Gartons Limited

In 1898 the business became known as Gartons Limited and, under the inspired commercial leadership of George Peddie Miln, was to become the British Empire's largest plant breeding and seed company.

John Garton and his two brothers, Robert and Thomas, were in business with their father, Peter, in Golborne and Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire, England, as corn and agricultural merchants.

He attracted the friendship and encouragement of a young Scottish seedsman, George Peddie Miln (1861–1928)[2] who had trained in Dundee and was seed manager of Dicksons Limited of Chester.

Knowing he had developed a far reaching new technique in plant breeding John Garton began to carry out many thousands of controlled crosses on fields at the family farm in Newton-le-Willows.

[5] Professor Robert Wallace (1853–1939) of the University of Edinburgh said 'Under the system originated by Mr John Garton an infinite number of new and distinct breeds of oats, barleys, wheats, clovers and grasses have been produced'.

The production of new cereals was a somewhat different matter - the fact that they were so vitally important for national food supplies and involved large-scale and long-term work made it more likely that they would be the concern of government.

Their production of cereals - oats in particular - was appreciated as internationally important during the latter quarter of the nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth; (The American wheat breeder) Mark Carleton visited them in 1898 and was reportedly astonished at their work, Garton varieties were widely exported throughout the British Empire (then by far and away the world's largest political unit) and the United States.

"That private companies could be so effective in breeding cereal grains indicated that there was no link of necessity between their improvement and the publicly funded research that was to so dominate this sector over so much of the next century."

Upon the last occasion our offer was accompanied by letters and reports from all the leading Agricultural Professors, Botanists, and Scientists in the Kingdom, setting forth the national benefit which would accrue from the dissemination of the results in the form we had suggested.

The final reply of Her Majesty's Government, however, was that whilst fully recognising the value of the work, owing to there being no precedent upon which to act in such a matter, they were unable to avail themselves of the offer.

This was much to be regretted for had our ideas been carried into effect the British farmer would have been placed in immediate possession of important results, which in the hands of a Public Company would not reach him for many years.

Our efforts in this direction not having been successful, and as we were not in a position to undertake the work of distribution ourselves, we have placed it in the lands[verification needed] of a Public Company, and we trust that the continued efforts made by us on behalf of the British farmer will be fully appreciated by him, through his support of the Company responsible for the distribution of the seed of our new breeds of agricultural plants R. & J. Garton''The firm's first historic introduction was 'Abundance' oat, the world's first agricultural plant variety bred from a controlled cross, introduced to commerce in 1892.

The programme and report of the Graduation Ceremony held on 21 July 1922 reads The Senatus Academicus recently conferred the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Laws upon the late John Garton, who duly accepted it.

Twenty-two tears ago Mr Garton provided the means to establish the Garton Lectures on Colonial and Indian Agriculture, and subsequently he permanently endowed them as an integral part of the work of the Chair of Agriculture.The plant breeding grounds were initially at Newton-le-Willows but moved to Acton Grange, two and a half miles south west of Warrington before settling in about 1930 at Little Leigh near Northwich in Cheshire.

The Official Seed Testing Station was created in 1917, firstly in Victoria Street in Westminster, London and then in 1921 within the newly formed National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge.

But this caused them difficulties as early as in their Spring 1900 seed catalogue where a paragraph of the introduction reads: It has come to our knowledge that nearly all the New Breeds introduced by us up to the present time have been renamed by various dealers and are being offered by them under different names.

Although the honesty of this conduct is more than questionable, we are resigned for the present to regard it as a novel form of flattery, but we strongly recommend all those who wish to secure our Seeds to order them direct from us, as they cannot be procured from any other genuine source.

And yet the only non-government funded agricultural crop plant breeding, research and testing establishment visited by the Committee was to Gartons Limited.

When Gartons Limited became a public quoted company on the London Stock Exchange in 1947 T. E. Miln entered into a further ten year employment contract as Managing Director, even though he was already 59, such was his reputation.

As already stated Wallace Miln joined his son Barnaby at JB Seeds and Charles Hoskins joined Sinclair McGill, the highly respected Boston based Plant Breeders and Seed Specialists, in 1974 and was appointed Production Director at Sinclair McGill (East) in 1978 Bob Beeton was another senior employee to leave following the take over by Agricultural Holdings Limited (Hurst Gunson.)

The wild or land oat, Avena fatua, of Great Britain has likewise been used with marked success in the production of new breeds in conjunction with the cultivated varieties.

By crossing two distinct plants of the same variety the resulting progeny is more vigorous and robust in constitution, whilst the habit and individual character of the variety is maintained.A year later, these Explanatory Notes come from the Gartons Seed Catalogue for Spring 1901: FOR over 20 years the work of cross-fertilising crop plants, with the object of producing New and Improved Breeds, has been carried on at Newton-le-Willows in Lancashire.

Attempts at the production of first crosses are not new, as these have been practised for many years by experimenters in the same field, who however stopped short of the point at which the Garton System achieved its greatest results, viz.

In the wilderness of uncertainty and confusion which follows and in which the great majority of the progeny are found to be abortive or inferior, a few choice specimens appear which are grown for a number of years until fixity of type has been secured.

In making the selections the large quantity and superior quality of the grain, together with great standing power in the straw have been the chief characteristics aimed at, and if these desiderata have been secured in a few of the new breeds to the detriment of the habit of "tillering," the difficulty is readily overcome by providing a liberal seeding.

For example, an inferior variety of "spelt" wheat Triticum spelta from Southern Asia, has been employed with excellent results to introduce strength of gluten to the grain, and large yielding and standing power to the crop with immunity from shedding its seed during harvest.

The hardiness of constitution, standing power of straw, and remarkable fertility of the wild or land oat, Avena fatua, of Great Britain have been successfully introduced, but not without many difficulties, into some of the new breeds.

Oat Varieties: Oat varieties bred and introduced to UK agriculture include Abundance in 1892, Pioneer (1899), Tartar King (1899), Waverley (1900), Goldfinder (1901), Storm King (1902), Excelsior (1903), Colossal (1904), Rival (1906), Unversed (1907), Bountiful (1908), The Yielder (1909), The Record (1911), The Leader (1913), Supreme (1915), The Hero (1916), The Captain (1919), Sir Douglas Haig (1920), Marvellous (1921), Superb (1923), Earl Haig (1925), Cropwell (1926), Plentiful (1927), Black Prince (1929), Progress (1930), Unique (1931), Onward (1935), Jubilee (1936), Royal Scot (1940), Spitfire (1945), Early Grey (1946), Forward (1953), Angus (1959).

Wheat Varieties: Wheat varieties bred and introduced to UK agriculture include White Monarch in 1899, White Pearl (1900), Red King (1900), New Era (1903), Reliance (1909), Victor (1910), Benefactor (1914), Early Cone (1918), The Hawk (1918), Marshal Foch (1919), Rector (1923), Benefactress (1925), Renown (1926), Wilhelmina Regenerated (1928), Gartons No 60 (1932), Gartons Q3 (1933), Redman (1934), Little Tich (1935), Wilma (1936), Warden (1938), Meteor (1941), Pilot (1945), Welcome (1950), Masterpiece (1951), Alpha (1952), Victor II (1953), Ritchie (1957), Apex (1965).

Field Carrot Varieties: Field Carrot varieties bred and introduced to UK agriculture include Scarlet Intermediate in 1900, Mid Season Scarlet (1911), Mammoth White (1924), Intermediate Stump Rooted (1935), Red Cored Early Market (1935), Short Stump Rooted (1938), Giant White (1939).