SUSPICION OF RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXX, Issue 21246, 18 August 1934, Page 22

SUSPICION OF RESEARCH

;i FEELING OF PRACTICAL i ; MEN . i \ j LORD COMMENTS H 't 1 j A prediction that in a few yea. ! tirr.e the suspicion of scientific e < ■ p*: rimer, t which existed to-day amor, ■ some practical men, would have disappeared, was made by his Excellency Lcrd Biedisloe. when receiving a deputation frorn the Canterbury Horticultural Socle*.v yesterday. His Excellency said that there was a tendency among practical men to say that they could do without research. but actually they could not. Frequently the D-actices which they supported so i . strongly were merely the results of j research carried out some time pre- ; vicuslv. He had the pleasure once of j being "the chairman of the experimental! i station at Rothamsted, the largest in j i the Empire, and before accepting the ( position he had insisted not only that j the connexion between science and i practice should be emphasised, but j also that the station should make clear { in terms of pounds, shillings, and , 'pence the significance of its ettperii ments. Since then, the fanners had ; poured into the station for information. | He thought that there would be no j opposition to research after a few j years had gone by. \ Scientific investigations show that oout 10,000 persons with blood i pass the colour line" in the United j States each year, and become memI bers of white -society.

/ yd ' e, r uOfj t r Otfa a f j j f ' D ar B f-T A "a""" fT SOU j p op r Y<* f .j r a r 1 a car r a A r*» f ff e * » >- a * pa c o ng f f \<& ' ' fd (<t o oran o at * * t u i -aj r «■ 4 pj / 1 1 re e t * £ f "■ ea or J* 1 c c a d r a CaJ ° rea j ear o t- raaft t as been i n jo a *r r n h Ba s c b» 1 n „ >™ P r, I fee *d b Id 3 u d ' c <i*» c grain will be a certain source of fection. .Even the chaff spilled from the feed boxes in a stable, especially if the stable has an earth floor that cannot be swept out may be swarmin? with mites, and these will infect wheat stored in another portion of the same building. How to Detect Mites '■ When wheat is mitey it can be smelt by those who know the odour. This I odour can sometimes be detected more '. easily if the hand is rubbed over the i outside of the bag, and then smelt. | When the mites are very numerous j they can be seen. It is sometimes sufi ficicnt to blow through the closed I hand so as to moisten it slightly, then grasp a handful of wheat, and work it about in the hand, finally letting the wheat run to the ground. The mites will then have stuck to the moistened hand, and may be seen as very line glistening points, if the hand is held in the sunlight, A surer way of finding the mites is to use a very fine riddle that will not let any wheat through. Shake the wheat thoroughly, and then collect the dust that has fallen through the riddle. If this is heaped up it may be seen moving if observed very closely with the naked eye, and the individual mites can be seen if a magnifying glass ] is used. '

j Some Examples of Mite Infestation From among the many cases noted ! the following are chosen, since each | one shows some special feature of the j way in which mites come in wheat Among the wheat samples stored in | bottles in a museum, about one-quar-ter used to go rnitey until the plan was adopted of adding some disinfectant to every sample bottled. This shows that even a small sample of wheat may carry mites or their eggs. i In 1916 the Defence Department had j rranv thousands of bags of chaff and bran" stored for use on the ships i carrying horses to Egypt. Just before I shipment most of these were found to be so mitey as to be unusable, and 16,000 sacks had to be fumigated be--1 fore they could be shipped. I The reason of the stack in this case i probably was that the large order for j chaff had caused the cutting of many : old oat sheaf stacks in which the i mite had got a good start, and that I the chaff had been stored under warm, j summer conditions waiting for ships to sail. In 1933 a stallion housed in a loose box with an earth floor next to a stable with a very dusty earth floor, covered with chaff and similar rubbish, was found to start rubbing himself every time he was put into this box. He rubbed so violently as to make 1 wounds round his nozzle, ears, and s tail. The trouble was traced to chaff , mites crawling up from the dusty " floor on to the animal. t! Some vears the room over the \ ! stables of the old style horse-drawn a I fire-engines was. on the purchase of ' ! motor-driven engines, converted into - a living room for the firemen. A . i brown dust was found continuously ' to fall from the wainscotting on to the ! I clean polished floor. This was found ' j to be caused by mites living in the - • studs of the building, these having '•■ been attacked after the removal of ,! the chaff, etc.. on which the mites *! had previously lived. ' i In 1934 a very fine line of wheat was I j rejected for mite after it had been in I j the fanner's store only five months. .| It was very heavily infected. It was I found to have been stored in a good " clean shed, but this was divided by 1 batons from a shed in which baled 1 hav had been scored for 13 months. , The hay was alive with mites. • ' Precautions Necessary t Farmers who are holding their wheat i to secure the price increments should : therefore take certain precautions. The i . shed usee; should no: contain any t ■ grain. ?eeds 01 any kind, chaff, hay, : ■ or bran that has been held over for : j more than one season. It should not ; even be the next room in the same .; building to such held-over grain or ' ! hay. It should not be next to a | ; stable with an earth, fioor. in which !; droppings of chaff have been allowed ', to accumulate. The she-d should be : j swept out before the wheat is stacked ' j in it. and it would even be advisable to ; ; use water in the dusty corners. Such r po aj- u e r ol r 1e le r t c do i do f H.d f r r b me cder n c e i r be a r of d e rt> a d c b ca red b c d Qe rf erpob ffec |on ore 1 e a at. c 11 o l t,ra one 11 Del for odd S u L a e d d \ call o I o I r re tl a fc 1