I grew up the Cheviots of Northumberland. I was depressed at the poor
living that the land provided. There is a large amount of such land in
Britain. How could we do better?

One of the reasons why such land is so little use is that main crops
we might grow on it are really Mediterranean plants. Of the main
cereals, wheat, barley, rye, only oats can just about manage, and then
not well enough to compete with oats grown in more favourable
conditions. Most other crops are also outside their range. Maize is
classically a hot country crop.

So could we develop plants which are native to this climate into
crops? They don't have to be grasses, it is historical accident that
the classic four, wheat, barley, rye, and oats are grasses. I am
particularly impressed by the possibilities of some sedges. They have
good seed heads, and they should also be good grazing, but my
imagination has been seized by the possibilities of a tree crop.

I wasted too many years trying to graft hazel onto grey alder, Alnus
incana, before accepting that it is true what the textbooks say, they
are too far apart to be grafted.

A tree crop may seem a radical idea, but actually there are plenty of
tree crops. Apples, oranges, bananas, dates, etc., but you will notice
one thing about this list: They all bear FRUITS. That is to say, a
soft, wet thing, usually eaten raw and with poor keeping qualities. To
have a tree producing a GRAIN, a hard, dry thing, not usually eaten
raw, but suitable for making bread pasta, etc., and with good keeping
qualities, is indeed a new thing. Good keeping qualities has a big
bearing on marketing, and we just couldn't eat all of a fruit which
was so widely grown. A tree crop has some other useful
charisteristics: It does not need the land to be ploughed every year,
and the fuel used in plowing costs a lot of money and releases a lot
of carbon, and that the tree is a perennial gives it year-to-year
reliability.

So, I took up the idea of alders. They grow in our climate, they are
nitrogen fixers (a Holy Grail in agriculture), they are not very big
trees like the Sycamore, which also grows on high land, and they cast
a light shadow, so a sheep pasture can exist beneath them. Farmers
like to hedge their bets, and with the nitrogen fixing and the
shelter, the pasture should be a lot better.

I am undecided between the Alder, Alnus glutinosa, and the Grey Alder,
Alnus incana. In favour of the Grey Alder, it can be said that it
grows higher and doesn't need water so much. But the choice may be
taken out of my hands by other factors.

The seeds can be harvested by a machine which drives up to each tree
trunk, spreads canvas "wings" beneath the tree, clasps the trunk and
shakes it.

Why can't Alder be used as it is? Mostly because the seeds are too
small. No doubt many shortcoming exist, and can be overcome, but seed
size is undoubtedly the big one.

One doubt which will have to be overcome is "What are the milling,
cooking, and eating properties of Alder seeds"? We just don't know
yet!

When breeders want to develop a trait, there are two methods they use;

1) Produce mutations buy feeding base analogues and breeding from
plants showing changes in the direction wanted. It takes patience and
YEARS.

2) Look for plants in the wild which have the wanted change. Breeding
work from these still has to be done, but it will cut out a lot of
time and work.

And that is what I would be grateful for. If any of you can provide me
with samples of Alder which have bigger (and therefore fewer) seeds, I
would be most grateful. The cones are likely to look different from a
distance.

I would also be grateful to be put in touch with anybody who takes a
special interest in Alder.

Michael Bell

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