chairman's apdress. 803 



tinguished predecessor, I can well imagine, saw in this union of science and 

 practice, within the sphere of his life's work, an invitation to a veritable marriage 

 feast. He had reason to hope that if, in the humble seat allotted to us, we acted 

 well our part, the masters of the feast would have said to our Sub-Section, ' Friend, 

 go up higher.' 



How far that hope has been fulfilled may be best judged bj' the brief, 

 uneventful history of our Sub-Section, which is easily told. The records show 

 that after our birth, at an ancient seat of learning in 1904, we were put out to 

 nurse in Section K — Botany. We do not appear to have survived the following 

 winter, but our ghost seems to have haunted Section B — Chemistry — for the three 

 succeeding years. After this unnatural treatment by the natural sciences we are 

 to-day reincarnated and left on the doorstep of Section F, where I hope some 

 humanised supplement to the separated milli of statistics will be found for our 

 sustenance, i suppose if we get beyond a second childhood we shall be sent to 

 school in Section L — Education. I shall then feel that my idols, Gilbert and 

 Lawes, have been shattered ; that Gilbert and Sullivan reign in their stead. 



When I mastered the history of the Sub-Section over which I was to preside 

 I thought it well before preparing my Address to seek advice from the members 

 of the British Association who could speak with authority as to the position which 

 I might claim for our subject in the future. I was dragged in two opposite 

 directions. Some, fearing no doubt the fissiparous tendencies attributed to Irish 

 public men by those who do not understand the catholicity of our sympathies, 

 vehemently deprecated my suggesting the creation of yet another Section. Others, 

 whose loyalty to the Association was only exceeded by their interest in agriculture, 

 pressed upon me that the time had come for placing us in an independent position, 

 where we could draw from and contribute to all the Sections as our growth 

 demands. It may be said that agriculture is not a science, but neither is 

 engineering. Indeed, I can hnd no reason why engineering should enjoy the 

 dignity of a Section and agriculture be restricted to a Sub-Section, unless it is 

 to be found in the subordination of rural to urban interests. I know well the 

 inconvenience of what we in Ireland call a long weak family, but I thought the 

 experiment of solvitw ambulando had been sufficiently tried upon the corpus vile 

 of our Sub-Section. 



In all the circumstances a new Section for Agriculture seems to be indicated. 

 The public advantage of thus recognising the reality and urgency of the rural 

 problem, the popular influence which the British Association would command by 

 bringing the sciences to its solution, appear to me to outweigh objections based 

 upon the ideals of symmetry and logical division in the central body to which our 

 Sub-Section is so indeterminately attached. 



The Appeal of Agriculture to Science. 

 Although the subject I have chosen for my Address is unquestionablv ot 

 greater importance to Ireland than to any other portion of the Empire, I hope the 

 arguments I have placed before you are of no insular character. At any rate the 

 problem is not insular, it is co-extensive with our civilisation. And, speaking for 

 the unscientific, I submit that it should not be hastily assumed that we whose life 

 work compels us to have chief regard to material considerations and the country 

 side of things fail in our appreciation of those who devote their life to pure 

 science. I know in my own case how deeply impressed I was by the thought of 

 a contemporary philosopher in closest touch with large aflfairs, which appears to 

 me to strike a true, a hopeful, and, I may add, an extraordinarily interesting note. 

 Mr. Arthur Balfour, one of your former Presidents, has recently suggested that 

 familiarity with the truths, wholly apart from the physical enjoyment of the 

 achievements of science, might constitute a new fact of happy augury for our 

 modern civilisation. It might counteract tendencies through which preceding 

 empires, after they had arrived at a stage very similar to that which we occupy 

 to-day, hastened to their decline and fall. The most calamitous national downfall 

 which history records — that of the Roman Empire — finds its commonest, if not 

 its complete, explanation in the neglect of the country by the town. Is there not 



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