SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
(g) That the sum of £8,000 per annum for a period of five 
years should be made available for this work, of which 
sum £4,000 should be contributed by the Commonwealth 
Government, and £2,000 each by the Governments of New 
South Wales and Queensland. 
In making these recommendations the Executive Committee had 
in mind the fact that from the point of view of Australia as a whole 
the most important object to strive for is to prevent the spread of the 
pear on waste lands from which good lands are constantly threatened. 
This can only be done by employing natural enemies, since mechanical 
or chemical methods are too expensive on waste lands. The experiments 
carried out in the past have had as a primary object the discovery of 
means whereby the landowner might clear more or less valuable land. 
Though of great importance to persons in the pear-infested localities 
such experiments are in the nature of a search for remedies, whilst 
from the national point of view what is required is something to hold 
the pest in check and ultimately destroy it, that is to say a cure. 
The Executive Committee considers that the matter is of such 
importance that the full-time services of several entomologists should 
be employed in obtaining insects from America and investigating their 
action on the plant. Though the State Governments have biologists 
and entomologists in their employment these officers are obviously only 
able to give a portion of their time to such work. 
The Commonwealth, New South Wales, and Queensland Govern- 
ments have all agreed to the scheme outlined by the Executive Committee. 
The New South Wales Government has also promised to contribute a 
sum of £1,000 per annum for a period of five years, on a contributory 
basis with the Commonwealth and the various States interested, for 
investigations into the extermination of white ants, cattle ticks and 
nodules in cattle, and such other pests as may from time to time be con- 
sidered to be of sufficient importance for joint Federal and State action. 
It is proposed that the general superintendence of the prickly-pear 
investigations, especially in so far as the business side is concerned, 
should be controlled by a Commonwealth Prickly Pear Board consisting 
of the Director of the Commonwealth Institute of Science and Industry 
(chairman), the Under-Secretary of the New South Wales Department 
of Sagan and the Under-Secretary of the Queensland Department 
of Lands. 
_The farmer of to-day is an infinitely more practical 
man than the farmer of 25 years ago, who sowed and 
reaped in uncritical imitation of his father, and who gave 
the old cow her free choice of what food she considered 
most suitable for herself. 
-—F. B. GUTHRIE. 
