ROMANCE OF INDUSTRY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10532, 23 October 1925, Page 7

ROMANCE OF INDUSTRY.

OLD IDEAS DISPELLED. SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION. There is a romance in Industry, lying somewhat deeper than in tho triumph of organisation, which leads to economic success. The heads of a manufacturing concern, while bound professionally by the administrative side of their business, may yet take a human interest in the test-tubes and microscopes which form the stock-in-trade of their reseack laboratories. Nature—animate or inanimate— works at the foundations of every factory, and it is in the practical application of her labours that the success of a business lies.

It is a singular fact that inanimate Nature holds, as a rule, the more potent appeal for the layman. There is something majestic in tho engine-room of a liner; something of more than passing interest interest in the manufacture of coal-gas, yet both are dependent upon the green plant for the fuel which they consume. Just as the passive tranquillity of a forest forms the hub of an industrial world, so the farm, the oldest example of science applied to human endeavour, supplies living machines witih a different kind of fuel—that of food.

The functions, as energy-producers, of the wheat-grain and the lump of coal are scientifically the same. One is burned in a fire, the other in the body of an animal. Each originates partly from the soil, partly from tho air; and their manufacture differs essentially only in the fact that the wheat-grain takes very much lees time to prepare. Just as agriculture is the most ancient industry known to man, so it was for a long time the slowest to develop. Tradition —a powerful influence in all primitive activities—played for many years a far-reaching and stultifying part in the fields and farmyards of the world. Weird explanations, bordering even upon superstition, were given for the occurrence of various phenomena recognised as inimical to the farmer’s interests. Thus that mighty scourge of the potato crop—known for many years as “ the potato blight,” and now recognised as one only of the ailments to which the tuber is liable —was, at a not very remote period, attributed in all seriousness to a “thunderstruck” condition; this in view of the fact that its ravages became more apparent after local thunderstorms.

What Science Has Shown. There is something very mystical, though not unnatural, about such a diagnosis; but to-day scientists have shown that the dreaded “potato blight” owes its origin not to the subtlety of summer lightning, but to the inroads of a parasitic fungus thriving under the warm humid atmospheric conditions which normally accompany such displays. During the past 50 years or so the science of agriculture has made rapid strides. A time may be confidently anticipated when the farm will rival.

in technical efficiency, those industrial factories of which'science is the willing handmaiden. When that time> comes agriculture will take its rightful place in the company of applied sciences, for, it is a truism to describe biology as the most vital study in our existence — to assert that tho soil holds a decree for our starvation or for our well-being. Such a decree as this can be largely influenced by the coaxing of the chemist’s test-tubes, a process of which the introduction of artificial fertilisers and the elaboration of insecticides and fungicides are notable examples. Sp<> cialists in the life-histories of fungi have used the microscope in order to reveal the methods adopted by pests for the destruction of their victims. “ Suckers” of these parasites are watched in their work of pirating the food-laden juices of leaves; and -from a. study of such attacking mechanism—

standard metnods nave oeen bvuucu for the prevention or extermination or i a pest. . , Again, the investigation ot so complex a subject as heredity has placed further important economic improvemerits within reach of the farmer, lhe value of a dairy cow’s “points —so long appreciated in a rule-of-thumb manner —has, through a deeper research into the laws and causes ot inheritance, brought the process of mil reproduction more nearly to the status of an exact science. “ Like father, like son,” is a popular proverb applying not only to the human race but equally to other animals. At the same time it is not an inviolable law, and from the biologist s laboratory comes a partial explanation of the reasons and circumstances under which it fails. By the application of such information the farmer is mrge y enabled to avoid such failure, with the result that he is not so often disappointed in the quality of the calves which his dairy cows produce. Similarly plants have improved in yielding capacity and quality. The wheat of to-day is different from that of which was grown 100 years ago. It is by knowing the cause of a phenomenon that the latter may he repeated, improved upon, or prevented at will. Evidence of the recognition of this doctrine may be found m any of the research laboratories connected with a well-established factory, and 1 is in no way less applicable to the factory of Nature. It would take far too long to enumerate in detail the ways in which Man’s laboratories have assisted the work of Nature s factory. These few notes, however, may possibly serve to emphasise the business pihusbandry as a technical industry in no way less specialised than are # more spectacular activities epitomise by the power-house, the aeioplane factory, or the steel-works.