78 



DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE ON BOTANICAL WORK : 



Sir W. T. 

 Thisdton 



Dyer, 

 K.C.M.G., 



F.R.S. 



29 Nov. 1900. 



Dyer) was glad this great suuject was now to be taken 

 up. But he thougiit there were lessons to be learned 

 from the results of previous spasmodic, unsystematio 

 effort. He had been struck by the Government of 

 India having in the first place called to their aid two 

 agricultural chemists (Messrs. Leather and Collins) 

 who were chemists and not agriculturists. No doubt 

 cliemisits were needed, analyses of soils, of waters, 

 and of products .^.^re most useful and necessary. But 

 you could not exj^ct a chemist to initiate systematic 

 improvements in agriculture. Good of a limited kind 

 had no doubt been done by the model farms and ex- 

 perimental farms, and by the attempts at agricultural 

 teaching of the past 20 or 30 years. But one obstacle 

 in the way of success has been the lack of permanence 

 in these undertakings. Indian offi'cers, very rightly, 

 pay much regard to the financial bearings of an under- 

 taking. They have been apt to close agricultural ex- 

 periments, or discourage them, because they do not pay. 

 Administrative officers change in India at short in- 

 tervals, and, if an agricultural venture does not pay, 

 stopfiSge or modification is liable to be enforced therein 

 at any or every change in the directing officer. It must 

 be recognised — and he (Sir W. Dyer) was glad to learn 

 from Mr. Ibbetson that the Government of India now 

 recognised — that agricultural experiments and agricul- 

 tural observations do not and cannot pay directly 

 within a few years. Such work must be carried on 

 persistently for a generation — not of short-lived Ind'an 

 officials who last in the same office for five years or les? 

 — but for a generation of 30 years or so. And during 

 all that time the work will not pay in any direct way. 

 In England we had seen Sir John Lawes carrying on for 

 more than 50 years a continued series of agricultural 

 experiments and observations at his own expense. In 

 not one year hcd these operations been otherwise than 

 a direct expense (we need not say loss) to Sir John 

 Lawes. Yet the lessons tau;ght at Rothamsted were 

 valued and were bearing fruit not only all over Eng- 

 land, but throughout the whole civilised world. 



Mr. Ibbetson here mentioned the sort of difficulty 

 that sometimes occurred. Funds might be short in a 

 particular province ; an important road had to bo 

 finished, a court-hoUBie or a prison, levelled by earth- 

 quake, had to be rebuilt ; and so, perhaps, funds were 

 withdrawn by a local government, temporarily or other- 

 wise, from agricultural undertaking. Mr. Ibbetson 

 did not approve or justify such a policy. But he could 

 imagine that something of the kind might happen. 



Sir W. Dyer said there would be little use in having 

 .a qualified expert as an advisory officer in agricultural 

 affairs, unless the agricultural policy and the agricul- 

 tural programme of the Government was permanent. 

 It was a case of casting your bread on the waters, and 

 getting a return after many days. You cannot get, and 

 you ought not to expect a return at once. Experiments 

 amd observations must be continuous, the work of 

 applying scientific knowledge to Indian agriculture 

 must be permanently carried on. If that principle was 

 accepted and carried out, it was contrary to human ex- 

 perience to suppose that good — perhaps great good — ■ 

 would not result. The experiments and the under- 

 taking under discussion were of vital importance to the 

 future well-being of India. It was only by the gradual 

 adoption of intensive agriculture that the country could 

 €xpect to support in time to come its rapidly increasing 

 population. 



Professor Somerville remarked that what had been 

 already said by others anticipated in a very great 

 measure all he had to say. He could hardly have ex- 

 pected to hear his own views thus clearly expressed by 

 the previous speakers. He was strongly of opinion that 

 the agricultural practice of a couatry like India must 

 be accepted as wise and expedient ; and he held that 

 changes must not be attempted without extreme 

 caution. Even in a comparatively small country like 

 England it was often found dangerous to import details 

 of agricultural practice from one county to another. 

 Small divergencies of practice were usually founded on 

 practical experience. 



A long time would be necessary for the Indian Agri- 

 cultural Department, or for an Indian Inspector- 

 General of Agriculture, to obtain mature results. Short 

 periods of experiment and observation do not afford 

 aderpiat" material for generalising. And so, also, in 

 regard to agricultural education, early results must not 

 be expected. Educated agriculturists must, from the 



nature of the case, be young men at the outset. For 

 some years such men would not reach positions where 

 they could make themselves felt and during their 

 practical apprenticeship their capacity and usefulness 

 would be maturing. 



Sir George King suggested that there were two ways 

 of getting competent agricultural officers. One was to 

 send civil servants of some short experience in tha 

 country to learn scientific agriculture, in order that 

 they might on returning to India organise and direct 

 agricultural work. The Dutch Government in Java 

 were acting on this system. The second plan, which 

 was favoured by the Government of India, was to get 

 from the west a scientific and experienced agriculturist, 

 who, after acquainting himself with Indian facts and 

 Indian methods, would apply his scientific knowledge 

 to the development and improvement of Indian agri- 

 cultural methods. It would take a new man 10 or 12 

 years to learn Indian facts, and until he was thoroughly 

 acquainted with his ne,v environment he could rot 

 usefully initiate measures of improvement and ce 

 velopment. No practical result could be manifest 

 from such work for a generation. One great difficulty 

 in India was the frequent change of administrative 

 C'fficerc, Within a generation of 30 years the Governor 

 of a province and the chief authorities in that province 

 would be changed five or six times. 



It may be convenient now to call attention to the 

 somewhat peculiar position which Ke'W occup/Jes as a 

 Government institution. This is defined by the 

 Treasury Minute of July 24, 1872. According to this 

 the Director is subordinate to the First Commissioner 

 of Works in all administrative matters. But in regard 

 to the scientific work of the establishment and advice 

 furnished to the Government Kew is independent of the 

 Offi'ce of Works. The position has not, however, been 

 clearly understood by the Offi'ce of Works or always by 

 the Treasury, and a good deal of disagreeable friction 

 has from time to time arisen in consequence. This is 

 obviously not conducive to the efficient performance of 

 public work, and it is to be hoped that the CoBimittea 

 will see a way to recommendations which will "QV/ 

 matters on a more satisfactory basis. 



The Kew Bulletin is practically a ' ' continuous record 

 of Kew work in all its various aspects." The follow- 

 ing paper describes the circumstances under which it 

 was undertaken, and summarises the most important 

 results of Ksw work for the period, 1887-96. 



The completion of the tenth annual volume of the 

 Kew Bulletin has made it desirable to publish a detailed 

 index to the whole series. As the number of volumes 

 has increased it has become more difficult to find the in- 

 formation they may contain on any particular subj ect. 



The opportunity may be taken to pass in review 

 briefly the more important subjects which have been 

 treated. This will have the more interest as the period 

 covered has been one of more than usual activity in the 

 development of oui' tropical possessions. 



Kew, from its first establishment as a national institu- 

 tion in 1841, has always been applied to by men of busi- 

 ness desirous of engaging in new industries. Response to 

 individual enquiries gradually came to be regarded as in- 

 sufficient, and a demand arose for the prompt publication 

 for general use of any information likely to be of service 

 to those engaged in colonial pursuits. With this object 

 the first number of the Bulletin was issued in January, 

 1887. But it was also intended to serve another purpose. 

 When public attention is engaged by any particular sub- 

 ject, enquiries about it are numerous. To say all there 

 is to 'be said about it, once for all, in the pages of the 

 Bulletin effects a great saving in labour. To quote the 

 prefatory notice to the first number : — 



"It is hoped that while these notes will serve the pur- 

 pose of an expeditious mode of communication to the 

 numerous correspondents of Kew in distant parts of the 

 Empire, they may also be of service to members of the 

 general public interested in planting or agricultural busi- 

 ness in India and the colonies." 



On March 18, 1887, the First Commissioner of Her 

 Majesty's Works and Public Buildings (Mr. Plunket) in- 

 formed the House of Commons: — "In response to the 

 demands for the publication more speedily than in the 

 annual report of information received from abroad, I 



