Dirty machinery problem
The amount of dirt found on imported used machinery is worrying plant health specialists. Mr L. G. Morrison, Deputy Director (Plant Health) of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, said that recently a 15 kilogram soil sample taken from a harvester from the United Kingdom and assayed at the Lincoln plant health diag-
nostic station contained an “appalling” amount of cereal seed and debris. This was not an isolated case, he said. Similar debris was recently found on an imported potato digger. “Soil samples are being specifically checked for cereal cyst nematodes. “It is suspected that this pest was originally introduced into New Zealand by dirty, imported machinery.
Judging by the amount of foreign matter in the samples, this is a valid assumption.” Considering New Zealand’s relatively good plant disease status by world standards, and the amount of economic harm that an introduced disease, such as cereal cyst nematode, could cause, strict precautions were essential, said Mr Morrison.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33774, 21 February 1975, Page 6
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161Dirty machinery problem Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33774, 21 February 1975, Page 6
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