May 1008.J 



Miscellaneous 



The history of most of the cultivated 

 products of temperate regions may be 

 divided into four stages. The first of 

 these was initiated when primitive man 

 deliberately sowed seeds for the first 

 time, perhaps breaking up the soil in an 

 imperfect way for their benefit, and 

 probably removing competition to some 

 extent by pulling up the weeds. Thus 

 we have, in the first instance, the simple 

 cultivation of the natural wild product ; 

 and this process must of itself have led 

 to some slight amount of improvement 

 from the human point of view. The 

 plants thus encouraged would grow 

 larger and more luxuriant; and in some 

 cases it is known that the edible parts 

 of a plant are actually improved in 

 quality as well as in size by the mere 

 process of cultivation. But the amount 

 of betterment thus induced is essentially 

 limited. 



The second stage of improvement was 

 one which extended over a very great 

 period of time— thousands of years in 

 the case of the main temperate products. 

 The grower came to recognize, at first 

 more or less unconsciously, differences 

 between the different plants of the 

 species to which his attention was given. 

 Some of them were better than others. 

 And — here I come to the main secret, 

 though secret it can scarcely be called, 

 of plant improvement— he picked out tne 

 better plants for propagation. In this 

 he showed more enlightenment than 

 some of the inhabitants of this country, 

 who, I am told, in the case of tobacco 

 cultivation, allow only the most miser- 

 able and diseased plants upon their fields 



. i flower and produce seed. Such a 

 policy as this, I venture to assert, can 

 only be attended with disaster. The 

 crop will never improve until the very 

 best plants are set aside every year as 

 secd-bearers. When this is done, not 

 only is there a gradual improvement in 

 health and size and quality of the plants, 

 but — I speak now of our experience in 

 the case of the ma jority of crops — every 

 now and again there will appear one or 

 more plants of special excellence, whose 

 qualities may be incorporated in the 

 breed by selection. 



The third stage of improvement came 

 in when practical men took up plant- 

 breeding as a trade. There can be little 

 doubt that this form of business existed 

 in ancient times in Rome and probably 

 also in China, a circumstance from 

 Avhich we now derive much benefit. But 

 in England — by far the first of modern 

 countries in the breeding both of animals 

 and plants — the practice does not date 

 back more than 150 years. Since that 

 time, however, very marked improve- 

 ments have been made, 

 58 



Stage 4 is yet in its first infancy; and 

 started less than ten years ago with 

 the application of definite scientific 

 knowledge to the problems of plant im- 

 provement. I will mention only onebf the 

 achievements of this method. Professor 

 R. H. Biffenof the Cambridge University 

 Department of Agriculture has been able 

 to combine the character of definite im- 

 munity to a certain fungus disease, exhi- 

 bited by a poor and stunted strain of 

 wheat of no value to the farmer, with 

 the good qualities of one of the best 

 modern varieties, which, however, was 

 exceedingly susceptible to the fungus 

 pest. He has thus obtained a permanent 

 breed of wheat immune to the fungus 

 and of first-class quality. He has ar- 

 rived in only foiir generations at a result 

 comparable with anything done by the 

 practical breeders in forty generations 

 or by the ordinary cultivator in 400. 

 This increase in the rate of improvement, 

 due to more exact scientific knowledge, 

 is a point of very great practical import- 

 ance. 



Let us now turn our attention to the 

 products of a tropical country like 

 Ceylon. There are, of course, a good 

 many crops like paddy which have been 

 in cultivation for thousands of years. 

 These Lave passed through stages one 

 and two, and are doubtless by now in a 

 more or less stationary condition as 

 regards improvement. But I do not feel 

 at all conviuced that rigorous selection 

 of seed would not have a very marked 

 effect, at any rate upon yield, and per- 

 haps on quality. Anyhow, I propose to 

 try the effect of selection upon this and 

 many other products. Experiments in 

 cross-breeding are of a more speculative 

 character ; their results, when tney are 

 successful, are correspondingly more im- 

 important. But there are also a great 

 number of old-established products to 

 which scientific breeding has never been 

 applied, and, though we cannot promise 

 startling results in every individual case, 

 there can be no doubt that the series 

 includes many members which are capa- 

 ble of very great improvement. There 

 are certain imported products which we 

 know can be improved, because it has 

 already been done in other countries, as 

 in the case of America with cottou and 

 tobacco, yes, and rice as well ! In this 

 couutry, if cotton is to be established 

 as a profitable industry, the imported 

 strains must be selected, for otherwise 

 they will degenerate, and I believe the 

 same to be the case with tobacco. 



But many of our products, and espe- 

 cially the most recent, are in the first 

 and most primitive stage of cultivation 

 (I mean historically, for the tnethods of 

 cultivation have doubtless improved). 



