The National Institute of Agricultural Botany

Abstract

AT the annual general meeting of fellows of the National Institute of AgricDaniel Hall, in the course of his address, stated that one of the primary objects of the Institute is to serve as a medium for introducing new varieties of farm crops to the public. For this purpose its trials are organized so as to provide an accurate measure of the relative merits or de-merits of each variety tested. These trials extend over three years or more, in order to level out weather differences, and are carried out at six different centres in order to eliminate differences due to soil variations. The improvements already effected in the yield of cereals make it unlikely that any new variety will show a 20 per cent improvement upon the existing varieties. Improvements in the nature of 5-10 per cent are more probable, but even a 5 per cent improvement would make a considerable financial difference to farmers. Farming is never at a standstill, and the Institute meets the changing agricultural situation by extending the scope of its trials. Trials of picking peas and chicory are now being carried out, and it is hoped that useful information will be derived from them. The potato trials at Ormskirk have done much to check the spread of wart disease by the encouragement given to the introduction of new immune varieties. Sir Daniel went on to say that close co-operation with the seed trade would be beneficial to both bodies. In serving the farmers, the Institute also serves the best interests of the seed trade, which has the highest degree of confidence in the Official Seed Testing Station. This is testified by the fact that the number of samples tested by the Official Seed Testing Station is steadily increasing year by year, and nearly 30,000 samples have been tested in the current year. In conclusion Sir Daniel expressed concern at the shrinkage in the number of fellows of the Institute: he hopes the Institute will never become a purely bureaucratic body, reponsible only to the Government.