USEFUL WAR WORK

Evening Post, Volume CXXXII, Issue 134, 3 December 1941, Page 14

USEFUL WAR WORK

ERGOT COLLECTION

DISPLAYS BEING ARRANGED

J Since publication a few days ago of appeals to Wellington people, adults as well as children, to assist as fully as they can in collecting ergot for dis-i patch to Britain, numerous inquiries j have been made for more particulars and more directions. ! What inquirers particularly want to know is on what grasses the ergots develop and where these grasses grow. The two grasses ai*e the tall fescue, which grows on waste lands, by roadsides and along railway lines, and the seaside marram grass, but descriptions cannot be adequate as a guide, and the fields division of the Department of Agriculture and the botanical section of the Dominion Museum are arranging to make a number of displays in shop windows and in public buildings as the collecting season comes nearer. Areas where ergot can be found in plentiful quantity will also be made known during the collecting season, beginning shortly, as the ergots mature, and continuing until February. AH the schools are being circularised 1 between now and breaking up days, but there is some difficulty about this as examples of fully developed ergot are not generally available yet. The need is a real war need. From the ergot is extracted a drug of utmost i importance .in the treatment of war j wounds and the stopping of bleeding. I Britain must have supplies from New Zealand, as the former European supplies are almost completely cut off, for all the ergot-supplying countries except Spain are in enemy hands. Everyone who makes a contribution, even if it is small, to the collection, makes also a contribution to medical stores to save life in Britain and in war theatres. £ 14,000 has been set aside by the Government for the purchase of ergot gathered by New Zealand collectors. Every ounce and quarter-ounce is wanted. Ergot may be harvested by cutting the heads with a sharp knife or sickle, or by hand-stripping the heads. They should be thoroughly dried in the sun, and placed under cover in the evenings or in wet weather. When thoroughly dry. the ergot may be tapped out of the seed-heads and then winnowed to remove as much foreign mat> ter as possible, care being taken not to damage or break the ergot. When thoroughly dried, pure or practically pure ergot should be placed in airtight containers, such as tobacco tins, and taken to the nearest produce merchant, who will purchase it on the following basis:— 100 per cent, clean, dry. whole ergot, 8s a lb or 6d an oz: not less than 80 per cent, clean, dry, whole ergot, not more than 20 per cent, clean, dry, broken ergot, 6s 8d a lb. or 5d an oz;. not less than 70 per cent, clean, dry, whole ergot, not more than 30 per cent, straw, seed, and foreign materials, 5s 4d a lb, or 4d an oz; not less than 50 per cent, clean, dry, whole ergot, not more than 30 per cent, straw, seed, and foreign material, not more than 20 per cent, broken ergot, 4s a lb, or 3d an oz. PRIZES OFFERED. A lady resident of Ngaio, as an encouragement to boys and girls in the collection of this vital drug, has offered !a prize of £1 each to the boy and girl attending a Wellington school who, makes the largest collection of ergot. The closing date of the competition will be stated later. "I might add in closing that I owe my own life to this selfsame drug," she wrote when offering ; the prizes. '