M.— AGRICULTURE. 237 



research battalions should move. Each Dominion or Colony has its own 

 problems peculiar to its conditions, but the fundamentals of science are 

 everywhere the same. 



In addition to the researcher, it is then necessary to have other types 

 of scientific workers. The research worker is properly and sufficiently 

 engrossed by his speciality. He seldom has time for or interest in the 

 wider conceptions. His point of view is generally limited by his subject. 

 But the application of science is not confined to the research worker. 

 The broad results of research can be understood by politicians who can 

 set the wheels in motion through their Governments. Scientific men 

 are wanted who can see the wood without the trees, who can see the 

 possible bearing of unconnected facts, and who can use their imagination 

 at long range. Such men, if they use the scientific method, are as truly 

 scientific as the researcher himself. 



We have then machinery to deal with three of the five necessities for 

 Empire Research. We have the bureaux to collect information. We 

 have the Committee of Civil Research to consider the information and 

 plan a campaign, and we have the Empire Marketing Board to provide 

 the funds. There remain to be considered the men, and the origin of 

 the problem. 



As to the men, the great Dominions can and will provide and train their 

 own men. The success of South Africa in the production of research 

 workers whose reputation is world wide is suflacient evidence of what 

 the Dominions can do. The case is different in the Colonies. As a rule, 

 the research workers in the Colonies must be recruited from Home or 

 Dominion sources and partly trained outside of the Colonies which they 

 serve. Much has been written concerning the need for these workers, 

 their status, pay, and pension. It is enough to say that the development 

 of the tropical and sub-tropical possessions depends upon making the 

 career of a colonial research worker as satisfactory as the alternative, less 

 interesting, and perhaps more sordid business of making a living. There 

 is one aspect of the man power that must not be lost sight of in consider- 

 ing Empire research, and that is the desirability of exchange of workers. 

 Nothing can be more profitable and stimulating in suitable circumstances 

 than change of environment to the research worker. He obtains a new 

 lease of scientific life, a wider outlook, a wealth of experience of men and 

 methods denied to him as a limpet in an institution. There are diffi- 

 culties in the way of exchanging workers on any considerable scale, but 

 these difficiilties will decrease as time passes and the temporary exchange 

 of work and of workers will prove of far-reaching benefit. 



The Problem. 



I come now to the Alpha and Omega of research — the beginning and 

 the end — ' The Problem.' It might be assumed from some of the fore- 

 going remarks that, like many an administrator before me, I have been 

 erecting a rigid structure into which I propose to fit a flexible and in- 

 calculable body. Far from it : wide experience shows that the feet of 

 research cannot be crammed into the shoes of regulations. One knows 

 where the shoe pinches. 



The facilities I have described arise from the recognition of the value 



