PLANT-BREEDING.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 192, 8 May 1908, Page 6

PLANT-BREEDING.

It was an excellent idea of the Government to engage Dr. Cockayne to prosecute researches in the field of economic botany. The interview with Dr. Cockayne, which we published yesterday, arid the further explanation of his purpose which we print to-day, will serve to give the public some notipn of the economic benefits which attend such investigations as arc to be carried out. Although this country has been settled for so many years, little has been done in , the way of improving the raw material of the pro-, ducts of the soil, native and'imported, except of the simplest and most elementary character, and even of these aids to Nature most-have been rather improvements of' method. Farmers have,'of course, .tried to. sow the best seed,'and to prepare the soil in the best way, but there they have stopped.' Our indigenous plants have . been practically untouched by the hand of scientific selection or improvement. Nature, we all know, is ; the greatest of spendthrifts, and majestically wasteful, blossoming every summer into a thousand fruitfulnesses that man knows nothing of, or uses only imperfectly. It is certain that the native flora is rich in plants, in trees, in grasses,! and in shrubs that only require to be discovered arid cultivated to add enormously to the country's riches. -

What Lutlier Burbank has done with wild and cultivated growths in America can lie done in New Zealand when the New Zealand Burbank appears. Practically the/whole., of our native flora is in a state of barbarism, and it offers as wide a field for education and hybridisation as the civilised or domestic, plants and trees. Beside _ Burbank's achievements' .with the, prickly cacti of the deserts, the' conversion of the tussock into a valuable 1 fodcler or fibre plant would be almost an , ordinary affair. 1 ' The many native berries would' assuredly' yield to Science an addition to the oils, and fruits of the world. The toi-toi is a permanent mark of exclamation at the failure of man to realise why it grows; For the present, ho wever, the' population of the country is not great enough to, require any such intense exploitation of the country's vegetable Resources as this.. The more, modest, scheme of the Government is. sufficient for the time,, and if Dr. v Cockayne achieves the results which he evidently expects .the outlay, of i the Gov-' eminent will be abundantly justified. His first work \will be concerned with the native "flax." Just alt present the flax .industry is suffering! from severe depression,; but the ; fibre/ has become a valuable national- product without being educated .beyond. .natural habit..: A,fibre so good and so .valuable in its mld and unimproved, state is surely worthy . of _ being educated and; given avchance in ' lifel i . It possessestin a high degree the variability necessary for' improvement, and Dr. Cockayne's -skill;as/a botanist promises the best results. ; ■

, Other researches arc to follow the experiments with phormiuin'.lt appears- that • Dr. Cockayne intends: rather to select and discover, than.;, to breed and improve,, at first, at least. From a certain kind ! of grass, consisting ,of more than one species' arid a great number of varieties, he intends to select. those varieties which are certain,to exist, that' will be more use-' ful on the,, gum' lands of the north', than: the mixture: now sown. Even amongst the. cereals, where there has been a v good' deal of sorting, there is still confusion and a mixture of varie l ' ties ,of varying profitableness. :He '.in-', tends to sort out the best of these, and; thus increase the general yield.' Hybridising is to come, later. Tli'e scheme,, as, we have said, is an admirable one, and we are glad to make at the occasion for commending the good work which the Minister for Agriculture c'an : do when he turns aside from political affairs. It is a pity, indeed, that the Minister for Agriculture, who can do a good deal to assist tlieV productiveness ■of the country, withdraws ,so largely in favour of. his dual personality, the Minister for Lands. If lie will make > full' use of Dr. Cockayne, and give the' new experiment ample time to justify itself, -Mr. M'Nab. will do far more for the country-than by all his land nationalisation proposals;^ r