SECTION M : CARDIFF, 1920. 



ADDRESS 



TO THE 



AGRICULTURAL SECTION 



BY 



PROFESSOR FREDERICK KEEBLE, C.B.E., Sc.D., F.R.S., 



PRESIDENT OP THE SECTION. 



Intensive CuUivatioii. 



There is, so far as I can discover, no reason — save one — why I 

 sliould have been called upon to assume the presidency of the Agri- 

 cultural Section of the British Association, or why I should have been 

 temerarious enough to accept so high an honour and such a heavy load 

 of responsibility. For upon the theme of Agriculture as commonly 

 understood I could speak, were I to speak at all, but as a scribe and 

 not as one in authority. The on© reason, however, which must have 

 directed the makers of presidents in their present choice is, I believe, 

 so cogent that despite my otherwise unworthiness I dared not refuse 

 the invitation. It is that, in appointing me, agriculturists desired to 

 indicate the brotherhood which they feel with intensive cultivators. As 

 properly proud sisters of an improved tale they have themselves issued 

 an invitation to the Horticultural Cinderella to attend their party, and 

 in conformity with present custom, which requires each lady to bring 

 her partner, I am here as her friend. 



Nor could any invitation give me greater pleasure : for my devotion 

 to Horticulture is profound and my affection that of a lover. My only 

 fear is lest I should weary my hosts with her praises, for in conformity 

 with this interpretation I propose to devote my Address entirely to 

 Horticulture — to speak of its performance during the war and of its 

 immediate prospects. 



Although that which intensive cultivators accomplished during the 

 war is small in comparison with the great work performed by British 

 agriculturists, yet nevertheless it is in itself by no means incon- 

 siderable, and is, moreover, significant and deserves a brief record. 

 That work may have turned and probably did turn the scale between 

 scarcity and sufficiency ; for, as I am informed, a difference of 10 per 

 cent, in food supplies is enough to convert plenty into dearth. Seen 

 from this standpoint the war-work accomplished by tlie professional 

 horticulturist — the nurseryman, the florist, the glass-house cultivator, 

 the fruit-grower and market gardener, and by the professional and 

 amateur gardener and allotment holder assumes a real importance, 

 albeit that the sum-total of the acres they cultivated is but a fraction 

 of the land which agriculturists put under the plough. 



