220 



Science and the Farmer. 



[June, 



(commonplace, if you like, yet not vividly recognised) that the 

 days of submission to disease are over. The Research Institute 

 on Plant Pathology at Rothamsted is, we understand, able and 

 willing to act like a medical advisory centre diagnosing disease, 

 and suggesting such remedies as the state of science can con- 

 scientiously recommend. In all this there is great gain, There 

 is a socialising of science (perhaps more advanced in agriculture 

 than in any other field), and there is a transition from empirical 

 lore, of which we speak appreciatively, to scientific control. 



This country is deservedly famous for its cattle and sheep, but 

 there is no reason to believe that the output of meat is anything 

 like what it might be. Moreover, the bill for imported feeding 

 stuffs is far too heavy, amounting in 1919 to nearly sixty mil- 

 lions sterling. Hence the importance of the Animal Nutrition 

 Institute at Cambridge and the Rowett Research Institute at 

 Aberdeen. Nothing but patient experiment can determine what 

 protein foods, for instance, are most profitable, and what pro- 

 portions are best. An excess may be positively injurious as well 

 as wasteful. Only in well-equipped institutes can security be 

 reached in regard to such a subtle thing as digestibility ; and the 

 energy requirements of an animal can only be guessed at without 

 the use of a calorimeter. We have personal experience to help 

 us in regard to our own energy-requirements and capacities for 

 digestion, yet we are continually making mistakes; how much 

 more likely are we to err in regard to stock into whose feelings we 

 cannot enter ! 



Another question of profound interest concerns the minute 

 " accessory food substances " or vitamins which are known to 

 play an essential part in the health of man and beast. The 

 subject is still very young, but it seems that cases of slow growth, 

 digestive troubles, and lack of vigour are sometimes due to 

 monotony and artificiality of diet. Thus the Cambridge workers 

 showed that rye alone was an entirely unsatisfactory food for 

 young pigs, but was thoroughly wholesome when supplemented 

 by a handful of grass per day. Similarly, the Aberdeen workers 

 found that the so-called " rickets " of pigs depends not so much 

 on a deficiency of vitamins, as on a lack of mineral matter. All 

 these questions are intricate; they demand scientific precision; 

 but they all mean money, and even on this ground only they 

 are more than welcome. 



There • is, however, 'reproduction as well as nutrition to be 

 considered in enlightened animal husbandry. The see-saw of 

 life is between the two. Thus there are important researches 

 in progress which are inquiring into the occurrence of " heat " 



