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514: QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 June, 1900. 
the first attempt to reduce agricultural knowledge and investigation to 
scientific basis. The work of these two men, together with that of Thaer, 
Sprengel, and Boussingault, prepared the way for the magnificent work of 
iebig, whose publications appeared in 1840 and 1842, since which time many 
of the brightest minds in Europe and America have been investigating the 
composition of the soil, plant, and animal, and their relation to one another. 
Davy said: “ Discoveries made in the cultivation of the earth are not 
merely for the time and country in which they are developed, but they may be 
considered as extending to future ages, and as ultimately tending to benefit the 
whole race, as affording subsistence for generations to come; as multiplying 
life ; and not only multiplying life, but likewise providing for its enjoyment.” 
Liebig, in one of his productions, wrote: “1 shall be happy if I succeed in 
attracting the attention of men of science to subjects which so well merit to 
engage their talents and energies. Perfect agriculture is the true foundation 
of trade and industry—it is the foundation of the riches of States.” 
Chemistry was the first science’ that came to the assistance of agriculture, 
and eyer since agricultural science has been largely built upon agricultural 
chemistry as a foundation. ‘ ‘ 
Tts application in connection with soils and fertilisers, foods and feeding, | 
and with dairying is readily comprehended. A large portion of the work im | 
other sciences could not be carried on without the assistance of the agricultural 
chemist. Perhaps one illustration of the value of chemistry may be sufficient 
for our present purpose. The beet sugar product in Germany has increased 
from 360,000 tons in 1876 to 1,620,000 tons in 1894. The average product of 
beet roots is about 10 tons to the acre. In 1876 the 10 tons produced less than 
2,000 Ib. of sugar, whereas in 1896 the same weight produced 3,000 Ib.; in 
other words, the beet-root of to-day contains over 50 per cent. more sugar than 
it did twenty years ago. To the agricultural chemist belongs the large propor- 
tion of the credit for this marked improvement. 
Botanists are at work studying the plants of the world, and helping in the 
production of new varieties and the improvement of old varieties. Let me give 
you but one example of the value of this. About 6,500,000 acres in Ontario 
are devoted to grain-growing. If by selection and cross fertilising we could 
obtain seed grain that would add only one bushel per acre to the crops, the 
annual vrain product would be increased by 6,500,000 bushels. ‘The grain crops 
of Ontario in 1897 were worth over $50,000,000. An improvement to the 
extent of 25 per cent. is quite within the range of possibility. The 
President of the Agricultural College, in his report for 1897, referring to this 
work in improving varieties of grain, says :—-“ In this way some excellent foreign 
varieties have been introduced, tested, and distributed throughout the province— | 
varieties which yield from 6 to 8 bushels per acre more than any varieties 
previously grown. In oats and barley alone, the varieties introduced and distri- 
buted by the experiment stations have, within the past four or five years, paid to | 
the province a good deal more than the entire cost of the college for the last ten 
years ” 
Entomologists are studying the thousand-and-one insects and diseases 
affecting our grains and fruits. One practical example will perhaps best illus- 
trate the value of Entomology. About ten years ago the complete destruction 
of the orange groves of California was threatened by the spread of an insect 
known as the ‘“‘cottony-cushion scale.” The vitality was being sucked out of 
the trees by millions of tiny insects that literally covered them. The pests got 
completely beyond the control of the fruitgrowers of that country, and 
in their despair they appealed for help to somebody or anybody. Professor 
Riley, who was in charge of the Entomological Department ‘at Washing-. 
ton, and who unfortunately met his death in 1895—one of the ereatest 
benefactors the American people has ever known—at once began the 
investigations of that question. Being an expert entomologist, he 
knew practically every country in the world where ‘that scale insect 
was common, and he knew that the place from which it had most likely 
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