12 THE PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 



acquired vision to practical account in the interests of the Empire was 

 Marshall Ward. For two years he investigated the cofiee disease that 

 had half ruined Ceylon. It is a long step from this individual effort in 

 the Bast to the firmly established and efficient Mycological Bureau, 

 recently housed at Kew in a new building devoted to the world-wide 

 study of the fungal diseases of plants. Such advance along a single line 

 of Applied Botany may be taken as an index of the progress from simple 

 beginnings in pure botany to that widespread attack now being made 

 upon the economic problems that face Imperial Agriculture. The history 

 of it thus briefly suggested may be read as a parable, showing how natural 

 is the progression from the study of pure science to its practical application. 

 For there is no real distinction between pure and applied science. As 

 Huxley told us long ago, ' What people call applied science is nothing but 

 the application of pure science to particular problems.' 



At the moment there is an unprecedented demand for botanical 

 specialists to fill investigational and advisory posts at home and abroad, 

 and there is a shortage of applicants. The realisationof this will doubtless 

 be transmitted through the universities and colleges to the schools of the 

 country and lead to an increased supply. On the other hand, it lies with 

 the Government to react as other markets do in taking steps to equalise 

 supply and demand. A condition of the success of a specialist will always 

 be a thorough foundation upon pure science, and this will be fully realised 

 in the selection of candidates. Government, whether at home or in the 

 wider Imperial field, can make no better investment than by the engage- 

 ment of the best scientific experts available. In respect of botany this 

 has been attested by many well-known instances. 



Some reference will naturally be expected here to the remarkable 

 Address given by Sir William Crookes in 1898, when the Association last 

 met in Bristol. He then forecast that, in view of the increase in unit- 

 consumption since 1871 and the low average of acre-yield, ' wheat cannot 

 long retain its dominant position among the foodstuffs of the civilised 

 world. Should all the wheat-growing countries add to their area to the 

 utmost capacity, on the most careful calculation the yield would give us 

 only just enough to supply the increase of population among bread-eaters 

 till the year 1931. The details of the impending catastrophe,' he remarked, 

 ' no one can predict, but its general direction is obvious enough.' The 

 problem is one of applied botany, with a setting of world economics and a 

 core of physical chemistry. After raising the spectre of wheat-shortage 



