34 SCIENTIFIC REPORTS OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



REPORT OF THE IMPERIAL ECONOMIC 



BOTANISTS. 



(A. Howard, CLE., and Gabrielle L. C. Howard, M.A.) 



I. Introduction. 



The Imperial Economic Botanist held charge of the 

 Section during the year ending June 30th, 1918, with the 

 exception of one month from September 8th, 1917, which 

 was spent on privilege leave in India. During this period 

 the- Second Assistant, Maulvi Abdur Rahman Khan, was 

 in charge of current duties at Pusa. 



The work of the staff continues to be satisfactory. 

 The Second Assistant, Maulvi Abdur Rahman Khan, 

 has made himself exceedingly useful in carrying out 

 a number of improvements in the Botanical Area and 

 also in the experimental work at Indore, Bhopal and 

 Gwalior. Chowdhury Ram Dhan Singh, Third Assistant, 

 has worked well in connection with the experiments on 

 indigo and on sub-soil aeration at Pusa. The Fourth 

 Assistant, Babu Kashi Ram, has done useful work in 

 connection with the vegetable-drying experiments at Quetta 

 and with the tobacco-breeding experiments at Pusa. 



The inadequacy of the facilities available at Pusa for 

 making the most of the results obtained is becoming more 

 evident as the years pass. The area of well- drained, well- 

 aerated, high-lying, light land suitable for the testing and 

 seed production of many of the crops under investigation, 

 is exceedingly small. In consequence, the material avail- 

 able in the shape of pure lines cannot be worked through 

 fast enough and even when this has been done, we have 

 insufficient room to meet the ever-increasing demands for 

 seed. New centres of distribution of Pusa wheats are spring- 

 ing up every year but there is never sufficient botanically 

 pure seed for starting the work. What is urgently required 

 is a special Institute of Plant Industry, situated in a more 



