May 25, 1 882 J 



NA TV RE 



93 



only in the North- West Provinces and Upper India, but in the 

 far mine favoured cotton fields of our Presidency, is .111 adequate 

 testing and full authentication of some inexpensive method of 

 treatment or cultivation, which shall be equally applicable to the 

 exotic, hybridi ed, and good indigenous varieties, and which the 

 ryots themselves will be able to appreciate alike under their 

 present simple method, of tillage, or under any improved system 

 they may eventually be induced to adopt. There is at last, we 

 think, some prospect of this desideratum being attained. The 

 minute of his Excellency suggests more than simply a systematic 

 method of operation in future experiments. It describes what is 

 known at home :is Hallett s pedigree system, which consists in the 

 Selection by hand of the finest seed from each successive year's 

 crop, and the annual reproduction of the plant only from such 

 seed ; and it enjoins the adoption of this plan in experiments 

 both with exotic and indigenous cotton, as the best means of 

 acclimatising the one and improving the other. The advantage of 

 this system appears so very manifest that the wonder seems to 

 be that it has never yet been tried. A cultivator selecting the 

 tinest bolls in his field of cotton, and putting them aside, extract- 

 ing from them at leisure the seed for his next sowing, is a thing 

 that has never yet been heard of ; but the matter is so simple, so 

 reasonable, that we have little doubt that the system will be 

 generally adopted when the ryots come to be acquainted with it, 

 and its advantages are explained to them." The same article 

 then goes on to say : " The pedigree system was begun last year 

 in different parts of the Presidency, but cannot be said to have 

 yet had to any appreciable extent a trial, as it is obvious that the 

 effect of it can only be judged by the character of the produce of 

 successive years. In the experiments now being conducted in 

 accordance with the plan suggested by His Excellency, there is 

 yet another element of success in the efficient character of the 

 agency employed. The Cotton Departments are assisted in the 

 work by four practical horticulturists, Messrs. Shearer, Stormont, 

 Strachan, and Milne, who have been sent out to this country for 

 the purpose by the Secretary of State, who, we believe, selected 

 them from a number of applicants on the recommendation of 

 Dr. Hooker, of the Botanical Gardens at Ke.v." I wrote to my 

 friend Sir Joseph Hooker, who, in reply, says the men were sent 

 • mt from Kew in 1S69, but that he has no statement of the results 

 beyond a newspaper cutting, stating that their services were 

 highly approved of, adding, "cotton is coming down from the 

 country much better in quality and in much larger quantities." I 

 therefore wrote to the India Office requesting to be furnished 

 W ith a copy of the Minute above referred to, and with informa- 

 ti <n as to the exact plan adopted and the results obtained. I 

 can only suppose that there is some difficulty in doing this, as, 

 although I stated that these particulars were required for the 

 Congress this day, they have not yet reached me. 



Had the Government, when thus appropriating and applying 

 my system, done me the honour to consult me upon it, I should 

 have pointed out that mere horticulturists, however skilful, 

 would not (unaided) be likely to accomplish very much. It 

 appears that in India there are thirty diflerent kinds of cotton 

 grown, in as many separated districts, for the Liverpool market. 

 In each district the kind of cotton grown there is said to be that 

 most suitable, and indeed the only kind that can be cultivated 

 there with advantage. If this be so, then there must be thirty 

 -electors— one in eachdistiict — in order to improve to the utmost 

 the cotton most suitable to it. I do not profess any special 

 1 nowledge of the growth of cotton, but I know something of 

 the growth of wool, and 1 apprehend that fineness, and length 

 and strength of fibre are qualities equally desirable in both. I 

 have seen a buyer of wool, when blindfolded, tell by the touch 

 the age and sex of the animal from which the fleece in his hand 

 came, and I have tested beyond all possibility of doubt his 

 ability to do this. I am told there are men in Liverpool who 

 have an equal gift in judging cotton, but that such men soon 

 i] ake their fortunes th re. But these are exactly the men who 

 are wanted for cotton selectors in India. The available differ- 

 ences of plants are slight, and « hen out of a number the selec 

 tion has reduced the competing plants to two or three, the differ- 

 ence is very slight indeed, but still very real. With many 

 different points to take into account, I have occupied weeks in 

 studying the final best two plants. It is evident that if there is 

 anything at all in selection, a selector, ignorant of the one thing 

 needful, may pedigree in the wrong direction, as the first Napo- 

 leon did unconsciously when his conscriptions left only those 

 men who were quite impos ible for soldiers to be progenitors of 

 the future Frenchmen with the result of the standard in the 



army having to be lowered by five inche?. I must not, I sup- 

 pose, be surprised if the Government has imperfectly understood 

 my system when such a man as Mr. Darwin, in his " Cross and 

 Self-fertiIi?ation of Plants," can thus write of it : — " Loiseleur- 

 De-longchamp (Les Cereaies) was led by his observations to the 

 extraordinary conclusion that the smaller grains of cereals pro- 

 duced as fine plants as the large. This conclusion is, however, 

 contradicted by Major Hallett's great success in improving wheat 

 by the selection of the finest grains.'' Here finest evidently 

 means largest ; but size of grain is not even an element in my 

 system of selection. 



If then we can seize upon these variations in plants, and by 

 means of the principle of inheritance, perpetuate, increase, and 

 accumulate year by year the original variation in the desired 

 direction, what a field does it open to us for increasing this 

 world's plant food ! And how vast is this field compared with 

 that presented by the food-producing animals, in mere number 

 probably not equal to the food-plants upon a single English 

 farm ; for « hile these animals supply food for man alone, and 

 for him only in part, plants may be said to almost wholly sup- 

 port both them and man. Vast, indeed, may this field be 

 called, for it includes not only the plants destined for food and 

 clothing, but also every kind of plant which contributes to the 

 welfare and happiness of mankind ; surely a field, then, worthy 

 of any man's labour! 



Since this paper was read a Minute by His Excellency, Sir 

 Seymour Fitzgerald, the Governor of Bombay, dated January 10, 

 1868, has been sent to Major Hallett by the direction of the 

 Secretary of State for India, together with reports extending to 

 1870 only. 



" In England I have had opportunities of seeing on my own 

 land, and on the properties of other gentlemen, how much can 

 be effected in the improvement of cereals by a continued atten- 

 tion during successive years to the selection of the best seed only 

 from crops of a common variety. The pedigree wheat, which 

 bears the name of Mr. Hallett, a Sussex gentleman, is, in fact, 

 a new variety which he has produced by the constant selection 

 each year of the finest ears produced on his farm near Brighton, 

 and by his never permitting any seed from small or inferior ears 

 to be sown. None but the be-t ears selected by hand were set 

 aside the first year for seed ; from the produce of these the best 

 were again in the same manner selected by hand, and this course 

 was continued for several successive years ; the final result was 

 the introduction of Hallett's Pedigree Wheat, which I have 

 known in my own experience to produce a crop nearly 50 per 

 cent, more in quantity, and 50 per cent, more valuable in quality, 

 than that produced from the best seed that could be purchased in 

 the market, and this in the same field, under exactly the same 

 circumstances, and with the same care taken in the cultivation. 



" I believe the same result may probably be obtained if the 

 same process is adopted with our indigenous cotton. At any 

 rate, I desire the experiment to be carefully made, and will take 

 care that funds are placed at the disposal of the Inspector-in- 

 Chief for this purpose. The experiment should be tried not only 

 in different districts but in several parts of each district, and a 

 sufficient breadth should be sown in each case to ensure a fair 

 and satisfactory trial. 



The Inspector-in-Chief is, therefore, authorised to make the 

 same experiments as those I have suggested as to the indigenous 

 cotton — with all the exotic varieties he may receive — in the same 

 manner and on the same scale. Even if they are not successful 

 to the extent and in the manner I anticipate, they will serve to 

 show us, if carefully continued for the next three or four years, 

 what are the exotic varieties of cotton which we can with con- 

 fidence encourage the cultivators in each district to adopt, as 

 bring be.-t suited to the particular circumstances of their lands." 



The following extract from Administration Report, Cotton 

 Commissioners' Department, for the year 1870-71, was received 

 by Major Hallett on January 9, 18S2. Major A. T. Moore, 

 Acting Cotton . Commissioner and Inspector in-Ckief, writes 

 under date Bombay, October 31, 1871, on the advantages of 

 " Selection " : — 



" Taking everything into consideration, I think the fact of the 

 heavier yield — by more than double — being in favour of the 

 ' Pedigree,' goes to show that 'selection,' as desired by His 

 Excellency Sir Seymour Fitzgerald, should be carefully carried 

 out ; that the cultivators should be supplied from the Govern- 

 ment crops with as much seed as possible, and at the same time, 

 that the necessity for selection should be earnestly pressed on 



