COLLECTION OF ERGOT

Dominion, Volume 35, Issue 51, 24 November 1941, Page 6

COLLECTION OF ERGOT

Appeal To School Children To Help TREATMENT OF WAR , WOUNDS An appeal to children to collect all the ergot they can during their school holidays was made on Saturday by the Minister of Education, Mr. Mason. Ergot contains alkaloids of great value, specially for stopping bleeding, and it is required by Great Britain for its treatment of wounded soldiers and air-raid victims. At present Spain and Portugal are the only suppliers, and if these supplies ore interrupted it is believed that the only other source of supply is New Zealand. Mr. Mason said that school authorities throughout New Zealand were being asked to do all they could to encourage children to collect ergot. The co-operation of parents in encouraging their children w’ouid. be appreciated. Ergot was a fungoid, disease of grasses, and the most valuable type was found on marram grass and tall fescue. Marram grass was common along sandy sea-coasts and tall fescue is found in the damper parts of many farms.

Arrangements had been made with grain and seed merchants to buy ergot from children for 3d. to Gd. an ounce cash, according to quality. Teachers and parents were asked to help children to identify marram grass and tall fescue and to tell them where these grasses were likely to be found. Produce merchants and farmers were also asked to give children all the information they could. The ergot appeared on the seed-heads of grasses as short, black, white-centred, banana-shaped objects, from a quarter to threequarters of an inch long. It was best harvested by cutting the heads with a knife or sickle or by hand-stripping. The heads should be quickly and thoroughly dried and then threshed by tapping them sharply against a piece of wood. The ergots should then be separated from the chaff and seeds by winnowing. The highest price, 6d. an ounce, or, 8/- a pound, would be paid by grain and seed merchants for clean, dry, and unbroken ergots. . The collection of ergot, the Minister concluded, would assist. wounded soldiers and air-raid victims, and, incidentally, it would provide the children with pocket money.