ON THE LAND

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 106, 7 May 1928, Page 8

ON THE LAND

+ INTENSIVE RESEARCH PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED Operations arc to bo commenced immediately with a view to investigating the mineral deficiency in pastures evident in some paßs of the country. The Mineral Contents and Pastimes Committee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Eesearch has drawn up a plan of the work to be done, and no time is to be lost in making a start with the scheme. The areas selected in the North Island for experimental work and analysis are those of To Kuiti, Rotormi, and the Waikato, all of which display a marked mineral deficiency in their pastures. Mr. B. C. Aston, chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture, will be in charge of the North Island work. Assisting him, amongst others, will be Mr. R. J3, Grimmitt, of the same Department, who has recently returned from a course of study at the Rowet Institute, Aberdeen. Samples of the soils and pastures will be taken for laboratory analysis, and at the s;imo timo there will bo co-opera-tive and carefully controlled stockfeeding experiments with animals being grazed on pastures in theso areas, Tc Kuiti in particular affords admirable facilities for this kind of work, as there are nine or ten different soil types in range,, al! presenting problems which require solution. Work on similar lines in the Neljson district will be in charge of Mr. T. Rigg, assistant-director of the C'awthron Institute, who will have the help of another chemist. Trials will be conducted based on the extensive soil survey of this district which has already been made by the Cawthron Institute, and at the same time a limited number of stock-feeding experiments will be carried out with the co-opera-tion of local farmers. All the investigations are necessarily of a somewhat preliminary nature, but will form part of an Empire-wide scheme of investigation. They are boing conducted at the instigation of the Empire Marketing Board, which has granted £2000 for two years for the work, this sum being subsidised by the New Zealand Government by a like amount. It is hoped that Dr. Orr, one of the great authorities on this kind of work, will bo able to find time to ex- I tend to New Zealand his visit to Australia, so that the Dominion may have the benefit or his valuable advice on the experiments and investigations. No definite arrangement, however, has as yet boon made in this respect. Another field of activity of similar importance to the agriculturist of the Dominion is being exploited by the Seed and Plant Research Committee of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. On Wednesday next this committee, wl\ieh include* representatives of the Department of Agriculture, the Massey Agricultural College, the Research Department, and the seed trade, will meet to finalise its programme. Steps havo already been taken to establish a station at Palmerston North, where fourteen acres adjacent to the Massey Agricultural Coliege havo been acquired for experimental purposes. Here, under the direction of Mr. A. H. Cockayne, tho Fields Division of the Agricultural Department has already started work. Arrangements having been made to secure a laboratory, it will bo possible to carry on field and laboratory work side by side, a highly desirable state of affairs not possible heretofore.