IMPROVING FARM CROPS

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 29, 4 February 1928, Page 10

IMPROVING FARM CROPS

MONEY FOR RESEARCH.

MARKETING BOARD'S OFFER!

£2500 FOR FIVE YEARS

(By Telegraph.—Press Association.)

\\ ELLINGTON, Friday

The Empire Marketing Board liasj offered the Industrial Research Depart- | 1 ment a grant of £2500 toward the costs i of establishing plant breeding and seed.-?; research work, said tho Minister in charge of the Scientilic and Industrial Researchi Department, Mr. Coates, in a statement! to-day. In addition, the board is pre-i pared to contribute £2500 annually forj a period of live years toward the main-; tenance and running costs of these re-j searches. It is intended that the work will be mainly carried out at the Massey Agricultural College, and will embrace the breeding, selection and treatment against disease of the grasses and other farm crops of the Dominion. By improvement in the quality and yield of various species of farm crops and their immunisation against the inroads of fungoid and insect diseases it is hoped to less'en thel heavy annual loss incurred to the Do ! minion through the growing of poor and diseased crops. j

The work to be carried out will amplify the good work already being done by the officers of the Department of Agriculture. Negotiations are proceeding with the De partment of Agriculture and the Agricultural College councils with a view to arranging the details necessary for carrying out the work.