RESEARCH ON THE FARM

Shannon News, 22 June 1928, Page 3

RESEARCH ON THE FARM

__ *»- AN HISTORIC CONFERENCE. Conclusions of importance to agriculture in all parts of the Empire are contained in the report, now published, of the recent Imperial Agricultural Research Conference. This Conference, the first of its kind ever held in the history of the Empire, met in London and toured Great Britain during last autumn and was attended by delegates from home, from all the Dominions, and from almost flail the Colonies. The Conference was jointly organised by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and by the Empire Marketing Board. „

"There has been no conference of an Imperial character which has been more harmonious, more definite in its objectives, more constructive in its deliberations and decisions, or more calculated in its results not only to contribute to the ever growing solidarity of the' Empire, but materially to affect its future prosperity and happiness," stated Lord Bledisloe in a speech, quoted in the Report.

Agriculture, the Report points out, is by far the most important industry within the British Empire; even in England and Wales, with its urban conditions the annual agricultural output reaches the figure of £225,000,000. The Empire's agriculture is representative of a vast range of conditions and problems. It is practised in some of the hottest and coldest and some of the wettest and driest and some of the m&.st fertile and apparently some of the most barren parts of the world. As Lord Balfour has pointed out there is no problem which affects any part of the world's agricul-' ture which does not also affect the British Empire. Some of the agriculture goes back to an unexampled historical past, and in some of the newest and least-touched surfaces of the globe are rcp'resented.

As regards the improvement in this agriculture which is of so momentous importance for the Empire's prosperity there is one matter on which all are agreed, and that is that one means to this end is the conduct of research into the many and varied problems which confront the agricultural community in all the Empire's territories, with a view to increasing output in amount or quality or cheapening its cost of production. Scientific investigation has already done wonderful tilings for the farmer. It has led to the use of artificial manures, to the production offarmyard manure without the intervention of the animal, to the breeding 0.1. varieties of cereals with improved cropping capacities and powers of resistance to disease and unfavourable climatic conditions, to the employment of insects in the suppression of such of their kind as' are'.injurious to crops, and to the use of chemicals of various kinds in the killing of insects and fungi. It has .enabled the fruit grower to select the type of fruit tree which he requires to sun.; any given set of conditions. Then, so far as the animal is concerned, it has provided laws which enable animals with the desired characteristics to be bred. Through the elucidation of the physiology of animals, the composition of their carcase and the composition of foodstuffs, it has enabled economical rations to be compounded giving, to the maximum, the results desired whether in production of meat or milk. It has placed powerful measures in the hands of Veterinarians and practical farmers enabling them to combat diseases' of livestock. In the benefits brought about on the engineering side agricultural conditions nowadays have only to be compared with those, for instance recorded in the Bible to realise the distance that has been travelled. Machinery is in use on the farm for the cultivation of the soil for hieing, harvesting, threshing, and many other processes. Very recently the internal combustion engine may bring about a revolution in farming equally with tha* in road transport.

Great as arp the services which science has rendered to agriculture, it is possible that the advantages so far conferred are nothing to the gains which will accrue from the continuance and intensification of its aid. Governments all over the world are awakening to these possibilities. in the United Kingdom an organisation for agricultural research has been created since the War at a cost which, for instance, in comparison with that in the United States, is : relatively small. The great Dominions of Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the Irish Free State and the Indian Empire have also taken care to foster research in Agriculture with noteworthy results of which the expansion of the wheat area of Canada and the control of animal diseases in South Africa may be given as examples.

Three important schemes are recommended in the Report; first, the setting up throughout the Empire of a "chain of Agricultural Research Stations; secondly, the setting tip in the United Kingdom of clearing houses of information in agricultural science which shall serve the whole Empire, and thirdly, the recruitment, training, and interchange of scientific workers in agriculture for the whole Empire. The conference had no fewer than

eleven specialist committees ou veterinary science, animal nutrition, animal genetics, dairying, soils and fertilisers, plant breeding, plant pathology, fruit, entomology, preservation and transput and agricultural economics, and many important recommendations relate , to these specialist subjects.