AGRICULTURE POLICY

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 64, 9 December 1936, Page 7

AGRICULTURE POLICY

Latest Trends in England

d J LONG-RANGE RESEARCH it d 1 { A statement that there was an in--1 creasing feeling in Britain that security s for war time could best be met by the " institution of large stores for meat, J cheese, butter and wheat was made by f Professor H. G. Denham, chairman of . the New Zealand Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, in an interr view on his return from a trip abroad a by the Makura yesterday. He also commented on some aspects of the agri- / cultural policy of the British Governr ment. 1 Professor Denham, who occupies the t chair of chemistry at Canterbury University College, attended the British '• Commonwealth Scientific Conference in 8 London as one of the t'hree represents- ■ fives of the New Zealand Government, - and visited various research stations in Great Britain and America. The conference, lie said, dealt mainly ■with the problems of agriculture, and in particular such questions as cold storage, forestry and dairying, and the general management of. the Imperial Agricultural Bureau, jointly financed by the various parts of the British Commonwealth. The bureau acted as 1 an agent for the dissemination of in--7 formation dealing with such topics as nutrition, soil science, animal diseases, ; fruit, entomology and mycology. After ’ the Empire Marketing Board ceased to ? exist, the conference was called of the members of the Commonwealth to ar- . range the carrying on of certain of > the activities of the Empire Marketing , Board, and at that meeting there was s evolved this system of establishing a E common fund for the dissemination of s information. Chemical Engineers. In America. Professor Denham visited, among other institutions, Harvard University; the Institute of Technology, 1 Boston; Columbia University, New ’ York; the Bureau of Standards, Wash- ’ ington; the Institute of Technology and ? the Mellon Institute, Pittsburg; the [ Forest Laboratory, Madison; the University of Minneapolis; the Institute ' of Technology, Los Angeles; and the University of California, Berkley. "It was particularly interested in , visiting a number of the institutes of , technology -where courses are given for the training of chemical engineers,” 1 Professor Denham said. “In that class : of work probably America leads the world.” So far as research •in England was concerned, he said, there had been a r distinct development in all phases of 7 applied research, especially in agriculture. There was the utmost readiness on 'all sides to embark on long-range work of a fundamental nature, often i without any hope of an immediate return. In Ibis respect he referred to the work on grass breeding of Professor Stapleton, which was leading to a luark- • ed improvement in English pastures. Professor Stapleton was hopeful of increasing the carrying capacity of some three to four million acres of land by from two to three sheep an acre. That would mean that the live stock population would be increased by 10,000,000.' The professor’s estimate might be over-optimistic, but if he could increase the live stock population by only 2,000,000 he would have done a very big thing, Professor Denham said. Agriculture in England. One still felt that agriculture in England was not in a sound position. There had been a shrinkage in the amount of cereals grown, while the policy of increasing the number of cattle by the use of concentrated foods had had one result which in war time might be very serious. .It took eight pounds of concentrates to produce one pound of butter. There was an increasing feeling that war security could-best be met by tlie institution of large stores for meat, cheese, butter and wheat. In his .public lectures in England, Professor Denham said, he had advocated that. It would give England six months’ security.