M.— AGRICULTURE. 



233 



that the farmers applying the knowledge have been within sight of the 

 source of the knowledge. 



The case of ' Marquis Wheat ' is well known. This wheat, bred by the 

 Canadian Experimental Station at Ottawa, has by its earlier maturity and 

 superior cropping powers, not only ousted the older and inferior varieties 

 of wheat in millions of acres of Canada and the Northern United States, 

 but it has made the cultivation of wheat possible in areas where wheat 

 could not be grown before. 



A variety of sugar cane has recently been produced in Java by the 

 Dutch Plant Breeders ; one of its ancestors was not a sugar cane at all but 

 a wild reed growing in a marsh. Yet this variety partly of reed ancestry 

 is greatly superior to any other, giving 15 per cent, to 20 per cent, more 

 sugar and resisting local diseases better than any other. Most of the sugar 

 fields of Java are now growing it. The sugar production of Java since 

 1840 shows the following increase and offers one of the finest examples of 

 the effects of the application of science to plant breeding, manuring, and 

 cultivation. (Five-year periods — average for each five years). 



1840-45 24 piculs per bouw 



1865-70 50 „ 



1900-05 100 „ 



1920 120 „ 



1925 132 „ 



1928 150 „ 



Comment is superfluous. 



The grasslands of the Empire, as I have shown, support at least 

 500,000,000 animals. If all these animals were suited to their environ- 

 ment, free from disease and sterility, and sufficiently nourished, their value 

 would be far more than doubled or trebled. South Africa, through Sir 

 Arnold Theiler and his staff, has already demonstrated to the full part of 

 this possibility. In discovering the cause of and the means of combating 

 certain insect-borne diseases. Sir Arnold and his associates haye saved the 

 Union millions of pounds. Equally spectacular is the biological control of 

 noxious weeds, such as the prickly pear in Australia and the blackberry in 

 New Zealand. In the field of animal nutrition, it has been discovered that 

 diseases may be caused in farm stock by the absence of minute quantities 

 of iodine, lime, phosphorus, or Adtamins. The cure of rickets in pigs, and 

 styfsiekte and lambsiekte in cattle, by the administration of bone meal and 

 salt and other mineral mixtures has already saved hundreds of thousands 

 of pounds to stock farmers. The application of the newer conception of 

 the balanced ration, which we now have as the result of the studies of 

 physiologists and biochemists, is yielding its return in increased production. 

 The intensive management of grassland in such great grazing countries 

 as Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain is only beginning, but 

 already it is plain that production can be doubled under skilful manage- 

 ment. Even the fertiliser or artificial manure, concerning which we know 

 more than of almost any other agricultural improvement, has far wider 

 fields to conquer than any which it has yet subdued. 



These great achievements give us the assurance that the application of 

 pure science to agriculture will yield results of a value many times greater 

 than the money expended. 



