Abstract
ONE of the ways in which the Government in Great Britain is aiding agriculture is through grants made to the National Institute of Agricultural Botany. This Institute is doing very important work for the farming community by testing seeds and by encouraging the use of better varieties of plants. The thirteenth annual report, which has just been published, states that the record number of 30,689 samples of seeds was tested in the year ended July 31, 1932, at the Official Seed-testing Station. Trials with oats showed that one variety, Golden Rain II, gave the best results, although it is not widely grown; and that in Wales the variety popularly believed to be the best (Record) was significantly inferior to the three other varieties tested. The outstanding problem in the home beet-sugar industry is to improve the yields of beet and of sugar per acre; whereas the average for Europe is about 1½ tons of sugar per acre, in Great Britain it is only slightly more than 1 ton. The Institute has been attacking this important problem and has demonstrated how much these yields depend upon the variety grown. Trials extending over three years have shown differences of nearly 20 per cent between varieties in use by farmers, and Kleinwanzleben E has in general been found to be by far the best; at one centre it gave no less than 3 tons of sugar per acre. As a result of this work, it is now possible to recommend twelve different strains for use in the British Isles. Other activities of the Institute include the provision of pure stocks of cereal seed, the improvement of varieties of potato in respect of yield, and, especially, of immunity from disease, and the prevention of the use of more than one name for the same variety.
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National Institute of Agricultural Botany. Nature 131, 430 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131430c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131430c0