234 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



The Empire as an Organism. 



If my figures and arguments are accepted, the British Empire must be 

 regarded as an amazing organism. Is this organism developing sym- 

 metrically, and is it desirable to take thought as to its development ? It 

 may be argued that no great thought is needed, that each part of the 

 Empire left unfettered in the pursuit of well-being in its own way, will 

 eventually provide the best conditions for its inhabitants. But this 

 argument totters in face of the Canadian Wheat Pool, which sooner or later 

 will compel the wheat-growing parts of the Empire to consider their ways 

 and to come to an arrangement whereby the Empire wheat comes under 

 some uniform system of organised production and orderly marketing. 

 The argument is further confuted by the fact that South Africa has joined 

 with Austraha and New Zealand in a great co-operative marketing and 

 purchasing agency in London, known as Overseas Farmers' Co-operative 

 Federations, Ltd. These straws show the way the wind blows, and makes 

 it unnecessary to labour the point, for few will hold that nothing is to be 

 gained by co-operation in effort. If that be so, the question that occurs to 

 me as an official concerned with agricultural development is, what share, 

 and it must be a very large share, can research applied to agriculture take 

 in the proper growth and nurture of the organism ? 



In the first place, it is clear that there are large economic problems 

 affecting all parts of the Empire which await solution if the Empire is to be 

 properly developed. There is, for instance, sterility and abortion in live 

 stock. There is the pasture problem. There are insect-borne diseases. 

 It is almost hopeless for a single individual or even a single institution to 

 attempt the solution of any of these great problems. Each problem has so 

 many aspects that team work is needed in the widest sense — not only 

 between individuals, but between institutions and between governments. 



In the case of sterility and abortion in cows, for instance, there is here 

 first a problem for the bacteriologist and the pathologist, as the micro- 

 organism which causes contagious abortion is probably the most important 

 factor. There is a nutritional factor, as it is well known that deficiencies in 

 the diet cause both sterility and abortion, and may also render the animal 

 more susceptible to the invasion of the organism. Moreover, in this as in 

 other diseases, there is a problem for the geneticist, to discover to what 

 extent, if any, is the tendency inherited, and what may be the correlated 

 factors which indicate the susceptibles and the highly resistant strains. 

 Finally, if or when the knowledge arrives which makes possible the elimina- 

 tion of the disease, the co-operation of the administrator is required to 

 frame and execute the regulations recommended by the scientists. 



The most recent development of the work on pastures has been in 

 connection with their chemical composition. It has been shown that 

 chemical composition, if it takes account of all known food constituents, 

 is an indication of the feeding value of pastures, and it has been proved 

 independently in various parts of the world that deficiencies of one or 

 other nutrients required only in small amounts, are the cause of 

 definite diseases. Further, it has been shown that if these deficiencies 

 are made good, not only are the diseases prevented, but production 

 is increased, and there is reason to believe that susceptibility to disease 

 generally is decreased, and what is also of great economic importance. 



