July, IflOS.] 



58 



Miscellaneous, 



only be carried out with great difficulty 

 after repeated attempts and after exclusion 

 of the plants' own pollen and that of neigh- 

 bouring specimens of the same variety. 

 Lastly, the new type produced by crossing 

 may have constitutional weaknesses similar 

 to those exhibited by so many natural sports, 

 so that it can only be kept alive by careful 

 cultivation. Such weakness, however, is not 

 the rule. It is more usual for a hybrid 

 plant, once it has been obtained, to possess 

 a degree of vigour surpassing that of either 

 of its parents. The points to be observed 

 is that many cultivated products have arisen 

 by a process of hybridisation between plants 

 which have never been known to cross 

 mider natural conditions, and that the new 

 varieties thus produced are imlike any 

 natural species. 



With close attention there seems to be little 

 doubt that it will be possible to find among 

 the most recent tropical products sports and 

 modifications capable of preservation by the 

 methods of cultivation. Even failing these, 

 new forms can without question be produced 

 by artificial hybridisation. The process of 

 modification is a progressive one, for each 

 new form may be regarded ^is a link in a 

 chain of new forms which careful cultivation 

 will preserve, each member in the series 

 being more different than its predecessor 

 from the original species. 



New forms, whether they arise as sports 

 or as hybirds, exhibit the greatest possible 

 diversity among themselves in appearance 

 and constitution. So far as we are aware, 

 this variation is not more likely to tend in 

 one direction than in any other. It is pro- 

 bable, therefore, that some of the new forms 

 will be more useful to the cultivator than 

 the original type and others less so. But 

 the breeder can please himself as to which 

 kinds he allows to remain in existence, and 

 his choice will naturally fall upon the most 

 useful. The process of deliberate selection 

 thus employed is the main factor in the 

 improvement which may reasonably be ex- 

 pected to come aboiit as the successive 

 generations pass. When we consider the 

 enormous advances which have recently been 

 made in the theoretical principles which un- 

 derlie the breeder's art, we may reasonably 

 suppose that much less time and trouble 

 will be required to bring about a condition 

 of things in which the difference between 

 ' cultivated and wild plants in the tropics will 

 be comparable with the corresponding dif- 

 ference in temperate regions than was required 

 by our forefathers to bring about this latter 

 difference. 



More will be said in further numbers of 

 the Tropical Agriculturist and Magazine 

 of the Ceylon Agricultural Society on 

 the subjects of variation, hybridization 

 and selection. At present it suffices to call 

 attention to the much smaller difference 



between wild and cultivated in tropical, as 

 compared with the more advanced tem- 

 perate, countries, and to point out that very 

 great advantages will accrue to any tropical 

 country in which steps are taken to make 

 this difference greater. 



WHERE CO-OPERATIVE CREDIT 

 FLOURISHES. 



One of the great needs of the artisans and 

 cultivators of this country is a supply of loan- 

 able capital at a reasonable rate of interest. 

 How it has come about that the workers are 

 so largely destitute of the means of carrying 

 on their industry is a question on which 

 opinions differ, but as to the fact there can 

 be no dispute. In many occupations the 

 process of increasing indebtedness can be 

 watched. Mr. J. Hope-Simpson has described 

 the maimer in which the Benares silk weavers, 

 who have been accustomed to work for the 

 bazaar and sell their own goods, have gra- 

 dually become the virtual bondsmen of 

 wealthier members of their craft. When 

 times are bad the weaver applies to the 

 dealer who makes an advance of materials 

 at retail prices. When the stuff is ready for 

 the market it is brought to the dealer for 

 sale, and some months afterwards "a settle- 

 ment of accounts is made, the weaver's 

 account being credited with the amount for 

 which the dealer alleges the cloth to have 

 been sold (an amount frequently very much 

 below the actual price received, if common 

 rumour may be trusted) and debit with the 

 advance made, plus one anna in the rupee 

 per mensem as interest, phis commission on 

 the sale at one anna per rupee, plus, in 

 many cases, a fixed charge of one anna per 

 rupee for temple offerings." No one needs 

 to be told that such a system of credit as 

 this means perpetual indebtedness for the 

 weaver. "The account runs on from month 

 to month, year to year, and generation to 

 generation, and the weaver is practically a 

 slave." A similar description could be 

 written of the weaver of Madras, as well as 

 of other craftsmen. The agriculturist, as is 

 well known, is commonly, over extensive 

 areas throughout the country, a chronic 

 debtor. For this condition of things the 

 only practical remedy which has so far 

 been suggested is the Co-operative Credit 

 Society ; and it is refreshing to see that, 

 though the progress of institutions of this type 

 has been disappointingly slow in Lower and 

 Eastern Bengal, they have thoroughly estab- 

 lished themselves in the United Provinces 

 and are rapidly gaining in popularity. The 

 annual report recently issued shows that 

 there are now in the United Provinces 170 

 societies of various kinds, with more than 

 44,000 members. The variety of these insti- 

 tutions is a point the importance of which 

 at once attracts notice, many of them being 

 special types which are likely to be exten- 



