1920.] 



Agricultural Research. 



303 



the subject on which they speciahse. In practice, it is found 

 that the most important subject on which farmers require 

 expert advice (apart from questions which may be referred to 

 the County Agricultural Organisers) is plant diseases, and it 

 is hoped that Advisory Ofhcers on this subject will ultimately 

 be available in every area. The Advisory Officers in Plant 

 Pathology, as men employed in this work are called, act as the 

 Intelligence Officers of the Ministry in regard to the incidence 

 of plant diseases in their respective provinces, and close co- 

 operation is secured between them and the Ministry's own 

 Technical Advisers on this subject. 



Reference may be made to the career offered by agricultural 

 research. Hitherto, it must be confessed, this has been 

 largely a blind-alley occupation. The research worker, 

 properly so-called, must pursue his calling independently 

 of any economic end. Occasionally discoveries are made v/hich 

 bring the work, and the value of it, to the notice of the public, 

 but as a general rule "the researcher continues his labours with 

 little hope of encouragement from outside, and is often depressed 

 by finding that several years of patient investigation have been 

 along a path that has ultimately proved to lead nowhere. 

 Valuable and vital as the work is, it rarely comes into the light. 

 The result has been that, hitherto, adequate recognition has 

 too often been either absent or belated. The War, however, 

 has brought home to us that a Nation aspiring to industrial 

 prestige cannot afford to lose sight of that fundamental research 

 which is the only solid basis of industrial progress, and must 

 offer sufficiently attractive emoluments to research workers 

 to build up an adequate service. That the Ministry is alive 

 to this position is indicated by the largely increased grants 

 available to research institutions. It cannot be said that, 

 even now, the salaries granted to research staffs are a true 

 indication of the value of their work to the State, but at any 

 rate an honest endeavour has been made to improve the 

 lamentably low emoluments and prospects which have hitherto 

 obtained, and to afford a reasonable career to men who prove 

 themselves qualified to undertake research. 



As a means of recruiting the research service, the Ministry 

 has resumed the Research Scholarship Scheme which was in 

 operation before the War, and a certain number of scholarships 

 will be offered each year to men who have shown capacity 

 for advanced work in this direction. 



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