Abstract
THE Agricultural Research Association of Scotland was founded for the purpose of obtaining trustworthy and useful information on agricultural subjects, by means of scientific investigation and practical experiments. The report of the committee for 1893 shows that the work of the association continues to proceed satisfactorily. Research work is always difficult to maintain, and a committee fostering it must regard it as an unavoidable, though unpleasant, duty to press its claims. “It is a matter of much regret to the committee,” we read, “that we should have so constantly to press for adequate means to carry out the work, and that progress should so constantly be checked for want of means. But the reason is obvious, for an association confining itself to investigation holds a peculiar position. It is different, on the one hand, from organisations that are enabled to return interest for the money spent; and, on the other hand, from those benevolent institutions from which no interest is expected. An experiment can never be in itself a source of money profit. Benefit may be regarded as certain; but while at times it may be immediate, it is often remote, and not unfrequently the benefit is derived in practice without crediting, or even tracing, the source from which the benefit has sprung.”
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Educational Agricultural Experiments. Nature 49, 568–569 (1894). https://doi.org/10.1038/049568a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/049568a0