GRASSLANDS RESEARCH

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26856, 8 October 1952, Page 8

GRASSLANDS RESEARCH

INCREASED INTEREST OVERSEAS N.Z. GENETICIST RETURNS FROM CONGRESS (New Zealand Press Association) PALMERSTON NORTH, Oct. 7. There had been a world-wide increase in interest in grassland research, said Mr L. Corkill, chief plant breeder of the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, today. He has just returned from a six months’ study tour, during which he visited research institutions in Britain, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, and the United States, and attended the sixth International Grasslands Congress in Pennsylvania as one of New Zealand s two delegates. Mr Corkill told a reporter today that it was clear, both from his observations in the countries He visited, and from the vastly-increased scale of tne Grasslands Congress, that the world was turning more and more to the view, long held in New Zealand, that grass was one of the most valuable crops that man could raise from the soil. , , , The Grasslands Congress had been attended by 1300 persons, including delegates from practically every country outside the Iron Curtain. Mr Corkill said. The congress reflected the enormous scope of world grasslands research today. The 12 separate sections of the congress each dealt with a completely different aspect of pasture research. If the conference did nothing else, it certainly did show that the world was becoming increasingly pastureminded. said Mr Corkill. Even countries which had not been previously interested in pastures were beginning to show appreciation of the value of grass as a crop. Progress in America In the United States, long renowned for world, leadership in corn-breeding research, there was also a terrific growth in the emphasis on grasslands research, Mr Corkill said. The Americans were also beginning to turn their attention to the formerly neglected field of pasture management. Their approach was characteristically vigorous; they were not content merely to adopt corn-breeding techniques to pasture breeding, but were continually searching for new methods particularly suited to grasses and clovers.

This work was of intense interest to New Zealand, in that improvements in technique developed in the United States might be directly applicable to corresponding research in the Dominion, Mr Corkill said. America had already put herself in a position where, when political and economic considerations allowed, she might, possibly with startling rapidity, increase her grasslands production. In contrast to New Zealand, said Mr Corkill, the tendency in research in America was still aggresively expansive, and the facilities and funds available for scientific work were more than adequate to keep all research talent fully utilised.

The problem in the United States was one of finding sufficient scientific workers rather than one of finding facilities or money to carry on the work, Mr Corkill said.