PLANT LIFE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 196, 20 July 1936, Page 2

PLANT LIFE.

PROPOSED SEARCH ABROAD. If inquiries, which are now being made in America, lend to anticipated results a small expedition will be sent by the Australian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research to transCaspian countries in search of plants for replanting and propagation in the dry areas of Australia. The chairman of the council • (rair George Julius), said recently that,/or some time several of the. State Governments had evinced keen interest in the introduction of plants that would be suitable for Australian soil and climatic conditions, and so would prevent the appalling losses caused by soil erosion and sand drifts, particularly in the arid and semi-arid areas of Australia. The American Government had had vast experience in this activity. It had sent out numerous expeditions to various countries, including transCaspian countries, and if its replies to the council’s inquiries offered any prospect of success, Australian scientists would be sent abroad. It was necessary that scientists with a . wide knowledge of Australian conditions should fe sent abroad to select the plants. The trans-Caspian areas had been selected by the council, because conditions there more closely approximated Australian conditions than those of any other region. “Vast areas of Australia are useless because of the lack of plant life, .said Sir George Julius, “and a small thing like this might lead to huge national dividends.”