278 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 
the soil adviser is in the economic manuring of crops. More attention 
has probably been paid to the subject of manuring than to any other 
branch of agricultural science, and this branch has been perhaps more 
definitely systematised than any other; but inadequate and improper 
manuring is still widely prevalent, and the annual wastage of resources 
thereby incurred must represent a very large sum. A considerable part 
of this wastage is due to the widespread use of proprietary compound 
manures, more often than not compounded without any special reference 
to the soils upon which they are to be used, or even without intelligent 
adaptation to the special needs of the crops for which they are supplied. 
It is not uncommon, indeed, to find mixtures of identical composition 
offered for the most diverse crops. In far too many cases also the prices 
charged are extravagantly disproportionate to the intrinsic value of the 
ingredients of the mixture, and in all these various ways costs of pro- 
duction are made higher than they need be. In claiming that improved 
manuring achieved through extended advisory guidance might effect a 
sensible alleviation of the present difficulties of the arable farmer, I am 
not unmindful of the fact that even the best practice may result in loss 
when the value of produce sinks to the low levels recently touched by 
many crops, and the best manuring will not make it possible, for 
example, to grow potatoes profitably under present conditions for sale 
at 30s. per ton. Where loss is inevitable, however, this will usually be 
lowest at a level of production involving the reasonable and intelligent 
use of manures. 
Passing on from soil and manuring, we come to the sphere of seed 
and sowing problems, presenting obviously abundant scope for advisory 
work. The need for good and pure seed is axiomatic and is recognised 
by the existence of the Seeds Act, which remains to us as a legacy, 
more beneficent in its operation than many others, of the war-time 
interest of the State in agriculture. 
Seed must not only be good, however, but it must be of the right 
kind, sown under proper conditions and at the most suitable time, and 
the value of advisory guidance on these points has always been recog- 
nised, especially with reference to the choice between different varieties 
of each particular crop. The variety tests carried out on the various 
college farms and elsewhere have always proved helpful in this respect 
in so far as they serve to demonstrate the general characteristics of 
the different varieties. Whether they have been equally successful in 
measuring the cropping capacities of the different varieties is more 
than doubtful, owing to their restriction to single, or at most double 
plots of a kind, and this has been recognised in the more elaborate 
schemes devised for the purpose by the National Institute of Agricul- 
tural Botany, which it is to be hoped may furnish a practical scheme 
for more accurate quantitative field tests in the future. 
Given good seed, the improvement of crop possible through seed 
selection is perhaps not in general so striking as that frequently obtain- 
able by manuring, but it may nevertheless be substantial, especially 
with crops such as barley, where improvement of quality may have a 
special value. There is also a rapidly extending field for seed advisory 
work in connection with the laying down of land to grass for varying 
periods. 
