Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1928-02-20

Agricultural research is essential to the solution Of
the farm problem in the United States. is the opinion
Of . number Ct eminent scientists and economists. who
assert that the lack of scientific method based upon
widest information and wisest application is the real
cot Of agriculture's troubles.
Commenting upon the fact that research could
doubtless accomplish for agriculture what it has ae-
complished for industry. DR.. r. b. Won Kleinsmid. pres
ident Of the University OF Southern California, re-
Gently stated: production is not the only problem,
nor distribution. nor transportation, nor storage. nor
labor. nor credit. nor sales. Thu ssSYWental trouble
with agriculture is lack of scientifS> Marid."
In discussing the work of the stasSQme OF federal
governments in connection with agricultN ~ .S1li-
fornian said: "The statement that lack ofEtrswn &c
method is responsible for conditions is not intenue TO
belittle the work Of three score and more agricultural
experiment stations which federal and state govern
ments have scattered from Maine to California and
throughout our insular possessions; but only to en-
phasize the more strongly the necessity of supporting
such institutions and to lament, perhaps. the hardness
Of practical results. That private capital could find
satisfactory results Cor generous investment in agri-
cultural research is generously proved. In this field
research means success, while the lack Of it means
failure. 1t should hardly remain true that with all
our broad tillable expenses agriculture in the United
i innate, ! i. to three" ''' :
Industry today recognizes the value Of research.
and, in fact, many of the major industries owe their
place in the industrial world and their financial stand
ing to the results of exhaustive research. Industry has
learned the value of research at great cost. Slow to
recognize the necessity of new methods in old corpora
tons whose earlier capital was represented largely by
integrity of product and honor and dignity Of personnel,
thousands Of industrial corporations have learned
through defeat and bankruptcy that the price OF prog
ress is research, which alone assures the security Of
dividends. Progress is not made by raising tariffs, but
by devising new methods, new equipment, new organi-
ration for operation, distribution cad control. One OF
the most emphatic proofs of this is that of the forty
four American companies which during the war en-
gagged in the manufacture of potash, only one has sur
vived, and it is that one alone which developed and
supported q program Of research.
Economists point out that the failure Of agricul-
ture to delve extensively into research and place the
industry upon a scientific bases is due to the lack Of
organization. This condition will endure, they assert,
until the industry reaches such straits that crganiza-
ticn upon much the same basis as the great industrial
corporations viii be necessary. Already evidences Of
organization along these lines il apparent, and it Is
mot improbable that the farmers of the next genera
tion will be operating their farms as part Of a huge
corporation which will insist upon the application OF
scientific practices. the elimination of waste, both in
production and distribution, and the production Of COM
modities which must attain q certain specified standard
of quality, the same as the great industrial concerns
proyide a rigid standard on all products.