EDITORIAL. 
results of scientific method applied to military and other practical arts, 
recognises that the successful issue of the war has sprung from the 
efforts of scientific men concentrated on those problems, and with the 
conviction that the well-being and security of the nation are dependent 
on the continuous study of such matters, would urge on His Majesty’s 
Government the necessity for apportioning an adequate sum from that 
allocated to home administration and the upkeep of the fighting Forces 
for the purposes of a definitely organized scheme of research, as, for 
example, on problems connected with health, food, and commerce, on 
explosives, on chemical warfare, and on physical and engineering 
problems bearing on military work.” Similar resolutions, in varying 
terms according to the special cases, have been forwarded to the First 
Lord of the Admiralty, the Secretary for War, the President of the 
Board of Trade, and the Ministers of Health and Food. 
RESEARCH IN NON-FERROUS METALS. 
About a year ago, representatives. of the non-ferrous metals 
industries in Great Britain held a meeting and decided to establish a 
Research Association under the British Department of Scientific 
Research, which, it will be remembered, has been provided with a fund 
of £1,000,000 to be expended on assisting scientific investigations of 
benefit to British industries. A scheme for carrying out investigational 
work has now been prepared, and provision is to be made for the estab- 
lishment of a special Research Institute and Experimental Workshop. 
Ii is intended also to obtain quarters for housing an Information 
Bureau, to appoint a staff, and to establish branches in various centres 
of the country. The Bureau will be a storehouse of tabulated scientific 
and technical information collected from all available sources, and 
arranged in such form as to be of easy access and practical utility to 
meet the every-day wants of those engaged in the production, treatment, 
working, and use of non-ferrous metals. 
PRODUCTION INCREASED BY PLANT BREEDING. 
Reviewing the activities in the domain of botany in recent years, 
Sir Daniel Morris, in an address before the British Association quoted 
a number of striking instances where progress has been made in the 
improvement of cotton, wheat rubber, cocoa, &. “One of the out- 
standing features that emerges from a record of botanical search during 
the last decade or two is the prominent position occupied by plant 
breeding on mendelian lines. In proof of this are the numerous well- 
equipped plant-breeding institutes established and maintained by 
Government and private funds. Plant breeding is now in the fore- 
front in relation to the improvement of crops, and the value of it is 
officially acknowledged as a ‘a vital element in the national policy’ ” 
According to the Secretary of the Board of Agriculture, what we want 
“are new races of plants adapted to intensive cultivation,” and he 
adds, “it is my deliberate opinion that an increase in the production 
of our land is much more easily attainable in that direction than in an 
other.” 
C.62.—3 Tey: 
