National Institute of Agricultural Botany

Abstract

THE fifteenth annual report (1933-34) of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, Cambridge, shows that continued progress has been made in all departments. An important change in the stations at which crop testing is carried out took place in the autumn of 1934, when a new centre was established at Askham Bryan near York, in place of that at Good Easter, Essex, which was closed down. The results at the latter station had proved so similar to those at Cambridge, that it seemed more valuable to extend the Institute's activities in a northward direction. Two new winter wheats from the Cambridge University Plant Breeding Institute were tested (162/8/LE7, and W.10A) and gave very promising results, while ‘Resistance’, the new winter oat which had proved so outstanding in former trials, was put on the market for distribution. Continued progress is recorded in the work of the Official Seed Testing Station, 29,487 samples being dealt with during the year under review. With regard to the activities of the Potato Testing Station at Ormskirk, eighty-seven entries were received for the official immunity trials, and all but three of these remained free from wart disease in the field. It is noteworthy that, with the exception of three varieties known to be duplicated, all the new varieties entered for the trials proved to be distinct. This is a striking tribute to the way in which the Potato Synonym Committee has been able to check the practice of distributing old varieties under new names and at an enhanced price.