December, 1911.] 



533 



Scientific Agriculture. 



THE VALUE OF SCIENTIFIC RE- 

 SEARCH AND THE PLANTERS' 

 CO-OPERATION. 



(From Tropical Life, Vol. VII., 

 No. 9, September, 1911.) 



In the Planters' Chronicle, the official 

 organ of the U. P. A. of Southern India, 

 there appears a report of an address by 

 Mr. Rudolph Anstead which is well 

 worth studying, and for more than one 

 reason. 



In the first place stress is laid on the 

 necessity for adequate research work 

 and field work in Southern India, where 

 Mr. Anstead has for two years been 

 established as Scientific Officer and 

 Adviser to the U. P. A. S. I. The re- 

 marks he makes in the course of that 

 address are applicable to Planters' Asso- 

 ciations the world over, and not only to 

 Planters Associations, but wherever 

 agriculture is carried on. 



There can be no reasonable doubt that 

 money properly spent in devising better 

 methods and in pointing the way for 

 better results in crop raising confers a 

 benefit on planters and agriculturists 

 generally which cannot be calculated. 



A well-ordered scientific department, 

 such as exists in many countries, is 

 practically a necessity if the best results 

 are to be obtained. But there are two 

 further points to be insisted ol, first, 

 that such departments shall not be 

 starved financially ; and, secondly, that 

 the members of the Association or 

 community for whose benefit the scienti- 

 fic department is intended should give 

 all the assistance they can to those in 

 charge of it. 



With regard to the first point— finance 

 —we need hardly discuss it, for if a thing 

 is worth doing at all it is worth doing 

 well, otherwise it is better left alone. 

 And in this connection Mr. Anstead 

 instances the recent vote of some 

 £3,500,000 made by the U. S. Government 

 for the Agricultural Department. Any- 

 one who has studied the question in 

 the United States cannot help agree- 

 ing with the Minister for Agriculture 

 that the result of" the expenditure of 

 that Department— undoubtedly the best 

 equipped in the world— has conferred 

 benefits on the agricultural community 

 which cannot be measured in <£, s. d. 



It is necessary, therefore, in the first 

 place that cultivators should not grudge 

 the necessary contribution for the 



proper upkeep of a scientific depart- 

 ment,* 



As Mr. Anstead remarks, they will 

 reap the benefit several times over. But 

 while adequate funds must inevitably be 

 the first consideration, much of the 

 benefit will be lost unless planters co- 

 operate among themselves and with 

 their adviser in energetically carrying 

 out field experiments, &c, on their 

 own land. 



There is nothing like a practical ex- 

 periment carried out, under scientific 

 supervision, of course, on one's own 

 land, and in many cases the procedure 

 is so simple that there is little need to 

 encroach too much on the adviser's time, 



For instance, Mr. Anstead informed 

 the Association that in Coorg an appli- 

 cation of nitrate of soda to the Ceara 

 rubber tree just before tapping bad 

 given good results in increasing the flow 

 of the latex. He added that he would 

 like to see the method tried systemati- 

 cally over a large area. Here is a chance 

 for the planters to co-operate ! It is 

 quite a simple matter to apply, say, 

 half a pound of nitrate of soda per tree 

 over a small area on each plantation 

 and compare the results with those 

 obtained on a similar area without the 

 Ditrate. The results would be of im- 

 mense value, not only scientifically, but 

 to each individual planter. 



There are, of course, many other ways 

 in which the planters themselves could 

 obtain valuable information, and at the 

 same time be assisting their adviser by 

 carrying out simple experiments on 

 particular crops in given districts, and 

 we only mention this one because the 

 subject is mentioned in Mr. Anstead's 

 address, and again because it seems so 

 easily carried out. Further than this, 

 we referred in our issue of March, 1910, 

 p. 33, to the good results which had 

 been obtained by similar experiments 

 made by Mr. E. V. Wilcox, special agent 

 in charge of the experiment station in 

 Hawaii. In his report Mr. Wilcox gives 

 minute details of several experiments, 

 which in many cases resulted in the 

 flow of the latex being doubled by the 

 application of nitrate of soda. 



* For this reason we were sorry to hear that , 

 the Agricultural Department at the Bahamas 

 has ceased to exist, Although the work done 

 cost money, the expenses never seemed exces- 

 sive, and her agricultural industries are so 

 important to the Bahamas that we should have 

 thought it best to curtail expenses on anything 

 else but this department, by which alone the 

 Islanders can learn how best to make the most 

 of their opportunities of trading with the outer 

 world. 



