Scientific Agriculture. 



5m 



[December, 1911. 



ant stage in the history of agriculture, 

 and to say that the body of ' men 

 necessary for carrying out the scheme 

 of research contemplated by the Board 

 does not exist. The men have to be dis- 

 covered and trained before the scheme 

 as a whole can be developed. 



We think that the Board are to be con- 

 gratulated in thus recognising the need 

 for the provision of recruits to the very 

 small standing army of agricultural 

 researchers, and we believe that they 

 will find themselves spending more 

 money on this subject than they at 

 present contemplate, or that people im- 

 patient for immediate results will think 

 necessary. In the meantime, while the 

 scholarship holders are in training, 

 grants are to be made to those institu- 

 tions which are in a position to 

 undertake agricultural investigations. 

 Experience shows that institutions are 

 able, under the stimulus of prospective 

 grants, to improvise any amount of such 

 capacity. The Board will, therefore, 

 safeguard themselves and the public 

 money in the following manner. Agri- 

 cultural science is divided tor the 

 purposes of the scheme into a number of 

 sections, namely, plant physiology, 

 agricultural zoology, animal and plant 

 nutrition, and soil problems, genetics 

 (animal and plant-breeding), pathology 

 (diseases of animals and plants), dairy- 

 ing, fruit-growing, and the economies of 

 agriculture. 



Each of these subjects is to be " farmed 

 out" to one or more institutions in which 

 are workers who have specialised in 

 the subject. The advantages of this 

 method of giving out research piece- 

 work are great, but there art also grave 

 disadvantages attaching to it. The 

 advantages are that the even develop- 

 ment of several branches of agriculture 

 is encouraged, and that certain of these 

 branches are not neglected for studies 

 which are at the moment more in 

 fashion. Groups of workers will be 

 encouraged by this system to cooperate 

 toward the solution of those " border- 

 line" problems of which agriculture 



presents so many problems which stand 

 on the no-man's land which bound such 

 sciences as botany and zoology. The 

 disadvantages are that the scheme 

 prevents over-lapping, and over-lapping 

 in research is an excellent thing. It 

 tends, moreover, to make each agri- 

 cultural research institution too much 

 of the nature of a technical institute 

 for the investigation of one department 

 of agriculture. We shall have soil 

 institutes, genetics, institutss, dairy in- 

 stitutes, and- so on. It is true that 

 freedom is thriftless, and, therefore, not 

 apt to find favour with Boards or 

 Treasuries ; but it is equally true that 

 without freedom the best kind of 

 research is likely to remain undone. 

 The weak point of the scheme would 

 appear to be that it makes no provision 

 for one or more agricultural universities 

 — places where agriculture is studied 

 from a research point of view in all its 

 branches, and where soil men meet with 

 dairy men and genetics is cheek by jowl 

 with pathology. 



Nevertheless, the scheme will, we 

 think, command the general approval 

 and support of all friends of agriculture 

 and horticulture. It represents an 

 attempt to provide what is greatly 

 needed — a body of highly-trained and 

 efficient experts, who will devote them- 

 selves both to the investigation of agri- 

 cultural problems and to the dissemin- 

 ation of knowledge of value to the farm- 

 ing community. It leaves the work of 

 mere demonstration on one side and 

 divides research into two sections : one 

 general or universal, the other — and no 

 less important — local. If successful, then 

 in ten years' time we shall have in this 

 country a group ot men who are not 

 only discovering the best methods of 

 growing plant and rearing animals, but 

 who are able to go to this field or that 

 orchard and tell the grower who wants 

 help what kind of permanent pasture, 

 what combinatiou of manures, and what 

 remedial measures against disease he is 

 bound to adopt if he is to secure the 

 best results from his labours. 



AGRICULTURAL FINANCE AND CO-OPERATION. 



HOLLAND. 



1. Accident Insurance and the 

 Farmers. 



For various reasons there is as yet no 

 law in Holland on Insurance against 

 Accidents in Agricultural Labour, corre- 

 sponding with that passed in 1907 against 



Accident in Manufacturing Labour. 

 The want has, however, been supplied by 

 the Farmers' themselves, efficiently 

 assisted by the "State Commission for 

 Agriculture." 



In this way, there have arisen two 

 remarkable organizations for this in- 

 surance. They are dealt with in an 



