PLANT RESEARCH AT AUCKLAND

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22136, 5 July 1937, Page 8

PLANT RESEARCH AT AUCKLAND

WORK BEGUN AT NEW STATION

MUCH BUILDING PLANNED

[THE PRESS Special Senrice.] AUCKLAND, July 4. I\, is expected that by the end of next March Auckland's new plant research station, now being established on a section of the KerrTaylor estate at Mount Albert, will begin its full activities. Although tenders for the erection of the large laboratories to be erected on the site have yet to be called, the work of experiment and research has already begun, but it will not reach its full scope until next year. With the plans completed, the architects are now working on the specifications for the laboratory building. It will contain 35 rooms, which will provide accommodation for the staff of 25. Of a series of glasshouses to be established, six will be erected | this year according to the latest principles of scientific design, all being fitted with air conditioning plant and built to specifications which make them insect-proof. The air circulating throughout the laboratories will also be washed and conditioned and kept at a constant relative temperature to assist the efficiency of the staff as well as to provide a uniform background ior the delicate experimental work. Under the control of the director of the station, Dr. G. H. Cunningham, five research workers have already begun their work in Auckland, and a start has been made in the preparation of 16h acres of land which has been acquired by the Government for experimental purposes. The pomologist, Mr C. E. Woodhead, has begun the planting of 2000 fruit trees of innumerable stocks and varieties which were forwarded this week from the plant research station at Palmerston North for scientific development at Auckland. On one section, a quarter of an acre in extent, wheat will be sown this month with the object of carrying out investigations into the methods of disinfecting seed, and on one of the several hilly slopes strawberry gardens have already been set out, covering a quarter of an acre. In a vineyard which will be laid out nearby 10 varieties of grapes will be planted for disease control and stock investigation, and a similar area is to be occupied by passion fruit plants. Small fruits, such as raspberries and currants, and citrus fruits will all have places.