VALUE OF RESEARCH

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 233, 14 September 1934, Page 11

VALUE OF RESEARCH

Advances in Agriculture

In these days, when public agricultural opinion is so much occupied with questions relating to prices and markets, work that is unobtrusively in progress at agricultural research institutions is apt to be overlooked, or at least regarded as of decidedly secondary importance, says the Journal of the British Ministry of Agriculture. It may be true that the world is suffering from over-production of certain commodities rather than from the reverse, and to that extent the efforts of science to remove the disabilities attaching to agricultural production may be regarded as of less importance than efforts to recreate or rejuvenate markets for the sale of agricultural produce. On the other hand, a period of continued low prices is one in which the farmer is peculiarly concerned to take all possible steps to produce his goods at the least cost, and viewed in this light the prosecution of research into the problems of farming is as important as ever. It can fairly be claimed that the value of agricultural research is cumulative, and that as the years pass the work of the research institutes that have been established in this country progressively increases in proportion to the funds that are required to maintain them. Each year, advances are being made that are of enormous potential value to the agricultural industry.