406 



SCIENTIFIC AGRICULTURE 



August, 1922 



We have then a remarkable difference 

 between commercial and indigenous strains. 

 I have not had an opportunity of studying 

 indigenous grasses on the Continent of Eu- 

 rope, but I have little doubt that I should 

 be able to find there the counterparts of our 

 indigenous bunchy and leafy strains. I 

 think, therefore, that we are driven to the con- 

 clusion that ever since the so-called natural 

 grasses became commercial commodities, se- 

 lection has been perpetrated and continued 

 in the wrong direction — in the direction of 

 "seed" and not of herbage characteristics. 

 Naturally people first collecting seed from 

 wild places would obtain it where the species 

 were growing pure, i.e., waste places and so 

 on, and not from dense swards; and then 

 when growing for seed the tendency has al- 

 ways been to take seed from fields seeded 

 down no more than one or two years — a se- 

 lection, indeed, for the more annually inclin- 

 ed and seed-producing strains. 



I think the case of the Wild White Clover 

 which, thanks to Gilchrist and others, is now 

 recognized in England as of supreme value, 

 illustrates this point. We have at my sta- 

 tion grown Wild White Clover obtained from 

 numerous sources in England and we find 

 it is the exception for any one lot to consist 

 wholly of the characteristic multi-branched, 

 small-leaved, mat-forming strain, but always 

 a greater or less number of plants occur 

 which are taller and larger and absolutely 

 indistinguishable from the ordinary White 

 Dutch. If now a mixture of W^ild White and 

 White Dutch is sown, it will be noted that in 

 the first harvest year it is the larger White 

 Dutch that predominates and if seed were 

 then harvested there would be very little 

 Wild White taken. Thus I feel sure com- 

 mercial White Dutch clover is nothing but 

 the larger more annual strains selected out 

 of what must originally have been indigenous, 

 by taking seed for generations from leys in 

 their first or second year. So with grasses 

 and clovers alike under commercial condi- 

 tions selection has been vigourously conduct- 

 ed and in precisely the wrong direction. 



Since crossing over I have been much im- 

 pressed with the extent of the grass lands in 

 the United States and I find the same thing 

 in what little of Canada I have seen. I pon- 

 der that Kentucky Blue Cirass has on the au- 

 thority of Piper come from Europe and sini- 

 ilarly Timothy, and I cannot help wondering 

 whether the original pioneers of these won- 

 derful colonizers represented the best of our 

 indigenous PLuropean strains, or were they. 



even in those comparatively remote times, 

 semi-commercial strains wrongly chosen and 

 wrongly collected? If they perchance were 

 thus chosen and collected, then indigenous 

 strains of European grass species used in 

 America may afford a promising field of ex- 

 ploration for the plant breeder concerned 

 with producing strains for use over here. Let 

 me only add that in every grass species we 

 have so far studied we find a greater range 

 of variation amongst the indigenous than 

 amongst the commercial, and for our own 

 conditions at all events we are satisfied that 

 for grazing strains as opposed to hay, and 

 for persisting strains, it is from the indi- 

 genous we shall obtain them. 



I must now say a little about Red Clover 

 which appears to be somewhat different from 

 the grasses and white-clover, inasmuch as the 

 indigenous reds we hav'e so far studied do 

 not appear to be remarkably persistent but 

 rather perpetuate themselves by heavy and 

 early seed production. We have, however, 

 in England and Wales certain wonderfully 

 persistent local strains, many of which have 

 been grown in one district or even on one 

 farm for upwards of one hundred years. 

 These strains have the characteristics asso- 

 ciated with the persistent grasses and white 

 clover — numerous branches and late flower- 

 ing. — They are typical late-flowering reds, 

 running to over two hundred branches per 

 plant, in marked contrast to the easily winter- 

 killed and worthless Italian with its four or 

 five branches ; in contrast, too, to our ordinary 

 Broad Reds and even to our ordinary and 

 very fairly well persisting Late Flowering 

 Reds. 



Now it so happens that many of these ex- 

 cellent strains are grown and harvested in 

 the west of England under very adverse 

 climatic conditions and so seed of high qua- 

 lity is only obtainable in exceptional years, 

 and is not at all generally handled pure to 

 strain by our large seed houses — a fact that it 

 is perhaps important should be realized and 

 doubtless is realized by investigators over 

 here. 



Although tile conditions in England are 

 so profoundly different to those in Canada 

 and the United States — quite how profound- 

 ly different one must visit the respective 

 countries to appreciate— I will briefly refer 

 to results obtained from our Nationality 

 trials. 



COCKSFOOT. Our results bear out those 

 of Lindhard and show that Danish and 



