WHEAT RESEARCH

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 51, Issue 127, 11 March 1931, Page 3

WHEAT RESEARCH

GOOD PROGRESS OF THE WORK. TESTS BY THE INSTITUTE. (Special to "The Guardian. 1 ') WELLINGTON, March 10. Reporting to the last meeting of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the chairman (Mr George Shirtclifle) was able to show that the work of the Wheat Research Institute is proceeding rapidly. A very large number of samples of grain are being milled, chemically examined and submitted to baking tests. Between 4000 and 5000 separate field trials have been harvested at Lincoln College, and the results of selection and breeding are now being critically examined. An instrument which gives a rapid approximate idea of the quality of resultant flour, where only small quantities of grain are available, has been tried with promising results, and affords a ready means of distinguishing between low quality and high quality wheat without having resource to baking tests. Investigations regarding the influence of manure on flour yield, baking quality and protein content of wheat seem to indicate that this is masked by the influence exerted by locality. One result of treating seed wheat with hot water for smut prevention seems to be to increase the baking score of flour made from the succeeding crop, while present indications are that, leaving the wheat until it is dead ripe floes not affect" either the flour yield or its quality. Arrangements are in hand for investigating the production of feed wheat in both island's, and for the growing of high-grade, but possibly low-yield-ing wheat on lighter lands.