6 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



factures, and thus in bringing about an improvement in the quality of 



their output for the benefit of consumers — which is to say, ourselves. 



In historical sequence among the events which have strengthened 

 interaction between Science and the State, there follows the establishment 

 of the Development Commission in 1908. Until that date the only agency 

 for agricultural research in Great Britain was the classical experimental 

 station at Rotharasted, a private benefaction ; and the expenditure of 

 the State on this prime factor in national economy was trifling. Since 

 1908 the Rothamsted station has been expanded to cover the whole field 

 of nutrition and disease in the plant, while other institutes have been 

 founded to deal with other aspects of agriculture such as plant breeding, 

 the nutrition and diseases of animals, agricultural machinery and the 

 economics of the industry. Not only are these institutes providing know- 

 ledge for our own farmers, but they form the training-ground for agri- 

 cultural experts required by the Dominions, India, and the Crown Colonies, 

 which need no longer look abroad for their advisers. At the plant- 

 breeding institute at Cambridge, Sir Rowland Bifien has provided several 

 new wheats, of which two are generally grown throughout the country ; 

 the extra yield and value of these wheats must already have more than 

 repaid the whole expenditure on agricultural research since the institute 

 was founded. Among other examples of the value of research there may 

 be mentioned the discovery of a variety of potato immune from the 

 ineradicable wart disease, which a few years ago threatened the principal 

 growing districts. The clearing up of the ccflifusion into which com- 

 mercial stocks of fruit trees had fallen has ensured that growers may plant 

 orchards upon uniform stocks suitable to the soil and climate. And 

 among the most important inquiries are those into the production and 

 cleansing of milk, which have resulted in an entire reform of rationing, 

 increasing the yield of each cow by one to two hundred gallons a year, and 

 in freeing milk from the risk of contamination with disease. 



Research into fisheries (which are administratively associated with 

 agriculture) has become a matter of necessity in the light of evidence that 

 even the vast resources of the sea have their limit, and can be injured if 

 they are not exploited with due care and knowledge. Great Britain, 

 acting in co-operation with the other nations who share with us the 

 northern seas, has accomplished much in ascertaining the causes of the 

 fluctuating herring supply, and has contributed notably to the study of 

 the methods by which the stocks of plaice can be maintained. Research 

 again is active in finding methods by which we can mitigate one of the 



