Development Commission Research Articles

The Security and Exchange Commission's Development of Accounting Standards--A Note on Commissioner Healy's Address

The Security and Exchange Commission's Development of Accounting Standards--A Note on Commissioner Healy's Address

Prof. P. A. Murphy

PAUL ALOYSIUS MURPHY, whose death at the age of fifty-one years occurred on September 27, was born in Co. Kilkenny. After courses at the Albert Agricultural College, Glasnevin, and the Boyal College of Science, Dublin, extending over five years, he was appointed to a temporary post under the Irish Department of Agriculture and started research in plant pathology. Later, with a Development Commission scholarship, he proceeded to the Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, and to the K. Biologische Reichsanstalt, in Berlin-Dahlem. Leaving Germany in 1914, and being rejected on medical grounds for active service, he completed his scholarship period at Cornell University. He was then appointed plant pathologist in Prince Edward Island by the Canadian Government. He returned to Ireland in 1921 to similar work in the Department of Agriculture there, and six years later was appointed to the newly created chair of plant pathology in University College, Dublin, which he held until his death.

Sir Thomas Middleton, K.C.I.E., F.R.S

THE Committee of the Privy Council for the Organization and Development of Agricultural Research, after consultation with the members of the Agricultural Research Council and the president of the Royal Society, has appointed Sir Thomas H. Middleton to be chairman of the Agricultural Research Council as from July 1. On that date the Right Hon. Lord Richard Cavendish, who has been chairman of the Council since its inception in June 1931, retires from membership of the Council. Sir Thomas Middleton, who is vice-chairman of the Development Commission, an office which he has held since 1929, has been a member of the Agricultural Research Council since its establishment. He is chairman of one Standing Committee of the Council on Soils and Plant Nutrition and of the Committee on the Estimates of Research Institutions. Sir Thomas has been successively professor of agriculture in Baroda College, India, lecturer in agriculture in the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, professor of agriculture in Durham College of Science, and professor of agriculture at Cambridge. In 1906 he joined the staff of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries as assistant secretary, and in 1917–19 was deputy director-general of the Food Production Department. He was a member of the Royal Commission on Agriculture in India, which sat in 1926–28. He was the first recipient of the Gold Medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, awarded for services to agriculture.

The State and Wild Life

IN so far as science is organized knowledge, it is a reasonable assumption that it could best be attained by -the organization of scientific workers for particular purposes. Such a view has received tardy recognition in Great Britain, where faith has rested upon individual effort unhampered by official allegiances (it has been nobly rewarded for its trust), and where State-controlled scientific research is still looked upon by many with a modicum of distrust. Indeed as regards the biological sciences, the influence of the State has made itself increasingly felt in directing scientific investigation only in recent years, through the creation of such bodies as the Medical Research Council, the Development Commission and the Agricultural Research Council, and there the touch-stone has been the benefit of the people through researches directly or indirectly of economic importance.

The Security and Exchange Commission's Development of Accounting Standards. A Note on Commissioner Healy's Address

The Security and Exchange Commission's Development of Accounting Standards. A Note on Commissioner Healy's Address

The Development Commission

THE twenty-sixth report of the Development Commissioners, covering the year ended March 31, 1936, reviews the expenditure from the Development Fund on agricultural and rural economy, fisheries, the construction and improvement of harbours and on the acquisition of land for road improvements. Advances recommended from the Fund amounted to £555,201 on agricultural and rural industries and £85,925 on fisheries as against £402,859 and £88,109, respectively, in 1934-35. For the maintenance of agricultural research, advisory services for farmers, experiments on field crops and livestock and the provision of buildings and equipment £421,762 was advanced as against £361,691 in 1934-35. Of this, £285,984 was advanced to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, £67,101 to the Department of Agriculture of Scotland and £16,982 to the Agricultural Research Council, in addition to £43,000 to the latter Council for capital expenditure.

Dr. J. Gray, F.R.S.

Prof. Stanley Gardiner will be succeeded by Dr. James Gray, who was one of his pupils when he became professor in 1909. Dr. Gray has had a varied career. He was demonstrator of zoology before the Great War, carrying out research on fertilization of echinoderm eggs. Then he saw war service from August 1914 until the peace, serving in France and Palestine, attaining the rank of captain and being awarded the M.C. Returning to Cambridge, he became Balfour student, commencing a long line of research on ciliary movement, in which he and his pupils are still interested. Lecturer and reader in turn, by a natural evolution he passed onwards to a comprehensive study of the physiology of animal locomotion, being especially interested in fish. In 1928, he was visiting professor at Columbia University. His share in the rebuilding of the whole Zoological Department at Cambridge was great, and in particular he was charged with the design of the experimental section, which contains, besides a teaching laboratory, twenty-five separate research rooms and at present overflows into the whole building. Elected to the Royal Society in 1929, he is now a member of the Council. He is also a member of the Advisory Committee on Fisheries of the Development Commission, but perhaps his greatest public service to science is in the editing of. the Journal of Experimental Biology, which is associated with the Society of the same name.

James Longstreet, Lee's War Horse. By H. J. Eckenrode, Historian of the Virginia Conservation and Development Commission, and Bryan Conrad, Assistant Historian of the Virginia Conservation and Development Commission, Colonel in the U. S. Army. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1936. Pp. viii, 399. $3.50.)

<italic>James Longstreet, Lee's War Horse</italic>. By <sc>H. J. Eckenrode</sc>, Historian of the Virginia Conservation and Development Commission, and <sc>Bryan Conrad</sc>, Assistant Historian of the Virginia Conservation and Development Commission, Colonel in the U. S. Army. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1936. Pp. viii, 399. $3.50.)

Summaries of Addresses of Presidents of Sections: Soil Science

THE advances which have been made in soil science in the twentieth century are discussed in his presidential address to Section M (Agriculture) by Prof. James Hendrick. At the beginning of this century, agricultural research was in a low state in Great Britain, where there was only one great research station, a private institution, Rothamsted. That has now been altered and, under the guidance of the Development Commission, a system of agricultural research stations has grown up covering all the leading branches of agricultural inquiry. The development of the system of agricultural education has led to increase and improvement of agricultural research.

Organisation of Agricultural Research

STATE assistance to agricultural research in Great Britain began with the Development Act of 1909, and in accordance with the principle of that Act, the finance of the schemes then initiated remained with the Development Commission, while the administration rested with the departments of agriculture, until in 1930 the Agricultural Research Council was set up. This council, though equally under the Privy Council, has not quite the same status as its parallel bodies, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research and the Medical Research Council, both of which administer directly the whole of the funds available from the Treasury for research in their subjects. It would be difficult to explain to a foreigner the curious machinery which now prevails for the purpose of making grants, involving as it does the Research Council, the Development Commission, the two departments of agriculture in England and Scotland, and finally the Treasury.

Public passenger qarriers in New Hampshire. A report to the state planning and development commission of New Hampshire. Concord, 1935. 38 pp. apply to the commission

Public passenger qarriers in New Hampshire. A report to the state planning and development commission of New Hampshire. Concord, 1935. 38 pp. apply to the commission

Marine Research at Port Erin

THE main work at the Marine Biological Station, Port Erin, Isle of Man, has been on the rearing of oyster larva; up to the time that they settle as spat. The report for 1934 (No. 47), drawn up by Dr. R. J. Daniel, shows that many other researches aro being carried out, but the grant-in-aid from tho Development Commission has made it possible to investigate the feeding of the oyster larvae. The zooids from certain common seaweeds have been used, and by choosing a succession of different species, zooids of one kind or another are provided throughout the summer months when the oyster larvae are present in the water. This special research occupies Mr. J. A. Bruce and Dr. Mary Parko. Detailed investigations on the morphology, cytology and life-cycles of the brown seaweeds have been necessary, with the testing of various culture media. The results have so far been of an encouraging nature, and it is hoped to expand tho scope of the work in future. Samples of local herring aro still continuously examined throughout the fishing season. Lobster culture is also progressing, lobstcrlings and younger stages as well as more than 3,000,000 plaice eggs and larva) from the pond having been liberated into the sea. The scheme for research also includes work on the conditions and relations of inter-tidal life on the beach. It is satisfactory to see that a large number of visitors, especially classes from schools, have worked at the Laboratory during the year.

Sir Thomas Middleton, K.C.L.E., K.B.E., C.B

THE first award of the Gold Medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in recognition of distinguished service for agriculture has been made to Sir Thomas Middleton, vice-chairman of the Development Commission. In the early part of his career Sir Thomas was closely associated with farmers in England. Under his guidance a wide and varied scheme of experiments was conducted in the northern counties in the first years of the present century and afterwards in the eastern counties. He was for a time lecturer in agriculture at Aberystwyth, and later professor at Durham, and finally at Cambridge, where his five year's professorship served to put the young department on its feet with funds for a headquarters assured. In 1906 he went from Cambridge to the Board of Agriculture. The War provided much scope for his talents as an administrator. In 1916 he produced his well-known survey of German agriculture and indicated the lines which British farmers might usefully follow to meet the national emergency. When the Food Production Department was set up, he was put in charge of it, and the success it achieved was largely due to his wise guidance and tactful management. A record of the work accomplished and its post-War lessons is to be found in his book “Food Production in War”. In 1919 Sir Thomas was appointed to the Development Commission, becoming vice-chairman ten years later. Much of the success of the present system of agricultural education and research is due to him. He was one of the earliest members of the Agricultural Education Association, and was the first president of the newly constituted Section M (Agriculture) of the British Association at the Dundee meeting in 1912. His presidential address at the meeting was “Early Associations for promoting Agriculture and Improving the Improver”. The work of a great ‘improver’ has been suitably recognised.

Report of the St. Lawrence Power Development Commission

Report of the St. Lawrence Power Development Commission

Progress in Education and Research in Agriculture and Fisheries

INCREASING recognition is being given to the fact that many problems connected with agriculture need the help of the trained research worker as well as that of the practical man. During the last twenty years, since the appointment of the Development Commission, steady and rapid progress has been made, until at the present time the ramifications of the system of research and advisory work set up by that body extend over a surprising variety of problems. Three reports recently issued, one by the Development Commissioners, and two by the Ministry of Agriculture on agricultural research institutes and research and education respectively, present a comprehensive picture of the existing state of affairs in Great Britain.

The Vermont Commission on Country Life

I can best introduce the subject of the Vermont Commission on Country Life on this occasion by telling you of an incident which occurred a short time ago at the annual meeting of the Maine Development Commission. At the opening session of that conference, Mr. Clarence M. Stetson, Chairman of the Maine Development Commission, described their group as progressive conservatives. When I was called upon to speak regarding the work of the Vermont Commission, I asked Mr. Stetson the difference between a progressive conservative and a conservative progressive. I told him that in Vermont, since the very idea of a commission implied desire for improvement or progress, we were using the Comprehensive Survey undertaken under the direction of the Commission as a means of providing a scientific basis for progress and that for this reason had classified our leaders in Vermont not as progressive conservatives but rather as conservative or scientific progressives.

Development Commission Report, 1927–281

THE reports of the Development Commission show how great a stimulus the Development Fund has been to research in agriculture and horticulture since its introduction in 1911. Grants-in-aid prior to this were dispensed with a meagre hand, hence major investigations requiring a large equipment and manifold repetition, as in the case of animal diseases, could scarcely be carried on. This eighteenth report conveys, however, an impression that the progeny of the Fund have become too numerous, and that the expansion inevitable in scientific investigations has outrun the capacity of the Fund. Thus large supplementary grants have been given by the Empire Marketing Board to the Welsh and Scottish Plant Breeding Stations for buildings, etc., to research in woollen industries, and to agricultural economics research at Oxford.

Official Publications Received

BRITISH. Development Commission. Eighteenth Beport of the Development Commissioners for the Year ended the 31st March 1928. Pp. 200. (London: H.M. Stationery Office.) 3s. 6d. net.

Development and Migration Commission

Development and Migration Commission

The Developmet Commission

THE report recently issued by the Development Commissioners for the year ended Mar. 31, 1927, is mainly a series of summaries of work in progress at the centres of agricultural research assisted from the Development Fund, and as such is a convenient source of reference. The part relating to fisheries is much shorter, but indicates the activity in sea and other investigations. Another useful reference is the list of publications for 1926-27: (a) relating to researches carried out at agricultural research institutes aided from the Development Fund, (6) published by advisory officers, (c) relating to researches carried out at fisheries laboratories aided from the Development Fund. These reports indicate that the Development Commission is expected to supervise a field that includes animals, plants, soils, economics, on to the welfare of the countryside, and even provision of harbours and the widening of roads.