U.S. RESEARCH SCHOLAR

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28180, 19 January 1957, Page 6

U.S. RESEARCH SCHOLAR

Study At Lincoln College

An American research scholar who .will undertake research studies on the fertility, of sheep at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, arrived with his wife and family in Christchurch yesterday morning. He is Dr. R. H. Dutt, associate professor of genetics of the Animal Industry Group of the University of Kentucky. Dr. Dutt has come to New Zealand for nine months under a Fulbright Award. He will work in conjunction with Mr D. S. Hart, senior lecturer in animal husbandry at Lincoln. “Although I have not met Mr Hart, I feel that I know him well in a sense that I have studied his papers in American scientific journals and found them most interesting," said Dr. Dutt. One aspect of fertility in sheep that Dr. Dutt studied in Kentucky was the effect of environmental temperature on fertility. In that State there was a great seasonal effect on sheep fertility and temperature might have much to do with it. he said. He had been experimenting with sheep in temperature-controlled rooms at Kentucky University. At Lincoln he will pursue research along similar lines, and also hopes to learn some new ideas on sheep fertility questions. There were less sheep in the United States than in New Zealand. said Dr. Dutt, and of the 31 or 32 million sheep, only 800.000 were in Kentucky. The main concentration of sheep was in the far western States—Utah, Wyoming. Idaho and California. Of the 7500 students at the University of Kentucky, about 600 were at the College of Agriculture. which was divided into two sections or groups, the Animal Engineering Group and the Animal Industry Group. Dr. Dutt said. Divisions within the Animal Industry Group were genetics. animal husbandry, animal nutrition, dairying, and poultry farming. A good deal of time was spent in research by the staff of the various divisions. Dr. Dutt was a student at Pennslyvania State University but gained his PhD at the University of Wisconsin.