Catalogue description Records of Horticulture and Seeds

Horticulture Divisions: Structure

A Horticulture Branch was first established within the Intelligence Division in 1912. It became a separate Horticulture Division after the First World War but was later a branch again in successive divisions - from 1925 in the Agricultural Education, Research and Horticulture Inspectorate, from 1927 in the Education and Research (Agriculture and Horticulture) Division, from 1940 in the Technical, Horticulture and Publications Division, from 1944 in the Education and Advisory Services Division and from 1948 in the Horticulture and Poultry (later Horticulture, Poultry and Pests) Division. After amalgamation with the Ministry of Food in 1955, two divisions were created that were concerned with horticulture - Horticulture Production, Distribution and Imports, and Horticulture Prices and Statistics. These were merged in the following year to form a single Horticulture Division.

In 1963, the division was split, Horticulture Division I dealing with international trade in horticultural products and matters relating to the UK's application to join the EEC, grading, standards and plant health. Horticulture Division II dealt with commercial production and grants, distribution and marketing of fruit and vegetables, bee keeping and, from 1966, relations with the Apple and Pear Development Council. In February 1965, responsibility for allotments and for 'hobby' animal husbandry, such as bee-, goat- or rabbit-keeping, passed to the Ministry of Land and Natural Resources, though commercial scale activities remained the responsibility of the Horticulture Divisions.

In 1977 the divisions were united again as the third incarnation of the Horticulture Division. In 1982 a sub-unit, the Plant Health Administrative Unit, was created in the division to administer plant health policy generally, and in particular the EC Plant Health Regime. In 1984 the unit became a separate Plant Health Division. In 1989 the division merged with the Marketing Policy and Potatoes Division to form the Horticulture and Potatoes Division. From 1987 the division was also responsible for liaison with the Horticultural Development Council, and from 1992 it included the Horticultural Marketing Inspectorate.

Horticulture Divisions: Functions

Generally, price guarantees made for many products under the Agriculture Acts 1947 and 1957 do not extend to horticultural produce (tomatoes, lettuces, soft fruit, apples, pears and other tree-born fruits, nursery stock and cut flowers etc), as it is more perishable, and variable in quality, supply and demand than the root and grain crops covered by price guarantees. Instead the horticultural industry was protected and encouraged by protective tariffs imposed after advice from the Agriculture Departments by the Board of Trade. This continued until the UK's entry into the EEC. Horticultural growers have also been encouraged by a number of marketing schemes, and the Horticulture Improvement Scheme, which gave grants of up to one third the cost of capital improvements under the Horticulture Act 1960 and the Agriculture and Horticulture Act 1964. In addition to responsibility for such schemes, the horticulture divisions have been responsible for measures to control destructive insects and pests, inspection and certification of plants and plant products for export, advice and the provision of technical expertise, and bee-keeping.

Seeds Branch and Divisions: Structure

The Ministry is concerned both with the maintenance of seed quality under the Seeds Act 1920 and with ensuring adequate supplies of seeds. These functions have been performed by a seeds branch or division which has been associated with numerous other divisions, originally the Commercial Division (until 1940) then Supplies Division III (1940-1945), fertilisers and Seeds Division (1943-1954), fertilisers, Seeds and Hill Farming Division (1954-1956), Seeds Division (1956-1959) and Labour, Safety and Seeds Division (1959-1964). Following the passage of the Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964 a new Plant Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division was established which continues to be responsible for all aspects of work relating to plant breeders' rights, species lists and catalogues, the index, seed quality and liaison with the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, the Official Seed Testing Station and the National Seed Development Organisation Ltd.

Seeds Branch and Divisions: Functions

The branch/division has been concerned with the supply of farm and garden seeds, control of the import and export of seeds, liaison with the Seeds Advisory Committee and its successors and matters relating to the production, distribution and use of seeds under the various Seeds Acts.

Under the Seeds Act 1920, the Ministry along with the Board of Agriculture for Scotland and the Department of Agriculture and Technical Instruction for Ireland established an official seed testing station. The station's role was to check 'control samples' of seed offered or stored for sale in the United Kingdom for content and quality, and also to monitor work of the hundred or so private seed testing stations which were licensed by the Ministry. The station was constituted as an officially sponsored part of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, and was privatised in April 1996.

Maintenance of seed supplies was a particularly urgent problem during the two world wars. In 1917 a Seeds Advisory Committee was appointed to advise the Food Production Department on seed requirements. It was reconstituted in 1939 to advise on the supply and distribution of farm and garden seeds and was renamed the Seeds Advisory Conference. In 1941 it was wound up, its functions being taken over by a Seeds Import Board and a Seed Production Committee. The former was set up in October 1941 to handle the import of seeds under the terms of the Lend-lease legislation and was wound up in 1955. The latter was established in February 1942, at the request of the Ministry, by the National Institute of Agricultural Botany, for the purpose of stimulating and organising the production of agricultural and vegetable seeds.

The Plant Varieties and Seeds Act 1964 provided for the granting of proprietary rights to plant breeders or individuals discovering new plants, and conferred on the Ministry the power to regulate the trade in seeds and seed potatoes, including the naming of varieties by way of official indexes of approved varieties and plant names. The Act established a Plant Variety Rights Office under the Minister, and within the Plant Variety Rights Office and Seeds Division, to exercise these powers, and also a Plant Variety Rights Tribunal to hear and determine matters referred to it concerning infringements of plant breeders' rights.