24 president's address. 



intake beds, of the real causes of supply, of the fluctuations in 

 output, of the interdependence of the bores. For full efficiency, 

 for us to get the most out of this invaluable asset of our interior, 

 casual trials here and there where water is wanted are inadequate; 

 the system must be considered as a whole, and then only can we 

 have a fair and wise general organisation and control. 



The Land.— That the Press is realising the importance of the 

 cultivation of the land is plain by the large amount of space 

 given up to the subject in the daily papers. To quote the 

 Sydney Morning Herald of Feb. 15th, 1908, " Our duty to 

 primary production is clear. Whatever else we may neglect we 

 should make this our especial care." Advocating the establish- 

 ment of a Federal Department of Agriculture, the Herald goes 

 on to say "The Commonwealth's model in this respect may well 

 be the United States Department of Agriculture. It has taken 

 shape tinder conditions similar to ours, and it stands to-day the 

 finest State organisation of the kind in the world." Everybody 

 who has studied the methods and the publications of this grand 

 Department will heartily endorse the encomium. Armies of 

 experts are employed in the Laboratories and in the Experi- 

 mental Stations. Every problem which confronts the farmers is 

 attacked with adequate means, and with a full determination to 

 obtain the best possible solution. By no means content with a 

 knowledge of what is being done in the States and Territories, 

 the Department makes itself acquainted with the organisation 

 and progress of similar institutions in foreign countries. [In a 

 special Bulletin published in 1905 and giving information on the 

 important subject of Agricultural Instruction for adults in the 

 British Empire, it is somewhat galling to find 12 pages given to 

 Australia and over 40 to Canada, and especially to find New 

 South Wales dismissed with the single sentence " Nothing 

 corresponding to the farmers' institute system of the United 

 States is in operation in New South Wales."] For a cardinal 

 principle with the Department is that the knowledge wrested 

 from Nature shall be brought home to the men who are actually 

 conducting the operations on the soil. This is accomplished by 



