SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 
herbage which are largely responsible for the excellence of Australian 
wools; that if every season were a good one, the stock and sheep would 
suffer severely from parasites, and from diseases; and, best of all, 
men who do not believe that Nature’s great scheme of things, which, 
by slow degrees, has evolved from the womb of Time, has arrived at 
its present advanced state of development for the sole and only purpose 
of gratifying the money-making instincts of the Get-rich-quick Dollar- 
ton Shekelfords, just as and how they would like to be able to order it. 
Records of the actual experience of intelligent and enlightened men of 
this kind are among the things wanted; and some of it is already on 
record in the files of old newspapers. They are men who can appre- 
ciate the words of Mr. Roosevelt, when President of the United States, 
in his opening Address to the American Forest Congress, held at Wash- 
ington, Januiry, 1905—“ All of you know that there is opportunity in 
- any new country for the development of the type of temporary inhabi- 
tant whose idea is to skin the country and go somewhere else. Seas 
That man is a curse and not a blessing to the country. The prop of the 
country must be the business man who intends so to run his business 
that it will be profitable to his children after him. . . . I ask, 
with all the intensity I am capable of, that the men of the West will 
remember the sharp distinction I have just drawn between the man who 
skins the land and the man who develops the country.” 
The book should not be a one-man book, but a team-work book, 
supervised by a capable editor. It should be simply but scientifically 
written by specialists in the different branches, after the manner of 
‘the handbooks prepared, at different times, for the meetings of the 
Australas‘an and of the British Associations for the Advancement of 
. Science: But, for the chapters to which they relate, and especially 
those on the lessons of droughts and their application, from the prac- 
tical man’s side, the files of the newspapers, at least as far back as 
the drought which began in 1888, should be systematically looked up. 
Some of the articles therein are excellent, for they are often the 
records of actual experience and first-hand knowledge; and, as such, 
they are of historical interest. The cream of all these should be 
skimmed, supplemented as may be required, and put into the hand- 
book; and, if desirable, referred to in the bibliography. Papers 
in scientific journals should be utilized in a similar manner. 
But the publication of a handbook, in the way of propaganda, is not . 
enough. The annual output of books is so enormous that any parti- 
cular book is apt to be put on the shelf, and perhaps forgotten. There- 
fore, some propagandists are needed. A good way of providing for 
these, I think, would be the endowment of a course of three annual 
lectures. One lecturer always to be a scientific man; another always 
to be a man on the land; and the third always to be a business man 
capable of dealing with the statistical and financial aspects of 
drought-problems. | The lecturers to be appointed annually, a year 
in advance, so that they may have time for the preparation of their 
lectures. The lecturers to be allowed to choose the subjects of their 
lectures, provided—and th's is to be a sine qua non—that the aim and 
object thereof is to elaborate, to expound, to make clear, and, if pos- 
sible or necessary, to amplify the handbook. The lectures some- 
times to be delivered in Sydney when the primary producers come to 
490 
