187 



THE IMPROVPJMENT IN THE YIELD AND QUALTTY OF 

 INDIAN WHEAT 



BY 



Albert Howard, m.a., a.r.c.s., f.l.s., Imxjerial Economic Botanist, 



and 

 Gabrielle L. 0. Howard, m.a., Associate and some time Felloiv of 

 Newnham. College ; Personal Assistant to the Imperial Economic 

 Botanist. 



I. Introduction. 



In the present paper it is proposed to give a sketch, of the wheat 

 investigations in India w^hich have formed a part of the work of 

 the Section of Economic Botany of the Agricultural Research In- 

 stitute at Pusa during the past five years -from 1906 to the present 

 time. While the actual results obtained and especially those re- 

 sults which bear on the Indian wheat trade will naturally receive 

 most attention in this paper, an attempt will also be made to indi- 

 cate the scientific methods which have been adopted in prosecuting 

 these investigations. In this way it is hoped that this paper will 

 prove of interest both to those particularly concerned with the 

 trade aspect of wheat and also to the members of a scientific 

 society who will not be disappointed to find that the results obtain- 

 ed in applied work must be based on sound biological principles. 



It is almost superfluous to point out the great importance of the 

 wheat crop to India, not only from the point of view of the food of 

 the people, but also as regards the value of the export trade. Nearly 

 30,000,000 acres of wheat are grown every year and in favourable 

 seasons from 8 to 9 millions tons of grain are produced, of which 

 more than 80 per cent, is consumed in the country. The surplus 

 forms an important article of trade with Europe. 



The recent investigations on wheat in India date from January 

 1906 when one of us was asked to draw up a scheme for the im- 

 provement of the wheat crop for consideration by the Board of 

 Agriculture in India. This memorandum was adopted by the 

 Agricultural Department as the basis for future work on Indian 

 wheat. 



