OCTOBEE 1, 1920] 



SCIENCE 



303 



are degrees of dominance with respect to the 

 contrasted characters of the parents. Some- 

 times the technical man is mostly pure farmer, 

 sometimes mostly pure scientist, sometimes 

 exactly intermediate. IsTot rarely the cross 

 proves too wide and the offspring are com- 

 pletely sterile. 



; Owing to the unusually wide range of basic 

 subjects this relationship of pure and applied 

 science is peculiarly important in the case of 

 agriculture. It is hopeless to expect a tech- 

 nical agriculturist to keep thoroughly posted 

 in all the subjects ancillary to agriculture; it 

 is equally hopeless to expect a worker in an 

 ancillary science to keep posted on practical 

 agriculture. There is need of special ma- 

 chinery to stimulate discoveries in those parts 

 of the basic subjects related to agriculture and 

 to provide for their immediate application. 



The solution of this difficulty and others 

 presently to be mentioned depends, in my 

 opinion, on a large degree of organized co- 

 operation in research. All the reasons in favor 

 of cooperation in industrial research in gen- 

 eral apply in the case of agriculture and these 

 strong additional reasons. 

 ■ The peculiar dependence of technical re- 

 search in agriculture on research in a wide 

 range of basic sciences demands cooperation 

 between the pure scientist and the technical 

 man. A technical agriculturist endeavoring to 

 eolve a practical problem is very likely to en- 

 counter a fundamental problem. A funda- 

 mental researcher is very likely to uncover a 

 fact or principle which can ibe immediately 

 applied — if he knows enough of the practical 

 to make the application. Sometimes a tech- 

 nical man's duties and interests and training 

 will permit him to follow up a fundamental 

 lead. Sometimes a worker in a fundamental 

 subject, may know enough of the practical and 

 possess the inclination to make the applica- 

 tion. But such cases are likely to be relatively 

 rare. It seems obvious that the best results 

 both from the practical and theoretical stand- 

 points are to be obtained by close cooperation 

 of all concerned. The practical man knows 

 the problems and discovers where fundamental 

 information is lacking in order to solve them. 



He can then enlist the services of the pure 

 scientist in those problems which his duties, 

 or training or interests will not permit him to 

 attack. At the same time — and this is not the 

 least important effect — ^theoretical science will 

 be advanced. There will be a complex series 

 of effects and counter-effects of the theoretical 

 on the practical. It can not be too strongly 

 emphasized that theoretical science receives as 

 much from practical science as it gives to it. 

 The theoretical advances made in practical re- 

 search are as important as the practical ad- 

 vances made by the application of theoretical 

 principles. And in agricultural problems the 

 possibilities are particularly great. 



I should like to refer to a particular ex- 

 ample of what I have in mind. A very prac- 

 tical problem is the breeding of disease resist- 

 ant plants. In the case of stem rust of wheat 

 it turns out that the problem involves funda- 

 mental genetical work. But the prosecution of 

 it requires a very substantial knowledge of 

 plant pathology and its methods; it can be 

 carried on best in collaboration with plant 

 pathologists. Moreover it has recently given a 

 very valuable lead in fundamental botany by 

 showing the existence of many physiological 

 and geographical races of rust which can be 

 distinguished only by their virulence in par- 

 ticular varieties of wheat. Stakman and his 

 collaborators have proven the existence of 

 many of these geographical races in the North- 

 ern States and work at Saskatoon this year 

 has demonstrated the existence of several scat- 

 tered over western Canada, as well as the occa- 

 sional occurrence of more than one race in 

 the same locality. This discovery seems for 

 the time to have made a practical solution im- 

 possible. But the point is that the geneticist 

 and plant pathologist have had to collaborate 

 on the problem and both have uncovered im.- 

 portant leads for theoretical research. And 

 before economic results are obtained the prac- 

 tical agronomist must be enlisted to test yields, 

 earliness, etc. This investigation also shows 

 the necessity of having the same work carried 

 on concurrently at different places to meet 

 varying local conditions. 



