January, 1912.] 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE. 



BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. 

 Sub-Section K. 



AGRICULTURE. 

 Opening Address by W. Bateson, m.a., 

 p.r.s., Chairman of the Sub-section. 



(Prom Nature, No. 2186, Vol. 87, 

 September 21, 1911.) 

 The invitation to preside over the 

 Agricultural Sub-section on this occasion 

 naturally gave me great pleasure, but 

 after accepting it I have felt embarrass- 

 ment in a considerable degree. The 

 motto of the great Society which has 

 been responsible for so much progress 

 in agricultural affairs in this country 

 very clearly expresses the subject of our 

 deliberations in the words "Practice 

 with Science," and to be competent to 

 address you, a man should be well con- 

 versant with both. But even if agri- 

 culture is allowed to include horticulture, 

 as may perhaps be generally conceded, 

 I am sadly conscious that my special 

 qualifications are much weaker than you 

 have a right to demand of a President. 



The aspects of agriculture from which 

 it offers hopeful lines for scientific attack 

 are, in the main, three : Physiological, 

 Pathological, and Genetic. Alf are 

 closely interrelated, and for successful 

 dealing with the problems of any 

 one of these departments of research, 

 knowledge of the results attained in the 

 others is now almost indispensable. I 

 myself can claim personal acquaintance 

 with the third or genetic group alone, 

 and therefore in considering how science 

 is to be applied to the practical oper- 

 ations of agriculture, I must necessarily 

 choose it as the more special subject of 

 this address. I know very well that 

 wider experience of those other branches 

 of agricultural science or practical agri- 

 culture would give to my remarks a 

 weight to which they cannot now 

 pretend. 



Before, however, proceeding to these 

 topics of special consideration, I have 

 thought it not unfitting to say some- 

 thing of a more general nature as to 

 the scope of an applied science, such as 

 that to which we here are devoted. We 

 are witnessing a very remarkable out- 

 burst of activity in the promotion of 

 science in its application to agriculture. 

 Public bodies distributed throughout 

 this country and our possessions are 

 organising various enterprises with that 

 object, Agricultural research is now 



everywhere admitted as a proper subject 

 for University support and direction. 



With the institution of the Develop- 

 ment Grant a national subsidy is pro- 

 vided on a considerable scale in England 

 for the first time. 



At such a moment the scope of this 

 applied science and the conditions under 

 which it may most successfully be 

 advanced are prominent matters of con- 

 sideration in the minds of most of us. 

 We hope great things from these new 

 ventures. We are, however, by no 

 means the first to embark upon them. 

 Many of the other great nations have 

 already made enormous efforts in the 

 same direction. We have their ex- 

 perience for a guide. 



Now, it is not in dispute that wherever 

 agricultural science has been properly 

 organised valuable results have been 

 attained, some of very high importance 

 indeed ; yet with full appreciation of 

 these achievements, it is possible to ask 

 whether the whole outcome might not 

 have been greater still. In the course of 

 recent years. I have come a good deal 

 into contact with those who in various 

 countries are taking part in such work, 

 and I have been struck with the unan- 

 imity that they have shown in their 

 comments on the conditions imposed 

 upon them. Those who receive large 

 numbers of agricultural bulletins pur- 

 porting to give the results of practical 

 trials and researches will, I feel sure, 

 agree with me that with certain notable 

 exceptions they form on the whole dull 

 reading. True they are in many cases 

 written for farmers and growers in 

 special districts, rather than for the 

 general scientific reader, but I have 

 sometimes asked myself whether those 

 farmers get much more out of this liter- 

 ature than I do. I doubt it greatly. 

 Nevertheless, to the production of 

 these things much labour and expense 

 have been devoted. I am sure and I 

 believe that most of those engaged in 

 these productions themselves feel, that 

 the effort might have been much better 

 applied elsewhere. Work of this un- 

 necessary kind is done, of course, to 

 satisfy a public opinion which is sup- 

 posed to demand rapid returns for out- 

 lay, and to prefer immediate apparent 

 results, however trivial, to the long delay 

 which is the almost inevitable accom 

 paniment of any serious production. 

 For my own part I much doubt whether 

 in this estimate present public opinion 

 has been rightly gauged. Enlighten- 

 ment as to the objects, methods, and 



