July 25, 1918] 



NATURE 



407 



the foundation of the Pusa Research Institute 

 about the beginning of the present century, great 

 developments in the scientific exploitation of Indian 

 agriculture have taken place. Much credit is due 

 to Lord Curzon, who, aided, it is now curious to 

 recall, by the munificent bequest of ,an American 

 (Mr. Phipps), founded a department which it is no 

 exaggeration to say has added thousands, and will 

 add millions, to the wealth of the country. India 

 undoubtedly presented a fine field for the modern 

 plant breeder. If we consider the immense variety 

 of her plant products, their value either as .food 

 or in the arts and industries, and. then ob- 

 serve that, owing to the absence of any .skilled 

 seed production industry, there is an uncounted 

 number of identifiable races within each distinctive 

 variety of economic plant, we can form some con- 

 ception of the possibilities which even selection 

 presents : superadding hybridisation, it is difficult 

 to assign any limits to the field that is opening 

 out. 



It would be impossible in the ordinary limits 

 of space to give a detailed account of what has 

 already been achieved, but some indication may 

 be given of proved successes in relation to the 

 more important economic plants. 



Mention may first be made of Wheat, of 

 which upwards of, 30 million acres are grown, 

 and which was naturally one of the first 

 crops to receive attention. Both selection and 

 hybridisation have been brought into action, 

 and several new varieties are .now firmly 

 established. In the United Provinces in 

 1917 ,alone "Pusa No. 12" occupied 100,000 

 acres, and was extensively grown in the Punjab 

 as well. This wheat gives a cultivator an increased, 

 yield of 25 per cent, over the varieties formerly 

 grown by him, as well as nearly one shilling per 

 quarter more on the market, owing to its improved 

 quality. Another and later production of Pusa 

 has on occasions given a yield of nearly fifty-five 

 bushels per acre, which for India is an unheard-of 

 figure, and may be compared with thirty-two 

 bushels, the British average yield of wheat. In 

 the Punjab another new variety occupied 97,000 

 acres, and it is estimated that the growers of this 

 wheat were presented with an additional income 

 of nearly 15,000^ In the Central Provinces im- 

 proved varieties, returning to the cultivators con- 

 siderably increased profits, occupied 200,000 acres. 



Remarkable progress is also being made in the 

 production of, improved varieties of Rice, the most 

 important cereal crop in India. A variety known 

 as "Indrasall, " isolated by pure lime selection, 

 occupied 20,000 acres in Bengal. In the 

 Central Provinces it has been necessary to 

 establish thirty seed farms for the production 

 of other new varieties. Turning ,to non-food 

 products, we find that extraordinary advances 

 have been made in regard to cotton (of 

 which 20 million acres are grown in India). In 

 Surat an improved cotton has been produced 

 giving a premium value of 13 per cent. ; in Sind 

 new varieties are giving a premium of 23 per 

 cent. In the Central Provinces a new introduc- 

 NO. 2543', VOL. lOl] 



tion is estimated to occupy no less than 800,000 

 acres, and to have brought the cultivators in- 

 creased profits of nearly 900,000!. After this we 

 may pass over such relatively inconsiderable 

 figures as 215,000 acres under a new variety in 

 the Punjab, but, for its human interest,, mention 

 may be made of one incident in a campaign 

 directed to the eradication from a certain district 

 of an inferior indigenous va!riety. It is a good 

 example of the methods adopted to impress the 

 Oriental imagination. " In the Tinnevelly district 

 the department had to resort to drastic action for 

 the control of seed in the case of some ninety 

 acres of pulichai [the inferior cotton] . . . the seed 

 from this cotton was publicly burnt . . . before a 

 large gathering of ryots." 



In the improvement of Jute (of which India ex- 

 ports annually products worth 40,000,000!.) some 

 notable advances have been made. It is expected 

 that in the present year more than 30,000 acres 

 will be sown with a new selected variety as a 

 result of the distribution by the department of 

 500,000 packets of seed. In this connection a 

 valuable scientific discovery may be mentioned. 

 The pernicious weed, water hyacinth, which 

 infests the waterways of Bengal, has been 

 found to have a high p>otash content, and is con- 

 sequently a valuable manure for jute, the use of 

 which not only directly stimulates yield, but also 

 protects the plant against a Rhizoctonia disease 

 which attacks it. 



It will be readily admitted that this tale of 

 economic progress is astonishing. No mention 

 has been made of the purely scientific results 

 achieved, and they are very considerable. The 

 workers no doubt feel well rewarded by the satis- 

 faction with which they must regard the additions 

 to knowledge which they have made, but they 

 may also feel some pride in the remarkable 

 economic advances which their labours have 

 brought about, especially in regard to the food- 

 producing plants. 



THE VALUE OF INSECTIVOROUS BIRDS. 



THROUGHOUT the country at the present 

 time farmers, fruit-growers, allotment- 

 holders, and owners of gardens are faced with a 

 plague of insects such as has not been experienced 

 in the United Kingdom for many years past. 

 True it is that we have had more or less local 

 outbreaks of the winter moth, the cabbage butter- 

 fly, apple and plum aphids, wireworms, leather 

 jackets, and numerous other pests of great severity, 

 but not, in the present writer's opinion, to such a 

 general extent as at the present time. 



The reason for this very serious state of affairs 

 is not difficult to discover, and although the truth 

 may not be palatable, it is, nevertheless, true that 

 it is largely due to neglect and to an absence of a 

 State Department with a thoroughly practical and 

 scientific staff. It would be futile and unprofitable 

 to dwell uoon either of these two causes. Rather 

 let us turn to another phase of the matter not 

 altogether foreign to the subject, viz. the value 



