191 1.] Promotion of Agricultural Research. 547 



that a group of subjects may be adequately treated. When 

 these schemes have been submitted by the institutions con- 

 cerned, provisional Research Grants will be allocated as the 

 necessities of the case may require. 



Character of the Research Work. 



The Development and Road Improvement Funds Act, 1909, 

 provides that the Development Fund is to be used, inter alia, 

 for "aiding and developing agriculture and rural industries 

 by promoting scientific research, instruction and experiments 

 in the science, methods, and practice of agriculture." The 

 expression "agriculture and rural industries" is defined as 

 including "agriculture, horticulture, dairying, the breeding 

 of horses, cattle, and other live stock and poultry, the cultiva- 

 tion of bees, home and cottage industries, the cultivation and 

 preparation of flax, the cultivation and manufacture of 

 tobacco, and any industries immediately connected with and 

 subservient to any of the said matters." 



It would be quite impracticable in the case of an art which, 

 like agriculture, may be served by many branches of science, 

 to attempt to frame a list of subjects that might properly 

 engage the attention of investigators. And if such a list were 

 practicable it would be undesirable that an attempt should 

 now be made to compile it, for it is clear that in many 

 branches of scientific work the only person qualified to form 

 an opinion as to the practical bearing of a particular investiga- 

 tion may be the investigator himself. Such being the case, 

 it is of the greatest importance that the staff of those Research 

 Institutions to which grants are made from the Fund should 

 keep steadily in view the requirements of the Act, and refuse 

 to be satisfied with their work unless it results in some 

 development of agriculture. 



In view of the fact that there is much work to be done in 

 applying known scientific principles to the service of agri- 

 culture, those responsible for guiding the work of the younger 

 men who will be employed under the scheme should give the 

 preference to work the results of which are likelv to be definite. 

 There is, for example, a wide field for the application of 

 Mendelian principles in breeding new types of plants, and 

 there are many insect and fungus pests which if studied by 



p P 2 



