124 Master Minds of Modern Science 



northern latitude — that is, more than four hundred miles 

 north of the line fixed fifty years ago. Within less than 

 a man's lifetime Canada has become the granary of the 

 Empire, and each year sees the wheat-line creeping 

 farther and farther north. In 1929, we are told, wheat 

 of a new variety called ' Garnet ' was actually ripened in 

 Alaska. 



Another country which has a large wheat-belt is India, 

 and there Mr and Mrs Howard are breeding new varieties 

 to satisfy the requirements of the local growers. 



The potato becomes more and more important as an 

 article of food both for man and beast. But the potato 

 is liable to various diseases, the worst being the terrible 

 wart disease, for which there is no known remedy. Here 

 again the plant-breeder has come to the rescue by breed- 

 ing new varieties of immune potatoes — that is, potatoes 

 that do not take the disease at all. 



Investigations made at Rothamsted have shown that 

 different varieties of potatoes vary greatly in their feeding 

 value, some containing as much as twenty-six per cent, 

 of dry matter, others only nineteen per cent. A ton of 

 the former are therefore worth twenty-eight hundred- 

 weight of the latter from the point of view of food. It is 

 easy to see how valuable this discovery is, say, to a pig- 

 farmer. 



Seventy or eighty years ago nearly all gardeners saved 

 their own seed. They had to, for the seeds from the 

 seedsmen were shockingly bad. In fact, there was actually 

 a big trade in dead seeds, that were no more use than 

 dust or sand. Even if the seed was good it was mixed 

 with all sorts of pestilent weed seeds which came up with 

 it and fouled the land. One of the many debts that the 

 farmer and gardener owe to the scientist is the fact that 

 nowadays seed bought from any reliable seedsman is live 

 and clean. 



All seeds nowadays are tested scientifically before being 



