January, 1912] 



45 



Scientific Agriculture. 



The man who devotes his life to 

 applied seieuce should be made to feel 

 that he is in the main stream of scienti- 

 fic progress. If he is not, both his work 

 and science at large will suffer. The 

 opportunities of discovery are so few 

 that we cannot afford to miss any, and 

 it is to the man of trained mind who is 

 in contact with the phenomena of a 

 great applied science that such oppor- 

 tunities are most often given. Through 

 his hands pass precious material, the 

 outcome sometimes of years of effort 

 and design. To tell him that he must 

 not pursue that inquiry further because 

 he cannot forsee a direct and immediate 

 application of the knowledge is, I be- 

 lieve almost always, a course detri- 

 mental to the leal interests of the 

 applied science. I could name specific 

 instances where in other countries 

 thoroughly competeut and zealous 

 investigators have by the short-sighted- 

 ness of superior officials been thus 

 debarred from followiug to their con- 

 clusion researches of great value and 

 novelty. 



In this country where the Develop- 

 ment Commission will presumably for 

 many years be the main investigator 

 and controller of agricultural research, 

 the constitution of the Advisory Board, 

 on which Science is largely represented, 

 forms a guarantee that broader counsels 

 will prevail, and it is to be hoped that 

 not merely this inception of the work, 

 but its future administration also, will 

 be guided in the same spirit. So long 

 as a train of inquiry continues to extend, 

 and new knowledge, that most precious 

 commodity is coming in, the enterprise 

 will not be in vain and it will be usually 

 worth while to pursue it. 



The relative value of the different 

 parts of knowledge in their application 

 to industry is almost impossible to 

 estimate, and a line of work should not 

 be abandoned until it leads to a dead 

 end, or is lost in a desert of detail. 



We have, not only abroad, but also 

 happily in this country, several private 

 firms engaged in various industries — I 

 may mention especially metallurgy, 

 pharmacy, and brewing — who have set 

 an admirable example in this matter, 

 instituting researches of a costly and 

 elaborate nature, practically unlimited 

 in scope, connected with the subjects of 

 their several activities, conscious that 

 it is only by men in close touch with the 

 operations of the industry that the 

 discoveries can be made, and well 

 assured that they themselves will not 

 go unrewarded. 



Let us on our part beware of giving 

 false hopes, we know no harmony 

 " of sovran use against all enchant- 

 ments, mildew blast, or damp." 

 Those who are wise among us do not 

 even seek it yet. Why should we 

 not take the farmer and gardener into 

 our fullest confidence and tell them 

 this ? I read lately a newspaper inter- 

 view with a fruit-farmer who was being 

 questioned as to the success of his under- 

 taking, and spoke of the pests and diffi- 

 culties with which he had had to 

 contend. He was asked whether the 

 Board of Agriculture and the scientific 

 authorities were not able to help him. 

 He replied that they had done what 

 they could, that they had recommended 

 first one thing and then another, and 

 he had formed the opinion that they 

 were only in an experimental stage. 

 He was perfectly right, and he would 

 hardly have been wrong had he said 

 that in these things science is only 

 approaching the experimental stage. 



This should bB notorious. There is 

 nothing to extenuate- To affect other- 

 wise would be unworthy of the dignity 

 of science. 



Those who have the means of inform- 

 ing the public mind on the state of 

 agricultural science should make clear 

 that though something can be done to 

 help the practical man already, the 

 chief realisation of the hopes of that 

 science is still very far away, and that 

 it can only be reached by long and 

 strenuous effort, expended in many va- 

 rious directions, most of which must 

 seem to the uninitiated mere profitless 

 wandering, So only will the confidence 

 of the laity be permanently assured 

 towards research. 



Nowhere is the need for wide views of 

 our problems more evident than in the 

 study of plant-diseases. Hitherto this 

 side of agriculture and of horticulture, 

 though full of possibilities for the intro- 

 duction of scientific method, has been 

 examined only in the crudest and most 

 empirical fashion. To name the disease, 

 to burn the affected plants, and to ply 

 the crop with all the sprays and washes 

 in succession ought not to be regarded 

 as the utmost that science can attempt. 

 There is at the present time hardly any 

 comprehensive study of the morbid 

 physiology of plants comparable with 

 that which has been so greatly deve- 

 loped in application to animals. The 

 nature of the resistance to disease 

 characteristic of so many varieties, and 

 the modes by which it may be ensured, 

 offers a most attractive field for re- 

 search, but it is one in which the advance 

 must be made by the development of 



