A WAY TO WATCH THE MONEY GROW

Press, 14 August 1976, Page 13

A WAY TO WATCH THE MONEY GROW

JUDSON BENNETT

If a white marigold is growing at the bottom of your garden this year, you could be $lO,OOO the richer. For that’s the sum being offered by a leading American nursery for the bloom that has so far defeated amateur and professional gardeners for centuries. Grow a true blue rose . and you could pretty well i- name your own price.

The same applies to anyone who develops a pea with more to the pod or a broad-bean plant with a heavier yield for the same number of pods. No wonder gardeners all over the world are looking at their first seedlings. For ail these breakthrough plants, if and when they appear, will probably be flukes — hybrids that have come up more by chance than skilled management. What makes the prospect even more inviting

is that today anyone who does achieve a horticultural win of this kind can at least be sure of a fair share of anything his discovery makes. In Britain, for instance, the Plants Varieties and Seeds Act set up the Plants Varieties Rights Office — a kind of patents office which safeguards the interest of both professional and amateur breeders. New varieties can be registered as an “invention,” and this means

that breeders’ rights can be granted, which leads to a royalty being charged on all plants and seeds sold. An official of the P.V.R.0.: “The most important part of this legislation from the amateur’s point of view is that it is now worth while for the raiser to produce new strains and negotiate with a marketing organisation.” The office has already granted breeder’s rights on more than 150 new

varieties of rose, a dozen new potatoes, and numerous strains of barley, oats and wheat. But just being different is not enough. The new strain has to be better. For instance, before you get breeder’s rights on the monster carrot you may find growing among the weeds near the compost heap you would have to satisfy the authroities that: You bred or discovered the variety. It has not been com-

mercialised before rights are granted. It stays uniform in all circumstances. It is distinguishable from other varieties. In practice, once a breeder’s rights are granted he gets protection from piracy and charges a price which will give him a return on the costs incurred. In the past rose growers were ' a particular prey for pirates, who would buy a few samples of a new variety and im-

mediately breed from it without paying anyone anything. The first efforts to stop this were made by a celebrated rose-grower, Harry Wheatcroft, over 20 years ago when he gave “trade marks" to a series of roses he was distributing. The trade marks were in fact the names of the roses and his application was rejected on the grounds that this description was not enough for complete identification. But the seeds of protec-

tion were sown and today most countries, including France, Germany, The Netherlands and the United States, have systems of plant protection now accepted by the courts.

Before such legislation was passed the onlv way a grower could prevent piracy of a new variety was to hold back seeds and plants until he had enough to ensure a good financial return — something that no back-garden amateur could do.

Nor could he emulate the big commercial growers and put his new varieties under security guard. Patience as well as luck is needed if you want to make a fortune from the soil. John Palmer, head of one leading firm of plant breeders, spent 12 years developing a new type of barley which was the first British cereal to be granted breeder’s rights

Now it is one of the nation’s leading types,

used particularly in beermaxing Even rhubarb-groweri are getting in on the big money. Stephen Schlenger, a Belgian gardener with a tiny strip of land outside his house on the outskirts of Brussels, has just signed a contract worth £5OOO with a leading nursery. His rhubarb, designed to keep its shape and colour when tinned, is due to be marketed in « year’s tune.