794: REPORT—1904. 
These figures show— 
1. That where, in any particular locality, mature trees were measured at dif- 
ferent elevations, the tallest trees, as was to be expected, were found at the lowest 
elevation. 
2. That where the seed of such trees was sown the height of the resulting 
trees, at the age of six years, was in close relationship to that of the mother-trees. 
3. That where mother-trees of approximately equal height from the same 
locality and the same elevation (Treibach) were selected, the resulting progeny 
were also of approximately equal vigour. 
The differences in the height-growth of the young trees are so striking as to 
lead to the conclusion that the financial returns of Forestry operations may be 
profoundly modified by the origin of the seed, and it would apparently pay 
nurserymen and planters well to give their careful attention to this subject. 
Joint or Co-operative Work. 
In conclusion, I may be allowed to call your attention to a prominent feature 
of experimental or demonstrational work which is found to exhibit itself in all 
countries of the world where serious attention is given to the improvement of 
agricultural production. While, no doubt, it is the individual who plants the 
germ of a new idea and fosters its growth till it is fairly established, it is by 
systematised co-operative effort that the practical value of the idea is tested, and 
that the knowledge is made available and acceptable to the workaday farmer. 
Various objections have been urged against field experiments, and it need not be 
denied that they are incapable of supplying a satisfactory answer to many scien- 
tific questions. Such experiments are exposed in no small degree to the disturbing 
influences of inequalities of soil, irregular cultivation, the attack of animals, and 
the vicissitudes of climate; but when reasonable precautions are taken to guard 
against these, and given a sufficient number of tests, the results of field trials are 
of the highest value as a guide to practice. Apart from attention to the pre- 
liminary details of the scheme, and to care in carrying it out, the main point to 
aim at in field-trials is to have them so frequently duplicated or repeated that the 
disturbing factors inseparable from field-work will be largely eliminated. Such 
duplication may take the form of repetition of the same test on the same area 
year after year, when one obtains some such series of results as those that have 
helped to make the reputation of Rothamsted. But however convincing may be 
the results of a series of experiments that have marched majestically on for half 
a century, they lack attractiveness for the investigator who desires to solve not 
one but many problems during his lifetime. For him, therefore, duplication in 
time gives place to duplication in space—in other words, he secures the same 
end, or an end that is in many respects equivalent, by repeating the test at 
several places in the same season, or in a short series of seasons, This method of 
work is, of course, by no means new. It was utilised with great advantage by 
the late Dr. Voelcker, and by our more recently departed friend Dr. Aitken, and 
it is a line that is still being followed by the two great societies with which these 
distinguished workers were so long associated. The method is also being prac- 
tised extensively, chiefly through the agency of societies, in Germany, France, and 
other European countries, and it has taken firm hold in the United States and in 
some of our colonies. One of the largest and most successful agencies in co- 
operative demonstrations is to be found in Canada, where, during the past nine 
years, an average of 37,000 farmers have annually received small parcels of 
improved seeds through the Government experimental organisation directed by 
Dr, Saunders. It is claimed that the financial results to the country as a whole 
run to many millions of dollars, and there seems to be no reasonable doubt as to 
the accuracy of the statement. 
I trust you will pardon my referring in this connection to a matter that is 
personal to a considerable proportion of this audience, and saying that, in my 
