50 Years ago

In my opinion the trouble with African agriculture is not that information is not properly co-ordinated, but that the basic facts are simply not known. So little fundamental agricultural research has been done ... Even attempts at developments like the Groundnut Scheme ... seem less wasteful when it is realized that for every pound lost in this and in all agricultural schemes attempted in Africa since the War, much more than a hundred pounds has been spent in subsidizing British agriculture at home. More money will have to be spent on research in Africa. We need to have more and better research workers in the laboratories and in the field; I believe they will use the limited resources better than those who fritter away so much time and money attending international conferences and endless meetings of co-ordinating committees which lack the basic facts to co-ordinate. Kenneth Mellanby

From Nature 27 February 1960.

100 Years ago

The Irish Fairy Book. By Alfred Perceval Graves — There is a greater demand for fairy books than there is for works on folklore, and the readers differ greatly in taste and requirements. Some fairy books are worse than useless to the folklorist, books in which the authors treat their sources in a thoroughly irresponsible fashion. On the other hand, those who could handle such materials discreetly, learnedly, and reverently cannot be induced to write fairy books. But such books must be written, and Mr. Graves has produced one which is in every respect commendable ... Many of the tales are in proper form for scientific examination, being evidently faithful records of oral traditions ... As in Welsh folklore, the fairies are in high glee at the seasonal festivals. Puck, for instance, is definitely associated with November. Lugnassed, Lug's marriage — the old name for the August festival — survives in dialect as “Lunacy day in harvest.”

From Nature 24 February 1910.