ETHIOPIAN WHEAT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 129, 13 March 1936, Page 7

ETHIOPIAN WHEAT.

CRADLES OF CIVILISATION. Emperor Haile Selassie ought to derive considerable patriotic satisfaction from the classic studies of grains made by the distinguished geneticist, N. L. Vavilo.v, chief adornment of the All-Union Plant Institute of the Lenin Agricultural Academy. According to Vavilov, generally regarded as a high authority, Ethiopia must have been one cradle oficivilisation. For out of Ethiopia came a variety of wheat which spread over the world, says a writer in the “New York Times.”

The beginning of agriculture is the beginning of civilisation. It marks the transition from the hunting, nomadic stage to the settled stage of society—settled in location. If the soil is to be tilled, seed is to be sown, and crops are to be gathered a wandering tribe must establish itself.

Where, then, did agriculture begin? To answer, Vavilov studied cereal crops and especially wheat, as no man had studied them before. Discover where wheat was first grown and you have discovered the cradle of civilisation.

In his book, “Age and Area” Willis makes the point that the longer a group of plants has been established in a given area the more species will be found there. Hence, diversity is a clue to place or origins. Wheat, for example, is an Old World plant. More varieties are found in Europe than in America.

Adopting Willis’s principle, Vavilov began to study wheat. In the course of thousands of years there had been much crossing. He had to separate the hybrids into pure strains, and on the basis of these determine where wheat was first farmed. At Dyetskoe Syelo he has cultivated more than 31,000 strains. He has travelled hundreds of thousands of miles and sent expeditions to every country in his effort to trace wheat to the region of its origin.

To explain how Vavilov went about his work we must explain genes and chromosomes. For they are the entities that determine the departures from the parent stock and also the resemblances. ■

Within the cell are little bodies called chromosomes —literally “colour bodies,” because they can bo stained and thus made visible under a microscope. Within the chromosomes are the genes —the units of heredity. The genes are to the chromosomes what peas are to a pod. Only there are thousands of genes, whereas there are only a few peas. .Besides, the genes are invisible. The chromosomes can be seen under a microscope. It is definitely known, that the chromosomes in a cell are always definite in number for each species of animal or plant—eight for the fruit fly, .14 for the garden and sweet pea, 42 for some varieties of wheat, 54 for the ape, 48 for man. It occurred to Vavilov that if be could gather enough wheats and other cereals, establish the number of chi omosomes in each strain, he might be able to determine the original home of- man, and this on the theoiy that as man spread from a cultural centre he would take his cereals with him. The further from the place of migration the fewer would be the varieties of wheat. In other words, if a tribe emigrates it takes its cereals with it and eventually discards those that cannot thrive in the new environment.

It turned out that there are two principal varieties of wheat. One 42 chromosomes and the other 28. Ihe two can be crossed only with difficulty. Each originated in a definite region. As that region is approached the number of varieties increases astonishingly. The 42-chromosomes type came from South-western Asia, and the 28-chrom-osome type from Ethiopia. Vavilov concludes that Egypt got her ture and civilisation from , Ethiopia. More varieties of wheat are found in Ethiopia than in all other countries combined.

Other crops have been studied, too rye, barley, potatoes, rice, beans, fruits. Most of these came after wheat had been cultivated and races of men had wandered over Asia and Europe. By plotting the regions of origin, of all these plants, Vavilov saw at once that the first agricultural experiments must have been made not in the steaming valleys of the tropics, as so many suppose, but in the mountains. If he is right, we must regard the highlands of Ethiopia and of Afghanistan as two crades of civilisation..