MIRACLE OF SCIENCE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 15, 28 October 1938, Page 7

MIRACLE OF SCIENCE.

BRITAIN’S FOOT SUPPLY. “I have just seen miracles of science in a house in a drab London street and on a farm in Hertfordshire which can solve Britain’s greatest problem—an adequate supply of food in time of war,” wrote a London piossman in a Sunday journal. “A place the size of Elusion Station could grow enough corn for all Britain. In vast underground caves, lit by artificial sunlight, corn, vegetables and fruit could be grown. i ‘T\vo men have shown me how it can be done—Allan Monkhou.se, a New Zealander, and the central figure of the “Metro Vic’ trials in Moscow five years ago, at his small farm at Harpenden, Hertfordshire, and Dr. A. Hitchings Thomas, a pioneer in this science who grows crops behind curtained windows of a house in the Caledonian Road, London, N.l. “'They both work on similar principles. They are growing fodder for cattle and selling their cabinets to farmers. These cabinets are racked like the inside of a kitchen oven and on each rack is a perforated metal tray. Maize seed is put into the first of these trays and a solution* of salts is sprinkled over them. By the end of the first day roots are shooting from the seed, and another tray is introduced. By the second day the plant can be seen growing from the first seed. “By the eighth day the maize is 9in high, green and luscious, ready for catlle to eat, while in the other seven trays the maize is only sprouting, so that each day there is a fresh supply ol the fodder.

“Only a moderate heat and the salts solution are needed to ,cause this sixfold acceleration of Nature. All over Britain farmers are using these cabinets. This leaves their fields, previously devoted to the growing of root crops, free for the cultivation of other things. “In time of war this space saving and cheapness would bo of immense value to the country. Food is the chink in our armour of defence.

“An official of tho Ministry of Agriculture told me that every form of plant lifo might be grown by this method. Corn, vegetables and fruit could be cultivated on racks in caves.”