WHEAT INDUSTRY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 64, Issue 60, 20 December 1943, Page 5

WHEAT INDUSTRY

RESEARCH INSTITUTE’S WORK.

FLOUR OF IMPROVED QUALITY. CHRISTCHURCH, This Day. The improvement in the. quality of flour in recent years, in spite of the embargo on Canadian imports, was described by the chairman of the Wheat Research Committee (Mr R. J. Lyon) as the most tangible measure of the success of the Wheat Research Institute since its establishment 15 years ago. Mr Lyon, who reviewed the work of the institute in his address to the committee at. its final meeting, of the year, mentioned also developments in baking practice concerning germ, bread, high-extrac-tion flour, emergency yeast supplies, dried yeast, and the revitalisation of damaged yeast.

Mr Lyon said that with the co-opera-tion of the Department of Agriculture the institute had surveyed the usefulness of the many wheats then grown in- the country, and had assisted in the elimination of those,which were inferior in yield or quality, and in ascertaining the best wheats for different districts. This was still done whenever a new wheat came on the scene. An inquiry into*the possibilities of tbe header harvester had produced accurate data on the technique and economics of harvesting methods. The institute had introduced a moisture testing service for farmers and merchants which saved untold wheat, money and worry,

“With Canterbury Agricultural Col* lege the institute took a major share in the production of Cross 7, which now covers nearly 60 per cent, of our

wheat land,” said Mr Lyon. “We bred Fife-Tuscan, which yields from 5 to 10 per cent, more than Tuscan, and we bred Tainui, which, in the last harvest alone, added some 27,000 bushels or £9OOO, to the North Island crop.” Mr Lyon said that on the milling and baking sides the institute had introduced testing methods for Avheat and flour and placed them at the -service of all members of the industry. They had spread from the laboratory into many flourmills, thereby giving them a yardstick by which to measure their raw materials and finished products. The laboratory also had done useful work whenever damage to wheat lines demanded investigation, as, in the case of bug wheat and the treatment of musty wheat.

“We have, and we should, considered our institute as a servant of the community as a, whole, not only of sectional interests,” said Mr Lyon. “It is in this spirit that we have welcomed the growing interests in the nutritive aspects of bread, and we have been and shall be willing to co-operate on research, into nutrition problems relating to our industry.”