AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20620, 9 August 1932, Page 6

AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH.

SCOPE FOR EXTENSION. ADDRESS BY MR NORTON FRANCIS, "If 1 were Dictator: How I would deal, with agricultural, was the subject of a luncheon address given by Mr Norton Francis to the Canterbury Advertising Club yesterday. Mr C. L. Rollo, president of the club, presided. Mr Francis spoke as follows: I must admit at the outset that a dictator, except for the risk of his rule being suddenly ended by assassination, has innumerable advantages not possessed by a Government, which has always to consider the views of its own party members of Parliament and those of Parliament as a whole. All the same I consider that most Governments would do better if the Minister in charge of each Department > of State had a thorough knowledge of his work, and, instead of Cabinet fixing on a policy likely to be popular, was left to run it as he thought best, assisted but not ruled by his Departmental heads of the Civil Service. For many years I have been keenly interested in the benefits science can give to our greatest industry, "agriculture." It was not till 1923, when I was in Canada and the United States, that I had an opportunity fo see first-hand what was being done in North America, and I came back satisfied that much as was being done in New Zealand, wo were well behind in a race which might eventually mean ruin to some of our primary industries if greater activity was not shown. In . the study I made at that time of farm mortgage systems for Mr Maßsey, it was brought home to ■me that whilst New Zealand was ahead of Canada and the United States in the facilities its farmers had for finance of tend and working expenses, it lagged behind in the efforts made to make two blades of grass grow where one was found. When Massey Agricultural College was founded I was appointed one of the two South Island members on its council, and as I am still a member, I have had. consider- • able opportunities to see research work from the inside. Canterbury Activities. The Canterbury Chamber of Commerce, with the assistance of Canterbury Agricultural College, has issued for three years a monthly Agricultural Bulletin containing advice to farmers based on scientific knowledge and actual practical results achieved at Lincoln. As chairman of the committee responsible for these bulletins, I have gained experience of the research work so well done at Lincoln for nearly fifty years, and much more actively of late with the help of the small monetary grant from the Government. | Opportunities of Study. Again, in 1927, I had the opportunity of studying British Agricultural research work at — (1) The Agricultural Research Institute at Rothamsted, started, in 1843 as an experimental station by Sir J. B. Lawes at his own expense.' (2) The Low Temperature Research Station and the College of Agriculture at Cambridge University. (3) The National Institute for Research in Dairying attached to Reading University. (4) The Rowett Institute, near Aberdeen. (5) The Agricultural College at Wye. Later, in 1929,1 visited the Manitoba Agricultural College at Winnipeg, where

I was particularly interested in the Prevention. of Rust Institute attached to this college. I mention these visits because it is largely on what I have seen in force in other countries, or what _ I have been recommended by those in charge of oversea institutions to strive for, that my views for agricultural research in New Zealand have been formed. The Scope for Research. If I were Dictator I should: (1) Determine what proportion of the Government's income should bo allocated •to agricultural research, and whilst I should cut down the total of | Government Departmental expenditure considerably, even on the Agricultural Department vote, I should bear in mind that on the success of our fanners the whole prosperity of the Dominion depends. ' Under such circumstances. I should be anxious that all likely channels be explored which were likely to increase without undue cost the quality or the quantity of our products, and should cut down grants for unremunerative services and salaries for littlewanted inspectors before I the axe to the grant requested for agricultural research. (2) Call a conference of all parties interested in agricultural research to determine what investigations were urgent and what particular work should be carried out during the coming year, also to learn what information was available already, and so prevent any •possibility of duplication. I should summon to this conference representatives from the Board of Scientific and Industrial Research, the Agricultural Department, Massey and Canterbury Agricultural Colleges, the Cawthron Institute the Wheat and Plant Research Institutes, and other interested bodies. These representatives would be required to submit. their views as to the most economical methods to carry on the research work desired, and how far this work could be combined efficiently with the teaching of students at the agricultural colleges and other demonstration farms. 3. Appoiftt an independent body, preferably an agricultural section of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to allocate the annual grant, for this branch of research among the institutions which in this body's opinion were best qualified to carry out the research work selected at the conference of experts mentioned above. Some research work would have to be spread over several years for in work of this kind it is of course impossible to determine in advance how long it will take to achieve results.

4. Stop all research work being done by the Agricultural Department except by a specially formed research section, which would be independent of the main Agricultural Department, so as to avoid the danger of suddenly stopping valuable work at the most critical timo after many months of study because the Minister in charge, at the request of a country M.P., required all available staff transferred to a remote country district to determine why some elector's sheep were dying or his cereal crops were checked in growth. 5. Insist that the qualified scientists at the agricultural colleges should devote a considerable portion of their time to research, and to enable this to be done assistant lecturers would bo appointed to attend to the elementary work necessary in the teaching of the college students. At present, owing to lack of funds, highly qualified, well paid scientists are in my opinion, spending too much time in lecturing to " diploma students" instead of devoting themselves for a fair part of their 'time to research work which might result in hundreds of thousands of pounds added to the products of the Dominion. . 6. Instruct the independent body referred to under, heading 3, when information of general interest to the farming community was available, to authorise the Agricultural Department on behalf of the Government to make public the results obtained, and to conduct any local experiments considered necessary in the different districts of the North and South Islands likely to

be benefited' by the discovery. Such procedure would, it is contended, not only prevent any overlap in carrying out particular work and eliminate any risk of premature publication of half finished results through jealousy of similar information being published by other institutions, but. would give to the Government, which supplies the necessary funds, the due credit for any valuable discovery. Cost in Other Countries. . Some here to-day may think that in these hard times agricultural research work could be axed without much harm to the community—but is this the case? Can we afford to neglect opportunities which our competitors are looking for. | What did the United States expend on ' this work in 1930? Seventeen million dollars, or over £4 m. sterling. The American is not conteht to rest on the benefits he thinks his country is obtaining from agricultural research. He starts to figure it out and for 1928 it was estimated that the agricultural industry had benefited through agricultural research by over 842 m. dollars. It is estimated in U.S.A. that 34 of tho more important insect pests cost United States farmers 900 m. dollars per annum for their food bill, and that if all the 6000 pests were included tho annual loss in the United States alone would be near 2000 m. dollars. What must it total for the whole world? Remember much of it may be prevented by scientific knowledge, and the remedy can only be found by intense research work, for which ample funds should be made available by every country interested in agriculture. Our sister Dominion —Canada—also realises the great value. ' of agricultural research. Wheat Disease Problems. | In a visit to the Manitoba Agricultural College near Winnipeg in 1929, I was much interested in the Dominion Rust Research Laboratory. This was supported by a Government grant, and had the use of 25 acres of the Agricultural College land. It was realised that j on an average, the toll of rust in Canada I was 25 million dollars annually, and that in the United States it was probably 35 million dollars. An early re-J search discovery was that Barberry J bushes were the only breeding grounds for rust. The authority of Parliament was granted for the compulsory destruction of all barberry hedges or bushes, but still the dreaded enemy appeared. If; must, therefore, be air borne, said the scientists, and the source of infection was probably the United States, because in the deserts of Texas, Arizona, and other States there are innumerable bushes of the barberry family, which it is impossible to eradicate. Greased glass slides wore exposed in various districts, and a regular examination enabled the arrival of rust in any district to be immediately reported to the research laboratory. Similar slides were supplied for use on fire patrol aeroplanes, and it was learnt that rust, wheu travelling, was to be -found up to an altitudo of 5000 ft. Just prior to my visit an attack of rust was traced by United States and Canadian watchers to have been blown 300 miles. It was one thing to find the source of the trouble, but quite another to exterminate "it. Sulphur dusting by horse-drawn vehicles had increased tho wheat yield by 20 bushels per acre. Dusting hugo areas by aeroplane had been successful, but too expensive for general use. Success is being reached in trying to find a variety of wheat which is immune from rust, unfortunately the favourite variety in Canada, viz., Marquis, was found the most susceptible to the disease whilst a poor quality grain, only fit for making macaroni, was im mune. The scientists were, working at the time of my visit to blend a new variety immune, like the macaroni wheat, but as valuable to the grower as Marquis. A successful reSult would bo worth the cost of investigation many millions of times, and of great value to New Zealand where rust, more so in some years than others, takes a great toll from our cereal and grass crops. Rust will live in a temperature 20deg below zero, but fortunately for Canada cannot stand the sudden change from cold to heat which happens in the spring, nnd which kills the pest until it arrives again. In New Zealand the temperature permits of no such destruction. I could toll you of many other interesting discoveries how, at Rothamsted, the enemy of tho blackberry was found, but the same remedy wpuld have destroyed every raspberry and rose, not to mention other plants, so it could not be released. However, time will not permit and I must hasten to tell you something of our efforts in agricultural research nearer home. Australia's Expenditure. In Australia the expenditure on research for the year ending .Tune, 3030, the greater part of which was devoted to agricultural 'problems, amounted to £123,000, of which £32,000 was paid by grants from the Empire Marketing Board, and from sonrees other than the Consolidated Fund. Last year through the S.I.R. Department the Government expended just under £40,000 on some 15 agricultural research projeets, but more than half of this sum was made up of contributions from the English Empire Marketing Board and various industrial concerns In addition to this, it is estimated that about £15,000 of the Government, vote for the Agricultural Department is spent on definite research work. llow much will the next Government estimates provide for this work. In the East. Java may be taken as an exalnplc of the boneflts derived from agricultural research. Sugar is one of the principal industries to-day, although Java, with its 36 millions of workers, grows tropical crops of all kinds on everv available square yard of its prolific soil, which carries 577 people to each square mile. As a result of experiments on sugar-growing at its Research Stations, a new hybrid variety of sugar has been produced. So successful was this that within five years over 90. per cent, of tho sugar cane area was planted with this variety. Java is now tho highest cane sugar producer per acre in the world. In 1928 her production was 3,000,000 tons of sugar from 500,000 acres. The Benefit to New Zealand. If I were Dictator, I should somehow find the comparatively few thousands of pounds annually required in New Zealand for agricultural research, because the country might at any moment benefit a thousand fold. A means to place our meat and dairy, [ produce on the Home market in a condition to make it equally popular to "home killed" meat, or best English and I Danish cheese and butter, and saleable at same prices, would go far to make up the lost ground in our depleted export values to-day. The elimination of 1 diseases, etc., from our cereal, grass, and root crops would mean better yields and hundreds of thousands of pounds to our farmers. Means fdr cheaper and quicker production, and improved breeds o.f stock would be of incalculable benefit to the problem of reduced costs, whilst an improvement in tho quality and weight of our fleeces would help every sheepowner, who is having so hard a fight to keep afloat to-day. Many other arguments could be used, but time will not permit, but I hope suiiicient money will be available to carry on the good work now being done on agricultural research, and to get full value for the money expended without any possibility of overlap. A hearty vote of thanks .was accorded Mr Norton Francis for his instructive I address.