324 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION K. 



organisations 'it is a modest estimate to assume that in the course of a vetry 

 lew years the area under Pusa vvheate will reach five million acres. This means 

 an increase in the near future in the value of the agricultural produce of India, 

 in one crop only, of 75 lakhs of rupees or five million sterling.' Another crop that 

 has received attention is indigo. In regard to this a new method of growing 

 the seed has been worked out, and the cause of the destructive wilt disease lias 

 been traced to the destruction of the fine roots and nodules during the monsoon 

 rains. The remedy in this case is the selection of surface-rooted i^lants which 

 are now in course being generally grown. 



Considerable progress has also been made with rice, the chief cereal food of 

 the people of India. Of this eighty, million acres are cultivated. A variety 

 known as ' Indrasail ' is being rapidly propagated. The yields of this in 1915-16 

 were 30 per cent, over the ordinary kinds. In 1918 two hundred tons of pure 

 seed were distributed in Bengal, which contains one of the great rice-producing 

 tracts of the world. 



Some wheat breeding has been carried on in the Argentine by Backhouse, 

 formerly attached to the John Innes Institution. The conditions in that great 

 country extending from the Straits of Magellan to the tropic of Capricorn are 

 exceptional in the diversity of soil and climate. The wheat cultivated in such 

 widely scattered areas requires to be carefully adapted to local conditions, and 

 the work must take a long time. Confining attention to the dry districts of the 

 north. Backhouse found an interesting variety in general cultivation known as 

 Barletta, which, though mixed and heterogenous, was uniform in possessing a 

 non-shelling character. Further, during periods of drought it acquired the habit 

 of abandoning tillering and producing only one or two rows of ears. Its chief 

 defect was its liability to be attacked by Puccinia triticiim (not P. glumaruin)- 

 In some years 20 per cent, of the crop was lost owing to thig rust. It was 

 ascertained that European varieties immune to P. glumarum were susceptible 

 to the Argentine rust. 



A Chinese variety taken out by Backhouse was found to be immune to P. 

 trit.tcum.. From this eventually was built up a form that combined some of the 

 best qualities of the Barletta with the immunity of the Chinese. Backhouse has 

 since endeavoured to increase the size of the grain, which is small in Barletta, 

 and improve the general yield. The adaptability of the Barletta, as a non-sheller, 

 to the conditions in the Argentine is due to the fact that the harvesting is done 

 there by an Australian machine which cuts off the ears and threshes them at the 

 same time. A non-shelling, or what is also known as a tight-glumed, wheat is 

 therefore essential. 



As in wheat, so in cotton, this country is almost entirely dependent on foreign 

 supplies. The uneasiness caused by the excessive dependence of the great 

 Lancashire cotton industry, with exports of the annual value of over a hundred 

 million sterling, on supplies from abroad, and the occasional shortage, have led 

 to general action being taken to encourage the more extensive growth of cotton 

 within the Empire. Next to the United States, which in some years have 

 supplied seven-tenths of our imports, India comes second, but the East Indian 

 cotton is not well suited to the requirements of the English spinner. Egypt, 

 as the third producing country, supplies cotton of great strength and fineness. 



The most valuable of all cottons is that known as ' Sea Island ' cotton owing 

 to its introduction and successful cultivation on the coastal areas in South 

 Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. With regard to this, it is interesting to learn 

 that in recent years Sea Island cotton has been introduced back again to the West 

 Indies, which was probably its original home. 



This was effected by the Imperial Department of Agriculture in the West 

 Indies in 1902, when a pure strain of seed raised from plants immune to wilt 

 disease was obtained in quantity from James Island. This insured that the 

 industry from the first was placed on a firm basis, and with the hearty co- 

 operation of the planters an important West Indian cotton industry was success- 

 fully established. For some years the West Indian cotton has obtained a higher 

 price than the corresponding grades of cotton from the Sea Islands themselves. 

 The fine spinners in Lancashire are now practically independent for their sup- 

 plies of this cotton from the United States. Further, it is not improbable owing 

 to the serious attacks of the Mexican boll weevil on cotton plants in South 

 Carolina and Georgia the West Indies may become the only source of supply of 



