SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XVIII, Issue 3, 20 March 1919, Page 155

SCIENCE AND AGRICULTURE.

In the course of his presidential address at the opening of the' recent Science Congress at Christchurch Dr. L. Cockayne, F.R.S., made the following cogent and interesting remarks on science in relation to agriculture, with special references to New Zealand conditions : —

“New Zealand is above all else a farming .community. Many of Nature’s secrets of one hundred years ago are now the priceless possession of man. These, when more generally applied than at present, will make our fields yield a much greater return. This would be a great advance, but without the discovery of further fundamental principles, now unknown, agriculture can only reach a stage far from perfection. Our scientific duty as a nation is not only to apply to the best of our ability our present knowledge, but by means of purely academic investigations to "discover further fundamental principles on which the greatly improved farming of the future will depend. Suppose, for example, such characters as we wished could be bestowed at will upon certain fodder plants— that the plant-breeder could by methods now unknown create exactly the plant suitable for a special environment, just as one can forge a special tool. Experiments of seemingly the most worthless kinds in genetics might lay the foundation for such knowledge. Even open-air studies of the plants of bog, or lake, or forest, or mountain-top might lend valuable assistance.

“ In this farming community nothing more demands years of close study than the soil itself. The world over, soil-science, notwithstanding many books on the subject, is in its infancy. Chemical analysis of a soil, even were the methods of so doing far more satisfactory than at present, is only one portion of the question. The extremely difficult matter of soil-physics at once confronts, the investigator.. Then there is the rich soil-flora and the rich soil-fauna. When more is known as to the relation of soil-physics, soil-chemistry, and soil-biology to one another, then undoubtedly new methods of soil-utilization will be in sight. .... ' ■

“ Our cultivated plants of all kinds are subject to attacks of parasitic fungi, the majority of which are considered identical with those affecting similar plants in other countries. For the suppression of such fungi many fungicides have been devised, especially in France and America. Now, these methods having been successful on trees in the country of their origin does not say that similar methods will serve equally well here. A certain apple-tree growing in California will probably differ greatly from the same variety grown on the clay soil of Nelson. The effect of the fungus on such a New Zealand tree, and the life-history of that fungus, must be studied in New Zealand; so, too, must be investigated the use of the fungicide. This method of attacking the pests of fruit-trees by means of fungicides and insecticides costs the State of California alone about £400,000 per annum. At best it is a rather clumsy way of dealing with the pests. It is exactly a case in

point with regard to pure and applied science.* Pure science paved the way by first classifying and then finding out the. life-histories of ' the fungi; pure science had also to devise by aid of much experiment the beautiful technique with regard to pure cultures, and so on, which can be learnt in the laboratory. . Then pure science devised fungicides, and finally applied science is brought into the orchard in the form of the spray-pump and its contents. But is science content to rest at this stage ? Is she not eagerly seeking to find out more about the relation of fungus and host, more about the causes of parasitism ? Here comes in the plant-physiologist, who strives to find out more about the actual life-processes of the —whose ultimate aim, indeed, is perhaps to find out what is life itself. This latter problem seems wellnigh hopeless, but long before the problematical success is achieved science will know so much about the plant that new methods of combating disease will be in the hands of every orchardist. The Cawthron Institute of Scientific Research could easily spend all its income on investigations with regard to plant-diseases ; but it would not'be performing its full scientific duty' if it were not carrying out plant-physiological researches with regard to the living tree as it grows in the orchard, and thus working not for the present alone, but for the future.” .

* Earlier - in his address Dr. Cockayne had thus expressed himself on this subject : “I must say something regarding the separation of science into the two classes— ‘ pure ’ and ‘ applied,’ as they are called former' at best merely tolerated by the public, who value a scientific discovery only if it has an evident practical bearing. This state of mind would kill all advance. If carried out for a sufficient time throughout the world, civilization would not merely remain at a standstill, but deterioration would rapidly set in. The purely scientific must come first, and the practical, without any special coddling by the State, will assuredly follow. The cure of an infectious disease is only the last link up to the present in a long chain of researches, nine-tenths of which were purely academic, but each leading slowly but surely to the final result. And this great wealth of research apparently medicalwas the work of the biologist, the chemist, and the physicist. The electric tram, the frozen lamb, the marconigram, the spraying of an appletree, the moving picture, the field of turnipsall these, and far more of our everyday life, are but the final — again I say for the time being — practical application of exact knowledge painfully acquired by enthusiasts such as Michael Faraday. ” , ’ .

Beekeepers’ Field-day at Ruakura.- —The annual field-day of the Waikato branch of the National Beekeepers’ Association, 'in co-operation with the Department, was held on 12th February at the apiary of the Ruakura Farm of Instruction, under perfect weather conditions. Between two hundred and three hundred members, representative of the whole of the South Auckland district, attended, under the presidency of Mr. C. S. Hutchinson. A pleasant and profitable day was spent, the programme comprising a number of practical addresses and demonstrations on various phases of the art and industry. The Apiary branch of the Department was represented by Mr. G. V. Westbrooke and Mr. A. B. Trythall; and, as usual at this annual function, Mr. A. W. Green, Farm-manager, gave every assistance for the general success of the gathering.

Brewers’ grains (maltings) in the dried state have proved to be an excellent food for fattening stock, and seem to have a special value for sheep.