EXPERIMENTS MAY BE REPEATED k

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22050, 25 March 1937, Page 8

EXPERIMENTS MAY BE REPEATED k

SUGAR BEET PLOTS IN SOUTH CANTERBURY

COSTS AND ANALYSIS RESULTS TO BE CONSIDERED

(THE PRESS Special Service.] TEMUKA, March 24. A repetition of the sugar beet experiment conducted by the Public Works and Agriculture Departments in South Canterbury may yet be undertaken before the Government decides whether the establishment of a refinery or of an industry is warranted, according to statements made by Mr W. Stafford, officer in charge of the fields division of the Agriculture Department. Timaru, to a reporter at Temuka to-day. . , Mr Stafford, who inspected some of the plots last week, said that the beet appeared to be progressing well, but the season had been rather wet for the best results to be achieved, and in any case it might be thought necessary to carry out the experiments for another year before any major decision was made. The beet would not be mature until next month and the analysis, for which pulping apparatus and a polarimeter had been ordered from England, would be made then or • later by the Public Works De-artment chemist at Temuka (Mr K. S. Birrell). After the analysis, the yield an acre, together with details of costs, would be submitted to the committee representing the Scientific and Industrial Research and Agriculture Departments, and they.would decide whether beet were to be grown industrially in the Dominion and whether a refinery would be established. Before the Government took any definite step it would probably guarantee , that a sufficient acreage would be grown, he added. Two types of factories were possible, either a refinery itself or a factory which could reduce the beet to crude molasses, which would have to be refined elsewhere. The experimental plots, which have been placed in several South Canterburv districts, have been raised and tended under the sUDervision of the Department of Agriculture, the Public Works Department providing the capital required.