A PLANT-BREEDING ESTABLISHMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3034, 8 May 1912, Page 16

A PLANT-BREEDING ESTABLISHMENT.

In connection with a school of agriculture, a plant-breeding establishment would work hand and glove, and this in turn would dovetail nicely into the field experiments of the department with which we are all familiar. The value of these experiments is discounted to some extent by having to use seed which is neither true to kind nor properly dressed. We might well ask ourselves if our crops are not deteriorating, and our farmers living at the cost of the inherent fertility of the soil. Mr J. G. Wilson, president of the New Zealand Farmers' Union, hi delivering a lecture on "Plant Breeding," in Masterton, said that although plant-breeding had a most important bearing on the agricultural progress of New Zealand, farmers generally seemed to have very little knowledge of this subject as compared with sheep-breeding. America was at present leading the world in the matter of agricultural experiments, and some remarkable results had been obtained. The speaker thought if farmers gave the matter serious attention it was possible, by some new process, to improve New Zealand grain and grasses. A seed association had been formed in Canada, with excellent results, and a similar association was urgently required in the Dominion. "It seemed," said Mr Wilson, "that New Zealand farmers were too prosperous to devote time to the scientific side of plant culture." The Americans were forced to take strenuous action to prevent the complete exhaustion of their soil and the exodus of their farmers. It. must be admitted that the improvement of plants generally and the restoration of what they extract from the soil have a very material bearing on the continued prosperity pf the country. In the ordinary course of events, many of our seeds run out on account of the treatment thev receive, and deteriorate in vigour and vitality until others take their place. The reason for that is not far to seek. Too much lias been taken out of the land, seed has been used without either selection or proper cleaning, and perhaps the seasons have changed to some extent. In the case of wheat, want of sufficient dressing of the seed has been responsible for most of the deterioration. A little more grain per acre has been sown to make up for the light grain in the sample sown, and thus the evil has been intensified. The wheats resulting from the long-con-tinued experiments at Northamstead have been tested, and it has been ascertained that manuring sometimes has a beneficial effect on the quality of the resulting sample, but the improvement was very slight indeed ; also that in some cases the effect had been disastrous, and that, judged by bakehouse tests, the best flour canie from the unmanured plots. Up till now manuring had had no appreciable effect on the quality (not the quantity) of wheat, but what a field is open there for investigation. Canada, owing to the shortness of its season available for wheatgrowing, can only do with wheat which grows and matures quickly. They have found such wheats, but some of them are of relatively inferior quality. Have we done all in our power to secure those varieties which best suit our soil and climate? A plant-breeding station might tell us that, and many questions as to cultiva-

tion and the treatment of seed might be resolved on such a station. One has only to look for a moment at what has been done in oats by regeneration and crossfertilisation to appreciate how useful a plant-breeding establishment might become. Would these new varieties have supplanted the old and tried ones if proper attention had been given to the selection of the seed and the- nourishment-of the plant. At the instigation of Professor Robertson, the Canadians increased the yield of oats by 10, and in some cases 20, bushels per acre over large districts, and the same thing might be done herel The most vigorous and productive plants were selected year after year to grow the seed used in the field _ with the above result. We do not require a plant-breeding establishment to do that, but it would not have been done in Canada without the presence of an enthusiastic local scientific expert. - But all through our farm crops, and perhaps more with vegetables than with grain, the selection of seed is neglected. One has only to study the enormous mangolds which come into the Winter Show to realise what the possibilities are with this crop. some of them must have weighed 40lb each. What the farmer really wants to know in that case is how much the feeding value has been increased by the enormous bulk? Where also is there a tuber to compare with the Derwent that everyone grew here at one time? A plant--breeding station would answer all such questions, and prove one of the best investments the Dominion has ever entered into.