AGRICULTURE AND RESEARCH.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 25 November 1913, Page 6

AGRICULTURE AND RESEARCH.

j Recent developments at the agri- ( cultural station in this country (England), as recently outlined by the President of the Board of Agriculture, cannot fail to have a definite influence on the future of agriculture in this country. It would seem that at last this subject is being tackled in the right spirit, and that the Government, through the Development Commission or"otherwise, is giving substantial and increasing financial support to the many institutions which are now conducting agricultural research. The Imperial College is dealing especially with plant physiology, and the important station at Cambridge with plant-breeding and animal nutrition. One could not fail to bo struck, at the recent opening of'tho extensions at the Rothamsted Station, with the fact that the modern treatment of the subject of agricultural chemistry is slowly but irrosifitiby modifying the relationship between science and agriculture. It is interesting to note that the rapid changes which have taken place have compelled the organisers to train a number of chemists in agricultural chemistry, and with this object in view thirty-six scholarships of £l5O per year, tenable for three years, have been awarded. The appointment in coinret-tion with the ! agricultural stations of advisors, j whose, sole function is to transmit direct to the farmers results of research work, is an additional and important link in the new scheme. The Board of Agriculture has actually granted "£9OOO a • year towards the salaries of these advisers, and £20,000 for agricultural research. This great advance is a matter for congratulation, and is a definite reward for the labours of that small body of scientific" men who for many years past attempted to direct the attention of agriculture to the work of chemists. Among these the name of Professor H. E. Armstrong may be mentioned, for his untiring devotion to the work conducted at Rothamsted has perhaps more than anything else played a part in shaping tho policy which has led to the recent developments at the station.—The Chemical World, London, September, 1913.