210 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



her extraordinary development just as long as she can remain a food- 

 exporting nation, and this can only be achieved if the whole energies of her 

 scientific men are devoted to the intensification of production upon land 

 already farmed. The need for this intensification appears then to be as 

 great in America as here, and this calls for continued scientific research, 

 not so much to ensure the benefit of any particular class of the community, 

 however deserving, but because the nation needs it, because it is vital to 

 the life of each and every individual. In Sir Daniel Hall's view the area 

 of suitable undeveloped land available is insufficient to provide the 

 increase of food required, and, in his own concluding words, ' how close 

 at hand the period of pressure may be it is unsafe to prophesy, but it 

 may be agreed that pressure is sooner or later inevitable, and that one of 

 the biggest problems before the world at present is to prevent the pressure 

 developing suddenly and becoming unbearable. The intensification of 

 production is the only remedy, and again the only means of rendering 

 intensification practicable is the continued pursuit of scientific research.' 



This intensification of production must come sooner or later in an 

 ever-growing population, and can only be brought about by increasing 

 knowledge and improving technique. Before this intensification can 

 occur, the nations must realise the need for further investigation and 

 research, and this they will only do if and when there exists among the 

 citizens of every civilised community a widespread knowledge of this 

 the most basal of all human activities. 



If it be admitted that it is desirable for each boy and girl to know 

 something of the way in which their bread and meat are produced, 

 something of the lives of those who produce it, and something of 

 the sources of the food supply of their country, can the acquisition 

 of this knowledge be justified on general educational grounds, and, if it 

 can, is it practically possible ? I assume that few would dispute 

 the statement that the purpose of education is to enable a man to live a 

 fuller and better life and to make a better use of his environment. 

 Education must prepare for life and for the conditions which will be met 

 throughout its course. Dr. Jesse Jones, 7 in a book published last year, 

 has endeavoured to simplify the problem of general educational policy, 

 and to make us consider anew its fundamental purpose. As a result of 

 his wide observations over three continents, and his experience of many 

 different manners of education, he urges upon us to-day the importance of 

 resisting what he terms ' Education by accretion,' and ' the need for an 

 approach to education that is sufficiently fundamental to be accurate and 

 sufficiently simple to be practical.' He finds the solution of his problem 

 in what he terms the ' vital consciousness of community conditions,' and 

 defines as one of his four fundamental educational elements ' appreciation 

 and use of environment.' 



Whether we agree entirely with Dr. Jesse Jones or not, most of us would, 

 I think, agree to this, and most of us would further agree that the most 

 fundamental subject that can be considered in man's environment is the 

 satisfaction of his most urgent bodily need. The Committee of this 

 Association which considered the question of Training for Overseas Life, 

 while quite definitely regarding the question from the vocational angle, 



' ' Four Essentials of Education.' Thomas Jesse Jones. 



