February, 1910.] 



167 



Miscellaneous. 



2. As cover plants grown to shade the 

 soil and to enrich it with added humus, 

 but not necessarily with nitrogen. 



3. Plants grown on steep slopes in 

 order to check wash. 



4. Shade plants and wind breaks. 



5. Sand binding plants, which prevent 

 the spread of shifting sands, 



6. Climbing plants grown for the pur- 

 pose of smothering particular weeds. 



Any one of these six headings might 

 easily form the topic of a separate paper 

 much longer than the one which 1 have 

 now had the honour of reading to you. 

 But I wish it to be clearly understood 

 that in speaking of weeds I have int ended 

 to exclude all plants which are used 

 for any of these perfectly legitimate 

 purposes. 



PLANT BREEDING. 



(Prom the Haivaiian Forester and Agri- 

 culturist, Vol. VI., No. 7, July, 1909.) 

 It is not improbable that the depart" 

 ment of agricultural science which will 

 most benefit the human race in future 

 years is that of plant breeding Hitherto 

 but little has been achieved by the 

 scientific plant breeder, that is, little in 

 comparison with the boundless store of 

 varieties of plants suited to fulfil peculiar 

 economic conditions which, it is pre- 

 dicted, will be evolved by the operations 

 of principles which are now becoming to 

 be understood and successfully applied. 

 It is true that our cultivated varieties of 

 fruits, flowers and grains have been 

 produced from elementary ancestors of 

 little resemblance to their luxuriant 

 descendants, but the process of evolution 

 has been achieved only after great 

 duration of time and often under 

 methods whose true scientific principles 

 were little understood. At first primitive 

 man gathered from their native habitat 

 the few uninviting roots and seeds with 

 which he appeased his hunger. The first 

 step towards, improvement of such food 

 plants took place when in order to save 

 the labour of gathering, he planted them 

 near his home and aided their develop- 

 ment by working the soil and discovered 

 the beneficial use of fertilizer. Then 

 commenced a long and slow period of 

 advancement. By selection of the more 

 promising plants as parents for the new 

 crop, the hard woody qualities of the 

 primitive ancestors of our veget- 

 ables developed into the soft and succu- 

 lent varieties of our garden crops. The 

 hard and acrid berries of the vine and 

 tree mellowed into the generous and 

 luscious grape, apple and peach. 



All this, however, necessitated many 

 centuries of laborious work, and many 

 of the advances taken were no doubt 

 unconscious. At length in China and 



ancient Rome the breeding of plants 

 came to be looked upon as a regular pro- 

 fession, and to these countries and to the 

 members of the monastic houses of the 

 middle ages are to be attributed many of 

 the most direct advances in plant pro- 

 duction. It is only now, however, that 

 the principles lying at the basis of the 

 improvement of plant stocks are begin- 

 ning to be applied, and that scientific 

 agriculturists are consciously breeding 

 plants for specific purposes. Given 

 time, and that a not too distant date, 

 the modern plant breeder will produce 

 types of plants to resist particular 

 fungus and insect pests ; he will evolve 

 varieties of economic plants to flourish 

 in climatic conditions now considered 

 impossible for their existence; he will 

 multiply their production three-fold ; 

 and finally by combination he will 

 produce new breeds of plants of entirely 

 new type. 



J-t is to be considered that hitherto 

 the development of our present economic 

 plants has been confined almost exclu- 

 sively to the flora of temperate zones. 

 When the principles of scientific breed- 

 ing have applied for some generations 

 to our luxuriant tropical species, the 

 great future for this new department 

 of science can be partly appreciated. 

 For this purpose Honolulu is parti- 

 cularly well situated and is fortunate in 

 the presence here of scientists who are 

 not only versed in the new methods of 

 development, but has already made head- 

 way in their operation. Among the 

 work already in progress may be men- 

 tioned the production of a new rice and 

 a new cotton specially adapted to our 

 peculiar needs, and the development of 

 a variety of the papaia possessing suffi- 

 ciently toughened skin to withstand the 

 long transit to the mainland market. 



Correspondence. 



PASPALUM DILATATUM IN THE 

 NORTH. 



Nallur House, 

 Jaffna, 22nd January, 1910. 

 Dear Sir, — I am growing the grass 

 called Paspalum dilatatum on a piece 

 of land 2 lachams Q of an acre) in 

 extent adjoining my house. It is in 

 a fair condition, though the watering 

 was not regular. But this grass does 

 not grow as high as the Guinea grass. 



In my opinion it will grow well if 

 sufficient attention is paid to regular 

 watering in dry places like Jaffna. The 

 leaves or rather the blades are not so 

 rough as those of the Guinea grass. 



Yours faithfully, 

 M. ASA1PILLA1. 



