490 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 



2. Discussion on the means la bring into Closer Contact tJiose carrying 

 out Scientific Breeding Experiments and those Commercially 

 Interested in the Results of such Experiments. 



The discussion was opened by JMiss E. R. Saunders, who stated that it 

 should be unnecessary at the present day to insist upon the extreme importance 

 — in fact, the absohite necessity — for commercial success, of cloee contact 

 between industry and science. The practical value of the results obtained by 

 the scientific breeder could scarcely be over-estimated — in illustration one need 

 only mention for example such experiments as those of Professor Biffen on the 

 production of strains of wheat immune from rust — yet it could not be said that 

 in general any real contact existed between the scientific breeder and the trades 

 and industries to whose interest it was to apply the discoveries made by the 

 breeder. This lack of co-operation had been brought out strongly at the meeting 

 of the Association last year at Manchester in the case of the cotton trade. As 

 a result steps had now, she understood, been taken by the manufacturers to 

 remedy this state of affairs. In another caee the trade had taken the initiative. 

 A number of growers in a district in Hertfordshire had recently formed a 

 society (Nursery and Market Garden Industries' Development Society) and 

 started an experiment station for the investigation of the growers' problems by 

 scientific methods. The inaviguration of this scheme had been so successful 

 that the station was now in receipt of a considerable grant from the Board of 

 Agriculture and Fisheries. Instanc-es such as those mentioned were, however, 

 exceptional, and a more general and organised means of intercourse between 

 the commercial man and the scientific breeder was much to be desired. Before 

 considering what steps could be taken to facilitate such intercourse it would 

 be well to consider the nature of the existing facilities to this end. These 

 might conveniently be considered under the different heads of agriculture, horti- 

 culture, pure science, &c. 



Affriciilturc. — Under the scheme recently drawn up by the Board of Agricul- 

 ture and Fisheries it was proposed that for the purpose of educational work of 

 university type in agriculture the counties of England and Wales should be 

 grouped into twelve divisions or provinces, each associated with a central college 

 engaged in teaching and investigating agricultural subjects, with skilled practical 

 instructors in each county. The scheme provides for 



1. Research to be carried on at National Research Institutes devoted to the 



study of different sections of agricultural science. 



2. Consultative work by \Yorkers, stationed at collegiate centres serving 



groups of counties, who are concerned with the application of the results 

 of research to practice, and who make a special study of the needs of 

 particular localities. 



3. Teaching by (a) Lecturers in Universities and colleges; (h) Teachers at 



farm schools ; (c) Instructors employed in peripatetic work. 



Eleven of these National Research Institutes had begun work by December 

 1915. Among those having relation to our present subject might be mentioned 

 one at the University of Cambridge, of which Professor Biffen is director, for 

 breeding new crops. It has not yet been found practicable to arrange for an 

 Institute at which experiments in genetics on the larger farm animals could be 

 carried out. Pending the establishment of such an institute a grant has been 

 made by the Development Commissioners to Professor Punnett of Cambridge 

 for the promotion of breeding experiments with small animals. At the Research 

 Institute in Fruit-Growing at the University of Bristol some breeding experi- 

 ments on Mendelian lines have formed a part of the work which has already 

 been started. 



With the object of furthering research, grants in aid are made from the 

 Development Fund for Experiments and Research. The grants available for 

 distribution under the scheme fall into four groups : — 



1. Grants to Research Institutes. 



2. Special Research Grants. 



[In the Annual Report of the Distribution of Grants for Agricultural 

 Education and Research for 1912-13, for example, mention is made of 

 special grants for the carrying out of breeding work to University 



