AGRICULTURE PAST AND PRESENT

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4313, 23 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

AGRICULTURE PAST AND PRESENT

ADDRESS BY DE MAXWELL

In the course of an address on Agriculture before the students of the Gatton Agricultural College. Queensland, Dr Maxwell, director of experimental farms, said; I propose that wo shall have a little plain talk upon the matter of agricultural development and upon agricultural cclk-ges and experiment stations, and the advent of conditions which have made such institutions a plain industrial necessity. AGRICULTURE OF THE PAST.

In a broad sense, students of any great integral subject understand that there is no such thing as the. sudden creation of a new tiling, and which is totally irrelevant to tilings that have preceded it. From the beginning of human affairs the same kind of man. has been dealing with- the same matters in Nature; with a few exceptions thought and progress have been step by step, '' and at a, very slow pace. From the’last ' elevation gained, men see more clearly the nature of the ground l they have traversed, and they also perceive how, and l in what direction, they are to move on further. Evolution,, therefore, was not a Bad-expression for the nature of such progression, which we may look at just now under the name of historical development, in its application to agriculture.

.It is highly important to the student that he'approach his subject in the light of its -historic sequence ; and it is, ethically, just as important to the whelo , body of men, in order that it shall ho well understood that our knowledge of to-day is the. fruit of the gathering of bygone generations, and that our - electrio systems, our great industrial expansions, as well as our theories of matter, have grown from, ideas that were planted away back in time. ... To us, who are interested in agricul. tural progression, this matter of historic development and sequence makes a very acute appeal. Wo do not require to go hack to the beginnings of historic ’agriculture/ or- to the days . when that wily , young pastoralist, Jacob, v did! things in, “crossing” and cattle-breeding that would baflie the best of the judges at our cattle shows —my private opinion, is .that Jacob would bo “scratched” if Ko appealed’in’the ring to-day—wo hoed not’ do- more than consult tho amjals of relatively more recent .agriculture' in 'order to -see that great agricultural thinkers lived, and great achievements. were made, long before laboratories and lecture-rooms came into'existence." - Ag example, wo may recall the men who;laid the fotm'dations 6f the practical limbing of old England, whose names include every rank in life,. from the august occupant' of. Windsor Castle to the smallest cottier in the land. /In those annals of agriculture we read of the work of the men who built up the stables of the “shire” and “thoroughbred” horses of England • of the men who, with great-patience and sagacity, evolved the strains ’’of “Short- > horn,” Devon, or “polled Angus” in battle. and: who also erected i those marvellous combinations in sheep which .have "furnished, in addition to the purebreds, the •- “South,” “Hmupshire,” ■“Shropshire,” and “Oxford” Downs.-all of which are spread, over most" divisions of the globe. Yes, gentlemen, lot us lay the fact'-down deeply in our recollection/ and regard that - great l workers in agriculture have been' before us; 1 that it was their sagacity, their patience, and industry that created the agriculi lire that was handed down- to us, ami which is, and must>remain; the'foundation of the agriculture,of to-day-and of the future. AGRICULTURE OF TOrDAY. .. It was not possible for llio agriculLur- , ists of to-day : to rest: . content • with. - agriculture in tbo conditions in which it was delivered to them and to us, Wo are moving on, as our fathers moved before us, because it will bo our business ■to leave vthosw.ork to others at the end of a further period of dovelopnieut, - Wo hate said,-and with pride, that our fathers accomplished great things; they created world-famed breeds of cows, and reared -crosses- of. sheep; in ... whose visage, - and frames, nr© recorded the most astounding blends of strain and origin.. Yet they were, relatively, still' upon the tliresholdis of things to ho, known and 1 to .he -done. It is true they bred - cows- and grew-barley' and wheat, yet they, did not conceive of, tho natuire and respective functions of the proteids, .of ’ the., fats, .of the, carbohydrates, and of the mineral matters in the milk, dr of the nitrogen-bearing constituents which so largely determine tho bread-making value of flours. These factors,- which are now: known,to- control the nutritive values i of products and foods, were concealed from their, know, lodge. • They jireduced, but they were without, the means of gauging tho quality : of the product,- To-day, the actual food-yielding- powers of equivalents 'of - different -milks, meats, and vegetable products . are . known, and,-- the _ sugaryielding'..equivalent,,of any. variety of cane is ascertained by ~ tlie polariscopo ■before it enters the mill. . Therefore, when compared with. _ tlie days and modes of- our, fathers, agricul. Hire has .become very much,of an exact 'science., Wo: hold fast to - the eat truths • and usages delivered to ua, but we have built upon their foundation a. superstructure of modem methods and) practice. These new, modes and practices’, which characterises the .agriculture of to-day, have been created ’and introduced chiefly by the experiment field, tho laboratory, and the chemist. • ■ AGRICULTURAL COLLEGES. A college for the purpose of teaching agriculture is relatively, a'yery recent thing!. Their origin was brought about bv the vast’ changes in agricpltural prin. ciples and practice .to which we have already refeiTed. and which distinguish our conditions’from those of our forefathers. In a few swords; these ■, institutions are the expression of the demand of to-day .for more exaot and rational instruction in all those branches of. knowledgei which are found to' bear upon agriculture.’ .. ; ■ ’ , You ’all 'have heard l of the agricultural colleges and experiment stations .of Germany, France t Belgium, Switzerland, .the United States of America, and England.,/ • --England, I! ’’ anr bitterly’ .’sorry, ’ to have to say, is farthest'-’ behind .of all in. jbhe. pursuit and pfacticS of the more specially scientific methods ' which are prevailing . to-day : The Englishman, ’ a lover cf purescience, is still either too academic to coma ■ dowri fpom the professional cha.irto the plane of practice,'or, on the other hand, ho is- too practical, as he explains; himself, [to believe r in “book knowledge/’ The “science” of which we are now speaking is nothing more than the most ’precise knowledge of the-laws and • practice which affect ’ and control industrial production, the ■ possession of ‘.which -is becoming—in fact, ijiis already beoome—necessary to the; man oi the community that' wishes to ' stand ii the front row to-day. In the Unitei Slates of America there are not fewe, than sixty - experiment stations; -am nearly as many’colleges, for teaching agricultural science. Our statesmen. a J home—(did ' you read. Lord Roseberj and Chamberlain on the ■ question flare beginning to sc© what this- means, and are 'urging; the necessity of men thorough- technical instruction hearin; along all lines of industrial production.