Scientific Agriculture. 



44 



[January, 1912. 



conditions of scientific research is pro- 

 ceeding at a rapid rate. I am quite 

 sure, for example, that no organisation 

 of agricultural research now to be in- 

 augurated under the Development Com- 

 mission will be subjected to the condi- 

 tions laid down in 1887, when the Experi- 

 mental Stations of the United States 

 were established. For them it is decreed 

 in Section 4 of the Act of Establish- 

 ment : — 



"That bulletins or reports of progress 

 shall be published at said stations at 

 least once in three months, one copy of 

 which shall be sent to each newspaper 

 in the States or Territories in which 

 they are respectively located, and to 

 such individuals actually engaged in 

 farming as may request the same and 

 as far as the means of the station will 

 permit." 



It would be difficult to draft a condi- 

 tion more unfavourable to the primary 

 purpose of the Act, which was " to con- 

 duet original researches or verify ex- 

 periments on the physiology of plants 

 and animals" with agricultural objects 

 in view. I can scarcely suppose the 

 most prolific discoverer should be in- 

 vited to deliver himself more than 

 once a year. Not only does such a 

 rule compel premature publication — that 

 nuisance of modern scientific life — but it 

 puts the investigator into a wrong atti- 

 tude towards his work. He will do best 

 if he forget the public and the news- 

 paper of his State or Territory for long 

 periods, and should only return to them 

 when, after repeated verification, he is 

 quite certain he has something to report. 



In this I am sure the best scientific 

 opinion of all countries would be agreed. 

 If it is true that the public really de- 

 mand continual scraps of results, and 

 cannot trust the investigators to pursue 

 research in a reasonable way, then 

 the public should be plainly given to 

 understand that the time for inaugur- 

 ating researches in the public's name 

 has not arrived. Men of seierce have in 

 some degree themselves to blame if the 

 outer world has been in any mistake on 

 these points. It cannot be too widely 

 known that in all sciences, whether 

 pure or applied, research is nearly 

 always a very slow process, uncertain 

 in production and full of disappoint- 

 ments. This is true, even in the new 

 industries, chemical and electrical, for 

 instance, where the whole industry has 

 been built up from the beginning on a 

 basis developed entirely by scientific 

 method and by the accumulation of 

 precise knowledge. Much more must 

 any material advance be slow in the 

 case of an ancient art like agriculture, 



where practice represents the casual 

 experience of untold ages and accurate 

 investigation is of yesterday. Problems, 

 moreover, relating to unorganised mat- 

 ter are in their nature simpler than 

 those concerned with the properties of 

 living things, a region in which accurate 

 knowledge is more difficult to attain. 

 Here the research of the present day 

 can aspire no higher than to lay the 

 foundation on which the following 

 generations will build. When this is 

 realised it will at once be perceived that 

 both those who are engaged in agri- 

 cultural research and those who are 

 charged with the supervision and con- 

 trol of these researches must be pre- 

 pared to exercise a large measure of 

 patience. 



The applicable science must be created 

 before it can be applied. It is with the 

 discovery and development of such 

 science that agricultural research will 

 for long enough best occupy its 

 energies. Sometimes, truly, there come 

 moments when a series of obvious 

 improvements in practice can at once 

 be introduced, but this happens only 

 when the penetrative genius of a 

 Pasteur or a Mendel has worked out the 

 way into a new region of knowledge, 

 and returns with a treasure that all can 

 use, Given the knowledge it will soon 

 enough become applied. 



I am not advocating work in the 

 clouds. In all that is attempted we 

 must stick near to the facts. Though 

 the methods of research and of thought 

 must be strict and academic, it is in the 

 farm and the garden that they must be 

 applied. If inspiration is to be found 

 anywhere it will be there. The investi- 

 gator will do well to work. 



" As if his highest plot 

 To plant the bergamot." 



It is only in the closest familiarity 

 with phenomena that we can attain to 

 that perception of their orderly rela- 

 tions, which is the beginning of dis- 

 covery. 



To the creation of applicable science 

 the very highest gifts and traiuing are 

 well devoted. In a foreign country an 

 eminent man of science was speaking to 

 me of a common friend, and he said that 

 as our friend's qualifications were not of 

 the first rank he would have to join the 

 agricultural side of the uuiversity. I 

 have heard remarks of similar disparage- 

 ment at home. Now, whether from the 

 point of view of agriculture or pure 

 science, I can imagine no policy more 

 stupid and short-sighted. 



