PLANT BREEDING

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7020, 7 January 1910, Page 3

PLANT BREEDING

WHAT AN AUSTRALIAN WORKER

ACCOMPLISHED.

When tho investigator mto agnculfcural science in America gets to work. uvory stage of his progress is described in public print; and when lie happens to have really accomplished sxmiethiug (oven though it may yet ruquiro tho necessary confirmation or practical application) tho fact is acclaimed with the wealth of high-flown description and pictorial representation of which tho Americans are so fond. One effect of this is to give people in this part of the world, especially the general public, an idea that nil the advance work in agricultural science in tho world is being done by citizens of the United Sfcaltcs. _ As a matter of fact, tho Old World, including Great Britain, is doing far greater work' in this field. Where the. Americans are leading: is in interesting the farmers, and tho ohildren of farmers, in such important phases of rural economy as seed selection and experimental work generally. The British and European investigator has the true scientific spirit, and prefers to tost his laboratory or experimental field discoveries under practical conditions before announcing them to the world. Take tho case of the late William Farrer. who as a quiet retiring worker in tho field of agricultural Boienoo in the State of New South Wales did more for the wheat-grower than probably any investigator m America or Europe, even though his work was not written up-•at the time in the most approved stylo and hl3 photograph published far and wide. Nothing was written hy Mr Farrer in regard to his work till his pedigreo seed Bad been sown under ordinary conditions, and the practical tests had proved his experimental results to be correct. Mr Farrer is dead, but he left a rich legacy to the Australian grain-grower. His Federation wheat alone has considerably raised the wealth annuaUv drawn from Australian soil by the wheat-grower. In speaking of bhifi year's wheat harvest in Victoria Dr Cherry, State Director of Agriculture, says it depends to a largo extent on tho way Federation may have stood the test of an unfavourable winter's . growth. The variety has already proved ' its ability to withstand drought, hub the present year is the first which has offered tihe conditions for testing whether it can successfully pass through

tho test of an abnormally wet winter. Up to tho present the returns received are ail in its favour. Returns of 20 bushels to the aero in tlio malice, and 3-" i bushels in the he-it parts of tlio Wimmora. arc being recorded. "So rapid has boon tlio advance of the jicw va-riotv in the estimation of farmers." says Dr Cherry, "that probably fully one-fourth of rill the wheat in Victoria Iliis vear is of tho Federation variety. As the yield is at least 3 or 4 bushels to tho -acre above that of all other varieties, tho benefit during the year from tho work of the late Mr Farrer may be estimated at 1,000,000 bushels nf wheat representing a cash value to the farmer of £250.000. This, it need hardly be said, is a remarkable result for a scientific man to accomplish in one season."