

 the unanimity that they have shown in their comments on 

 the conditions imposed upon them. Those who receive 

 large numbers of agricultural bulletins purporting to give 

 the results of practical trials and researches will, I feel 

 sure, agree with me that with certain notable exceptions 

 they form on the whole dull reading. True they are in 

 many cases written for farmers and growers in special 

 districts, rather than for the general scientific reader, but 

 I have sometimes asked myself whether those farmers get 

 much more out of this literature than I do. I doubt it 

 greatly. Nevertheless, to the production of these things 

 much labour and expense have been devoted. I am sure, 

 and I believe that most of those engaged in these produc- 

 tions themselves feel, that the effort might have been much 

 better applied elsewhere. Work of this unnecessary kind 

 is done, of course, to satisfy a public opinion which is 

 supposed to demand rapid returns for outlay, and to prefer 

 immediate apparent results, however trivial, to the long 

 delay which is the almost inevitable accompaniment of r.nv 

 serious production. For my own part, I much doubt 

 whether in this estimate present public opinion has beeii 

 rightly gauged. Enlightenment as to the objects, methods, 

 and conditions of scientific research is proceeding at a rapid 

 rate. I am quite sure, for example, that no organisation 

 of agricultural research now to be inaugurated under the 

 Development Commission will be subjected to the conditions 

 laid down in 1887 when the Experimental Stations of the 

 United States were established. For them it is decreed in 

 Sect. 4 of the Act of Establishment : — 



" That bulletins or reports of progress shall be published 

 at said stations at least once in three months, one copy of 

 which shall be sent to each newspaper in the States or 

 Territories in which they are respectively located, and 

 to such individuals actually engaged in farming as may 

 request the same and as far as the means of the station 

 will permit." 



It would be difficult to draft a condition more unfavour- 

 able to the primary purpose of the Act, which was " to 

 conduct original researches or verify experiments on the 



NO. 2l86, VOL. 87] 



physiology of plants and animals " with agricultural 

 objects in view. I can scarcely suppose the most 

 prolific discoverer should be invited to deliver himself 

 more than once a year. Not only does such a rule 

 compel premature publication — that nuisance of modern 

 scientific life — but it puts the investigator into a wrong 

 attitude towards his work. He will do best if he forget 

 the public and the newspaper of his State or Territory for 

 long periods, and should only return to them when, after 

 repeated verification, he is quite certain he has something 

 to report. 



In this I am sure the best scientific opinion of all 

 countries would be agreed. If it is true that the public 

 really demand continual scraps of results, and cannot trust 

 the investigators to pursue research in a reasonable way, 

 then the public' should be plainly given to understand that 

 the time for inaugurating researches in the public's name 

 has not arrived. Men of science have in some degree 

 themselves to blame if the outer world has been in any 

 mistake on these points. It cannot be too widely known 

 that in all sciences, whether pure or applied, research is 

 nearly always a very slow process, uncertain in production 

 and full of disappointments. This is true, even in the new 

 industries, chemical and electrical, for instance, where the 

 whole industry has been built up from the beginning on a 

 basis developed entirely by scientific method and by the 

 accumulation of precise knowledge. Much more must any 

 material advance be slow in the case of an ancient art like 

 agriculture, where practice represents the casual experience 

 of untold ages and accurate investigation is of yesterday. 

 Problems, moreover, relating to unorganised matter are in 

 their nature simpler than those concerned with the 

 properties of living things, a region in which accurate 

 knowledge is more difficult to attain. Here the research of 

 the present day can aspire no higher than to lay the 

 foundation on which the following generations will build. 

 When this is realised it will at once be perceived that both 

 those who are engaged in agricultural research and those 

 who are charged with the supervision and control of these 

 researches must be prepared to exercise a large measure of 

 patience. 



The applicable science must be created before it can be 

 applied. It is with the discovery and development of such 

 science that agricultural research will for long enough best 

 occupy its energies. Sometimes, truly, there come moments 

 when a series of obvious improvements in practice can at 

 once be introduced, but this happens only when the pene- 

 trative genius of a Pasteur or a Mendel has worked out 

 the way into a new region of knowledge, and returns with 

 a treasure that all can use. Given the knowledge it will 

 soon enough become applied. 



I am not advocating work in the clouds. In all that i^ 

 attempted we must stick near to the facts. Though the 

 methods of research and of thought must be strict and 

 academic, it is in the farm and the garden that they must 

 be applied. If inspiration is to be found anywhere it will 

 be there. The investigator will do well to work 



" As if his highest plot 

 To plant the bergamot." 



It is only .in the closest familiarity with phenomena that 

 we can attain to that perception of their orderly relations, 

 which is the beginning of discovery. 



To the creation of applicable science the very highest 

 gifts and training are well devoted. In a foreign country 

 an eminent man of science was speaking to me of a 

 common friend, and he said that as our friend's qualifica- 

 tions were not of the first rank he would have to join the 

 agricultural side of the university. I have heard remark- 

 of similar disparagement at home. Now, whether from the 

 point of view of agriculture or pure science, I can imagine 

 mi policy more stupid and short-sighted. 



The man who devotes his life to applied science should 

 ide to feel that he is in the main stream of scientific 

 progress. II he i< not, both his work and science at large 

 will suffer. The opportunities of discovery are so few that 

 we cannot afford to miss any, and it is to the man of 

 trained mind who is in contact with the phenomena of a 

 great applied science that such opportunities are most often 

 given. Through hi- hands pass precious material, the 

 outcome sometimes of years of effort and design. To tell 



