232 SECTIONAL ADDRESSES. 



composition of foods and of their physiological action. How could it be 

 otherwise when we consider that it is only of recent date that attention 

 has been given by agricultural scientists to the necessity for balanced 

 rations in feeding difierent kinds of stock and how little even they know 

 about the digestibility of foods, the proper balance of a ration and the 

 action of minerals in relation to health and disease resistance. 



In 1890 the British Government gave Local Authorities (County 

 Councils) in Great Britain grants to be used either for reducing rates or 

 for agricultural and technical instruction purposes. Many of the County 

 Councils from the beginning utilised those funds entirely in developing 

 agricultural and technical instruction schemes and in later years all the 

 County Councils expended these grants in this way. From 1890 until a 

 few years ago practically all the funds made available to Local Authorities 

 for the development of agriculture were applied to agricultural education, 

 experimental and research work chiefly in connexion with soils, manures 

 and crops, comparatively small amounts being devoted to research and 

 experimental work on live stock problems. Attention has recently been 

 drawn to this fact by Mr. J. R. Campbell, who in his report (November 

 1927) on Agricultural Education in Scotland states : 



' Owing no doubt to the greater cost and difficulty in carrying out 

 experiments in the rearing and feeding of stock, this side of farming — 

 though not wholly neglected — has received comparatively little attention 

 in the way of experiments outside the College farms. It is to manuring 

 and cropping that lectures and field work have been chiefly directed.' 



While I realise the great advantage to be gained by the application of 

 science to soil, fertiliser and crop problems, the chief factor in the British 

 Isles is live stock, and it has been to a great extent neglected. It is, as 

 I have shown, the chief source of our farmers' income — the hub of the 

 wheel — and, so long as the production of live stock is an economic success 

 and crops are utilised chiefly by converting them into live stock products, 

 more attention should be given to research on live stock problems than to 

 the experimental side of soils, manures and crops. 



This position is, however, being rectified, and we have now research 

 stations engaged in animal nutrition work at Aberdeen, Cambridge, 

 Belfast and Dublin, but the funds available are quite inadequate if this 

 work is to be developed on broad lines and is to be of practical assistance 

 to the stock breeder in his efforts to overcome many of his difficulties and 

 losses. 



Animal Diseases. — I am sure that no one will question the need for 

 extended research into the diseases of our farm animals or the necessity 

 for protecting our live stock industry against epidemics which annually 

 threaten it so seriously. In connexion with the latter I may refer to the 

 outbreaks of foot-and-mouth disease in Great Britain which have been 

 almost continuous since 1919, and which have been the cause of the loss 

 of so many stock through slaughter. During the last nine years, 1919-1928, 

 no fewer than 162,214 cattle, 114,679 sheep, 71,536 pigs and 256 goats have 

 been slaughtered, and the compensation paid to farmers amounted to 

 £5,314,000. This does not by any means cover the full value of pedigree 

 stock, as only commercial prices are paid in compensation, nor does it 

 include the administrative expenses incurred in stamping out _each 



