PLANT RESEARCH.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 123, 24 April 1936, Page 2

PLANT RESEARCH.

REMOVAL OF STATION

DIVISION OF WORK

WELLINGTON, April 23

The definite decision of the Government that the Plant Research Bureau shall be located not at Pamerston North but at Auckland has been conveyed to Mr J. Hodgens, M.P., by Dr. E. Marsden, Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Dr. Marsden states that on purely technical grounds it was considered the work of the Plant Diseases Division could be better carried out near Auckland because of the high temperature there and humidity and high incidence of disease. The main feature to be developed at Palmerston North is the grasslands division of research work which, because of its importance, will be by far the major activity. The taking away of some of the officers of the plant disease section will be almost certainly compensated for bv the increased concentration of activity in respect of grasslands development. The distribution of the work is in conformity with the idea that the North Island is more particularly concerned with grasslands and the south with arable crops, so it is hoped to develop at Massey College a division dealing not ' only with the breeding and selection of strains of grasses and fertiliser response, but also with the utilisation of grasses in connection both with the dairy and sheep industry and their relation to animal health. The work at Palmerston North will not be any less than in the past.