Abstract
IN a recent address to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Major-General A. G. L. McNaughton dealt with those activities of the National Research Council that serve to enlarge the demands of industry for the produce of farms, fields and factories. At present, Canadian industry draws about 12 per cent by value of its raw materials from agriculture, or about one third, if forests be included. He referred to recent progress in the United States, where four large research institutes, each endowed with an annual revenue of a million dollars, have been established; and he laid special stress upon German progress in the same direction under the four-year plan. Whereas about 45 per cent of the annual cut of wood was formerly used for low-grade fuel, now 95 per cent is consumed by industry, and Germany is striving to replace iron and steel for construction work by synthetic resins derived from wood and agricultural products. If Canada is to survive, said General McNaughton, she must follow the same path, for the old-time one-product system of farming is becoming unremunerative in view of the growth of national self-sufficiency in Europe.
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Scientific Research and Industrial Needs in Canada. Nature 142, 1130–1131 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/1421130a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1421130a0