Research and Scientific Knowledge

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at on 19 April 1944.

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Photo of Mr Ernest Shepperson Mr Ernest Shepperson , Leominster

While fully supporting the plea made by representatives of British industry for further generous assistance to research and examination of our production, I make no apology for putting forward a particular appeal of my own, on behalf of the greatest and most important industry in Britain. That is the industry of agriculture. Agriculture is the one industry which creates wealth without destroying wealth. I have heard it said in this House that there is not much diffi- culty in British agriculture. It is said that if you plant a grain of wheat and leave it alone, each year you will produce 50 grains of wheat. Therefore, it is said, one bushel will produce 150 bushels. That is not so. One bushel of wheat will, at the outside, produce no more than 15 bushels.

In British agriculture it is always unwise to count your chickens before they are hatched. There is many a slip between the cup and the lip in growing anything. You take a grain of wheat and sow it in the land and, from the very moment it is sown, that grain of wheat is subject to attacks by bacteriological diseases, by insects, by birds and so on. It is also subject to the difficulty of obtaining the essential nutriment for its growth from the soil. We cannot obtain 150 bushels from one bushel; we only obtain 15. There is a great margin between those two, but there is some reasonable prospect of attempting to increase that 15, and this is where scientific research will come in. We attack and prevent those bacteriological diseases which are attacking our crops, and we also protect our crops from insect pests, and we can also help our crops when grown. During this war the Minister of Agriculture, through the activities of the war agricultural executive committees, our universities and agricultural colleges, has done a great deal to increase the production of the land of this country. I only hope that when this great need for food during the war period has passed, we shall not let agriculture and agricultural research slip back to their pre-war condition.

A great deal has been done to assist the nutriment values of our food. We have seen the results in the improved physique of our people during the war. We have a knowledge now, which we had not before, of the value of vitamins to increase the nutritive value. I have made many inquiries among scientific friends as to whether a vitamin is an actual food in itself, or whether it has catallactic action and enables the animal to make better use than previously of the amount of food taken. I have never yet had a definite reply to that. I would suggest that since a vitamin can add to the ability of the animal to digest, and make use of the food available, so it is possible that, in plant life, we may be able to add similar substances to our soil to enable the plant to make better use of the foods that are in the soil.

When I studied the science of agriculture a great many years ago, we applied to the plant growth phosphorus, potash, and a certain amount of iron, apart from nitrogen. Since that time, a great advance has taken place, and now we know it is essential that small quantities of manganese, and so on, are essential. Is it not possible that certain other substances are essential which we may compare with vitamins? I will give an example. I myself have 20 acres of sugar. The leaves were cut off and left on the ground. Half of that ground was fed off by sheep, who ate the leaves and were sold away fat. All the land was ploughed; half had the leaves ploughed in, the sheep had eaten the leaves off the other half. The following wheat crop yielded far more where sheep had fed off the leaves than where the whole of the leaves were ploughed in. Does not that open the question as to whether the leaves, in passing through the animal which had eaten it, have been given something that will increase the yield of the wheat?

I suggest there is scope for scientific research into these matters. It is only some three or four weeks ago that I had a field ready to sow with wheat. I said to my bailiff "Why not sow this wheat? Everything is ready." He said, "It is no good sowing any seeds when the moon is on the wane. You must wait until the moon is on the make. You must wait until after the new moon if you want the seed to grow." And the wheat was not sown until the following week. A little while ago a man told me—I hope I am not committing any breach of security regulations because I understand that no weather reports are allowed to be mentioned at the present time—"It is all right, sir, it will rain to-day." I said, "How do you know?" He said, "The moon is on its back, sir, it will rain." And it did rain. I am not prepared to say whether our scientists can explain why the moon affects the growing of a seed, or why the moon on its back will cause rain, but it does prove there is some need for scientific education among our agriculturists at the present time.

I want to substantiate the appeal. Agriculture is a great industry, and there is scope for assistance to it in scientific research. I make the appeal that the Government, when considering other industries, should also take into account the great help that may be given to the industry of agriculture. I trust that in the post-war period the good work now being done will be continued.