TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF THE 



CEYLON AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, 



Vol. XXXVIII. COLOMBO, APRIL 15th, 1912, No. 4. 



AGRICULTURE AND RESEARCH. 



A Plea for a Better Understand- 

 ing Between Practical and Scien- 

 tific Agriculturists. 

 It will be generally conceded that 

 misunderstandings sometimes arise be- 

 tween the practical exponents of agri- 

 culture and their scientific advisers. 

 Among the factors which have led to 

 this want of unanimity the writings of 

 certain advocates of science cannot be 

 entirely exonerated. There can be no 

 doubt that the practical man is often 

 contemptuous ot science, whilst there 

 may be a few of smaller experience who 

 suppose with child-like faith that scien- 

 tific methods can effect anything. From 

 time to time scientific apologists have 

 most ill-advisedly taken advantage of 

 the frame of mind last mentioned, and 

 have put forward in the name of science 

 claims which at present are entirely 

 unjustified. It is our object to occupy a 

 few lines in a protest against these 

 claims and in advocacy of a fuller 

 measure of confidence. 



Practically every agricultural country 

 in the world now devotes large sums of 

 money to agricultural research. In 

 Eogland the Board of Agriculture and 

 Fisheries has recently initiated a scheme, 

 some account of which will be found on 

 page 386 of the last Volume of the 

 Tropical Agriculturist But this expen- 



diture points the moral that science is 

 nob omniscient ; these large sums are to 

 be spent in the creation of new know- 

 ledge, not in the application of known 

 facts. The test of hard cash, which is 

 one which generally and quite rightly 

 appeals to the practical man, teaches the 

 lesson that more knowledge is urgently 

 required. 



The complaint has been made in more 

 than one quarter that the staff of the 

 Ceylon Botanical Department is not 

 sufficiently in touch with the planting 

 community, and it has been urged that 

 it is the duty of its members to go forth 

 into the plantations and endeavour to 

 induce the superintendents to listen to 

 their advice. The answer to this charge 

 is that before knowledge can be com- 

 municated it must be created. An 

 example may serve to drive this moral 

 home. The present writer whilst in 

 charge of the Mycologist's correspond- 

 ence during the absence of the latter 

 on a year's leave at home, found himself 

 able without difficulty to identify, and 

 to recommend the suitable treatment for 

 nearly a dozen of the commonest diseases 

 of rubber, tea, coconuts, and cacao. The 

 knowledge so communicated represented 

 six years' laborious study on the part 

 of Mr. Petch. Prior to that gentleman's 

 arrival in Ceylon it would have been 

 utterly impossible for a highly-trained 

 Mycologist to give more than vague and 



