Science Goes Farming

Northland Age, Volume IX, Issue 67, 31 May 1940, Page 2

Science Goes Farming

In considering the relation of science to industry it is often forgotten by the layman that farming which is and will probably remain for many years the one fundamental industry—is becoming a science instead of a rule-of-thumb craft. Dealing with this branch of scientific work in “Science and Industry,” Professor A4M. Low states that “one of the greatest things that science has done for the farmer is to remove much of the element of chance from his business. The biggest doubt in farming,” he says, “has always been the weather, which we have not yet learned to control, in spite of experiments with cloud guns or sand dropped by planes. But we can reduce the harmful effects of undesirable weather in many different ways.’ Drought, one of the farmer’s worst enemies, sepecially in hot countries, has to a great extent been overcome by irrigation. Extreme cold is counteracted by anti-frost measures and glass-houses. Poultry, kept intensively under artificial “sun” conditions, are assured of even temperatures throughout the year. For fruit trees j “we have burners which are lit when the temperature falls to danger point in spring; automatic alarms warn the farmer when his fruit blossoms are in danger, and enables burners to be operated. There are hay ovens in case there should be rainy weeks in haytime, while apart from these we have in its infancy the artificial heating of soil by electricity, which may well develop until whole fields are treated in this way. Radiation of crops and chemical growing are now almost at the commercial stage.” Finally, after dealing with the changes brought about by machinery and the recent development of sodless culture, where chemicals utilized by plants are measured out and dissolved in water for the roots to use, Professor Low adds that “the service of science to farming has been to banish the picture of a farmer struggling to produce enough to feed an evergrowing population, and makes it possible for him to consider new crops which will be used not for feeding but for clothing the population; even to providing them with fuel for their motor cars or ordinary domestic heating. Farming is,” he finishes, “a scientific and a fascinating occupation in this century.”