Explore "An Agricultural Testament" by Albert Howard on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
In the last chapter the agricultural research of to-day was severely criticized; its many shortcomings were frankly set out; suggestions were made for its gradual amendment. That these strictures are justified will be evident if we examine in detail a piece of successful research carried out on the sugar-cane crop in India during a period of nearly twenty-seven years: 1908-35.
In 1910 the investigations on sugar-cane in Northern India were mainly concentrated in the United Provinces, where a considerable local industry was already in existence. Narrow-leaved, thin canes were planted under irrigation at the beginning of the hot season in March; the crop was crushed by bullock power during the cold weather (January to March); the juice was converted into crude sugar in open pans. The yield was low, a little over one ton to the acre on the average. It was decided to develop this primitive industry and the work, at first purely chemical, was placed in the hands of Mr. George Clarke, the Agricultural Chemist. The choice proved to be a happy one. Clarke combined a first-class knowledge of chemistry and general science with considerable experience of research methods, obtained under Professors Kipping and Pope at Nottingham University College and the School of Technology, Manchester. The son of a south Lincolnshire farmer, he had all his life been familiar with good agricultural practice and had inherited a marked aptitude for farming from a long line of yeomen ancestors. He had therefore acquired the three preliminary qualifications essential for an investigator in agriculture, namely, the makings of a good farmer, a sound training in science, and a first-hand acquaintance with methods of research. It will be seen from what follows that he also possessed the gift of correct diagnosis, the capacity to pose to himself the problems to be investigated, the persistence to solve them, and the drive needed to get the results taken up by the people and firmly welded into the practice of the country-side.