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Hokitika Guardian, 18 May 1933, Page 4

Ths . British system ,of (agricultural Q.nd horticultural research was critfrr its “lack of co-ordination’’ hv Mr J. M. F. Drummond, professor of botany at Manchester University, in ;> lecture m “The .inter-relation of pure and applied biology,” which was delivered at a meeting of the Manchester .Ur iversity Science Federation, recently. He also questioned the vjaiu'o "'of specialised university degrees in such subjects as dairy farming, and suggested that tlio proper introduction to agricultural research was through a degree in pure science, followed. Ip a practicrd diploma. Pro-

1 fessor Drummond referred to the numerous plant-breeding and research stations which had been established in Great Britain, Scandinavia, and other countries in the last half-cen-tury. The research both in special stations .and in agricultural colleges was not, he said, co-ordinated as if might be. There had been a research council, but this had been ineffective except for an interesting exchange of views. “One result cf this,” he said, “is that all the agricultural colleges carry cut certain routine experiments each year, and accumulate an imposing mass of statistics which really have no general value. They do not use the aame plants, or the same apparatus, and their results cannot he compared.” This -contrasted unfavourably with conditions in Denmark, where, largely owing to economic pressure, the fields of research had been carefully planned over the whole country.