January, 1912.] 



65 



Miscellaneous. 



with regard to the analysis of feeding 

 stuff for animals in different countries 

 should be made uniform, and that tables 

 of feeding values for different districts 

 should be drawn up, showing the great 

 differences between the nutritive value 

 of products according to their place of 

 origin. Such tables should be brought 

 together in pamphlet form for distribu- 

 tion to breeders, and should include typi- 

 cal model rations for different animals 

 by districts. 



Another resolution asked for uniform- 

 ity in sanitary regulations relating to 

 animals, and the spread among agricul- 

 turists of a practical knowledge of the 

 hygiene of animals. 



The section also dealt with methods of 

 treatment of grass and and asked for the 

 creation of organisations whose special 

 duty it would be to act as intermediaries 

 for the purchase of seeds, of which the 

 quality should be guaranteed. 



Manures. — The object of the eighth 

 section was to collect information on the 

 application of new manures produced by 

 the absorption of nitrogen from the air. 



As a result of the papers presented to 

 the Congress, the conclusion was arrived 

 at that nitrate of lime and calcium 

 cyanamide are nitrogenous manures well 

 deserving the attention of the whole 

 agricultural world, though more experi- 

 ments with these manures must be under- 

 taken in order to ascertain exactly hew 

 they should be used. 



The oth6r conclusions relate to com- 

 parisons between the action of these two 

 manures. The section concluded that 

 nibrate of lime acts similarly to nitrate 

 of soda, while calcium cyanamide appears 

 to behave like sulphate of ammonia. 



RESEARCH AS A FINANCIAL 

 ASSET. 



By Willis R. Whitney, 

 Director, Research Laboratory, 

 General Electric Co., Schenectady, N.Y. 



(Prom the Louisiana Planter and Sugar 

 Manufacturer, Vol. XLVIL, No. 6, 



August 5, 1911.) 

 It is only in our century that there 

 could be much significance to such a 

 title as " Research as a Financial Asset." 

 This is an industrial century, and, 

 whether we are proud of it or not we 

 are an industrial rjeople. For some 

 reasons it may be thought unfortunate 

 that so large a proportion of man's 

 energies should be devoted solely to the 

 industries. In some eras we find that 

 there was a predominance of art over 



industry ; in others, literature was 

 predominant ; in still others, war and 

 conquest. Once territorial discovery and 

 acquisition predominated, and now, in 

 our own times, the principles of com- 

 munity interest have so greatly de- 

 voloped that we are accustomed to 

 seeing many people who, instead of 

 directly producing their own necessities 

 of life are more generally repeatedly 

 producing some one little article which 

 contributes in the lives of others. This 

 we recognize as a natuial tendency to 

 higher efficiency. Our intricate and 

 delicately balanced system of work is 

 becoming continually more complex, but 

 is certainly still covered by the elemental 

 laws of demand and of survival. New 

 discoveries in our day are largely mental, 

 instead of geographical, and the old 

 battles of conquest have become wars 

 with ignorance. They are struggles to 

 overcome inefficiencies, attempts to 

 broaden the more common mental 

 horizon, as our ancestors broadened their 

 physical horizon. Very few people 

 realize the rapidity with which technical 

 advances are being made. Few realize 

 how the way of this advance has itself 

 advanced, I might make this more clear 

 by an illustration. 



Consider for a moment the increasing 

 uses of chemical elements and com- 

 pounds. New combinations in alloys, 

 mediciues, dyes, foods, etc., etc., and 

 new uses and materials are being 

 produced daily. For a more simple com- 

 parison, consider only the advance in 

 our technical uses of the metallic chemi- 

 cal elements. 



Copper, iron and five other metals 

 were known and used at the time of 

 Christ. In the first 1800 or 1900 years of 

 our era, there were added to the list of 

 metals in technical use (pure or alloyed) 

 about eight more less than two per 

 century. There has been so much in- 

 dustrial advance made within the past 

 twenty to thirty years that fourteen 

 new metals have been brought into 

 commercial use within this period. This 

 is almost as many in our quarter-century 

 as in the total preceding age of the world. 

 Of course, this rate, as applied to 

 metals, apparently cannot continue, but 

 there is no reason to question the possi- 

 bility of the general advance it indicates. 

 For centuries a single metal was made 

 to serve for all uses which that metal 

 could fill. Then two metals divided the 

 field, each being used where it was pre- 

 ferred for any reason. Alloys began to 

 displace metals to a limited extent. 

 While the engineer still uses iron for his 

 railroad, iron for his buildings and iron 

 for his tools, these irons are different and 



