Nine Lives: An Autobiography of a Yorkshire Scientist

149 Pages·1984·1.85 MB·English

by  Sydney Cross Harland, Max Millard (Editor)

Nine Lives
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Nine Lives
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Nine Lives
Published by Boson Books
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Raleigh, NC 27606
ISBN 0-917990-25-0
An imprint of C&M Online Media Inc.
Copyright 2001 by Erasmus Harland, Richard Lynn,
Margaret Harland Millard and Max Millard
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Nine Lives
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NINE LIVES:
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A YORKSHIRE SCIENTIST
By
Sydney Cross Harland
Edited by
Max Millard
______________________________________
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Nine Lives
Sydney Cross Harland, 1891-1982
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Nine Lives
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This is the story of a scie ntist who was very eccentr ic—in his own words, "almost to the
point of lunacy." He was a bota nis t of gre at creativ e abil it y, whose work helped form the basis of
the Green Revolu tio n, which increased crop yield s and avert ed famin e in the Thir d World. He
received few honours and litt le acknowle dgeme nt fro m the Esta bli shment, but this was not
surprising, as he went his own way and care d for noth ing so much as his independence.
Sydney Harl and was a scientis t to his fingert ips, wit h an overwhelm in g love for pla nts. He
describes how he organi sed research in the West Indi es and became the leading cott on exper t of the
worl d. He tell s of his di sm issal because of hi s mar riage to hi s Chi nese resear ch assistant. T he
marri age brought happiness, but the pric e was high because the old men with power could not
tolerate his sta nd again st ra cis m.
Harla nd and Nikolai Vavilov, wid ely regarded as the premier biologist the Soviets ever
pro duced, were great fri ends. Harl and said of Vavilo v, "He was the best man I ever knew." They
were toget her on an expedi ti on in the USSR in 1933-34. In 1943, Vavi lov died in a St al in
concentr ati on camp of starv ation.
Duri ng the last decade of hi s life, Har land wor ked intermi tt ent ly on hi s aut obi ogr aphy. He
never completed it to his satisfactio n or tri ed to get it publis hed. When he died in 1982 at th e age of
91, the manuscr ipt was found am ong his paper s. Hi s chi ldr en assem bl ed it, typed it, and published
106 copies in 1992 fo r memb ers of the fa mil y. It is now available to th e public fo r the fi rs t time .
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Nine Lives
FOR WARD
By Sy dne y C. Harland
I call my autobiography Nin e Liv es, as I have had nin e dif ferent care ers, in St Croix ,
Canada, Scotl and, St Vin cent, En gla nd, Trin id ad, Brazil, Pe ru and England again.
I am wr iti ng my autobiography most ly perhaps as a warni ng about what not to do. What I
lacked in my young days was advice from somebody whose opin io n I could respect. I never got it.
But I mu stn 't preach: Sw ift advised the old never to advise the young, unle ss th ey ask for advi ce.
I used to tell my son Er asmus th at if you want to burn a hole in a piece of paper, you have to
concentr ate a beam of light on it wit h a lens, and focus accurately . It is the same wit h a care er. I
owe whatever success I have achieved to the fact that I made it my busin ess to know more about
cotto n than anybody else. I think I sti ll do, alth ough I am out of touch wit h the li teratu re .
It is curi ous that when one is old—and old age com es on wi th the vel oci ty of a tropi cal
nig ht—certa in things, trivial in themselves, are ofte n reme mb ere d. There are some scents of 70 or
more years ago that I can recall in all their original freshness, especiall y cowsli ps, prim ro ses and
vio le ts.
Beauty is what I live by in my old age. I culti vate it delib era tely because it is a very gre at
good which is free for all to enjoy. I have nothin g in my bedro om except my typewrit er and a few
books. I have a vase on a smal l table wit h one perf ect fl ower, changed ever y morning. Even in a
world li ke th is, we require beautif ul fl owers .
There is a bird which sings beautif ully at 6.00 a.m . I am usually awake listening to it. I
guess it ma y be some tim e before I hand in my knife and fork.
Alt hough I have spent most of my work ing life abroad, I sti ll feel complete ly at home only
in Yorkshir e, and it is to the Nort h Ri ding that I have fin ally returned. It is here , in the villa ge in
which I was bor n and am ong my own peopl e, that I wri te these words, and am ong whom I shall
spend my la st years . I shall die, as I was born , a York shire man of the North Ridin g.
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TABLE O F CONTENTS
CHAPT ER 1: TH E HARLANDS OF TH E NORTH RID ING
CHAPT ER 2: CHILD HOOD, 1891-1902
CHAP TER 3: S CARBOROUGH MUNICIPAL S ECONDARY S CHOOL, 1903-1909
CHAP TER 4: KING'S COLLE GE, L ONDON, 1909-1912
CHAPT ER 5: ST CROIX , 1913-1914
CHAPT ER 6: CANADA AND SC OTL AND, 1914-1915
CHAPT ER 7: EA RLY WORK ON GENETIC S IN ST VIN CENT, 1915-1920
CHAPT ER 8: MANCHEST ER , 1920-1923
CHAPT ER 9: IM PER IAL COLL EGE OF TROPIC AL AGRIC ULT URE, 1923-25
CHAP TER 10: IN QUE ST OF THE GRO S MIC HEL BANANA, 1925-1926
CHAPT ER 11: THE EMPIR E COTT ON GROWING RESEA RCH STATIO N, 1926-1934
CHAPT ER 12: AFRICA AND BRAZIL , 1930
CHAPT ER 13: A VISIT TO THE SO VIE T UNION, 1933
CHAPT ER 14: HARLAND VERSUS THE EMPI RE COTTO N GROWIN G
CORP ORATION, 1935-39
CHAPT ER 15: COTT ON BREED ING IN PERU, 1939-1949
CHAPT ER 16: MANCHES TE R UNIV ER SIT Y, 1950-1958
CHAP TER 17: LAS T YEARS, 1958-1982
GE NE TICS AND THE WORLD'S F OOD: AN ES SAY
AFT ER WORD
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CHA PT ER 1
THE HARLANDS OF THE NORTH RIDING
Fro m tim e imm emo ria l my forbears have lived in the North Riding of Yorkshir e. Four or
fiv e mil es above the sma ll market town of Kir bymoorside lie s Harland Moor, and it was there that
the Harl ands acquir ed th eir name in medieval tim es. For ma ny centu ri es they liv ed as small farm ers
and craftsmen in the vil lages that lie in valleys leadin g up to the moors. It was in one of these, the
vil la ge of Sn ain ton, that I was born one evening on 19 July 1891.
At the time of my bir th, my fath er worked as an assis tant tailor to my grandfath er Thoma s
Harla nd, a maste r tailor who made clo thes for the vil lage people and the farm hands for mile s
aro und. Grandfa ther Thomas was quite well off, as villa ge people went. He employed a couple of
journ eymen ta ilo rs and had fi ve or six apprentic es.
My paternal grandmo th er, Anne Carolin e Cross, had six sons and five daughte rs . All the
boys were raised to be tai lors. E dwin and Herbert , my fat her's two eldest brot her s, rebel led and
emi grate d to the Unit ed Sta te s in the 1880s.
My grandfather was a devout Meth odist. His own father, Wil li am Harla nd, had been
converte d by the great evangelis t John Wesley himself . Wesle y stayed a nig ht at my great-
gra ndfather's house when he came to preach in the dis tri ct, on one of his iti nerant tours. He made
many converts in the surrounding vill ages, and a majo rit y of the inhabit ants became Wesleyan
Methodis ts. Later th e Meth odists fell out over some unimport ant bit of dogma .
John Wesley (1703-91), who fo un ded th e Methodis t Chur ch in th e face of int ens e opp ositi on,
was a pr eache r of extraordi na ry power and an organi ser of genius .
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My grandfather belo nged to the Prim it ive Meth odists . His whole lif e revolv ed around the
Methodis t Chapel; it took up all his spare time, and a good part of his income. He was a local
pre acher and Superi ntendent of the Su nday School for mo re than 60 years .
His appeara nce was mild and unworld ly , and like my father, he said littl e. But when his
sense of duty was aro used, he was imm ovable . After my Uncle John die d at the age of 26, le aving a
wif e and five child re n, his widow speedily got rid of the lit tle money he left, and disappeared. My
gra ndfather thereupon announced to my grandmo ther and th eir thre e daughters that th ey would now
have to take care of the chil dre n, whose ages ranged fro m two to ten. His daughters pro teste d
vio le ntl y, but he would not budge. The child ren came into the household , were brought up, and
were sent out in to th e worl d at the age of 14.
The Educati on Act of 1904 pro vid ed for financial support for Church of England Schools
out of the r ates ( pr operty t axes). To my gr andfat her, the Chur ch of England was a heat hen sect , and
he was bitt erly opposed to this legis lation. He therefo re held back a part of his rates. Many
Methodis ts did likewise; th ey were calle d "passive re sis ters."
Every year the Local Authorit y recovered the wit hheld porti on of the rates by seizing an
art ic le of my grandfa ther's furn itu re and holdin g an auctio n sale in fro nt of his house. The villa gers
pr om ptl y bought back the fur nit ure and ret ur ned it to him. Thi s practi se went on for several year s.
It is curio us to refl ect th at he saw no inconsis tency in sending his children to th e Church of England
Vil la ge School.
My grandmother brewed wines—ginger wine, cowslip wine, elderb err y win e and others.
The alcoholic conte nt of th ese was apt to be pre tty high, but she used to say, "Nay, it wean't hurt ye.
Ther e's nowt in't but what ah put in mi sen." After a few gl asses, the faces of vi si tor s would take on
a sli ghtly glazed appearance, and they would say, "Ay, missus, it's grand stu ff this." My grandfather
was fussy about his food and dri nk, and refused to drink th ese pote nt brews.
My paternal grandmo th er was a brisk litt le woman with a sharp tongue. She prefe rre d to
speak the North Rid in g dialect in its purest form, a pra cti se much disappro ved of by my aunts , who
thought it "comm on." Sh e would say that the United States was inhabited by rogues, vagabonds
and "them 'at r an away fr a chance chil der ."
When a gir l in the vill age gave bi rt h to an ill egi ti mat e baby, my gr andfat her said that if he
were her fa th er, he would rather see her dead th an disgraced. My gra ndmoth er said, "Dean't be daft ,
Thoma s; if they come, they come." Regardin g "chance childer" —fo r which emi grati on provided a
convenie nt escape fro m responsib ili ty —she did not know that one of her brothers, Erasmus Cross,
had fled t o America around 1865 for that sel fsame reason.
My grandmother was a gre at belie ver in work . Sh e worked hard herself and was
accustomed to say, "Ah browt all ma h lasses oop ti work. Them can allus le ave it bud they can't ta k
tiv it." When she was in her eightie s I chatted with her about a holiday I had just taken in Belgium,
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