EMPIRE AGRICULTURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20111, 23 November 1928, Page 12

EMPIRE AGRICULTURE.

It is stated in a cable , message that general approval having been obtained from tho Governments affected, detailed plans will be made for tho chain of information bureaus and correspondence centres recommended by the Imperial Agricultural Research Conference, 1927. Reference to the proceedings of tho confercnco shows that it. attached great importance to this scheme, which is designed to provide for an interchange of information concerning progress in research and ncw < discoveries. First plp.ee was given to tho establishment of bureaus of information on soil science, attached to the Rothamsted station, animal nutrition, attached to tho Rowett Institute, and animal health, located in London. Correspondence centres, less extensive in character, were suggested to cover almost every phase of agricultural research, and to be attached in each instance to the station in Great Britain, where the subject concerned received most attention. It was proposed, for instance, that tho plant-breeding institute at Cambridge should havo the centre dealing with plant genetics for all crops exceptiierbage plants . the centro for them should bo at tho Welsh station, Aberystwyth. It was proposed that £20,000 a year for fivo years should be guaranteed for the service, £13,000 to finance the bureaus and £7OOO the correspondence centres. The importance attached by' the conference to the free exchange*of information is clearly indicated. A member asked whether the expenditure of £20,000 a year could bo justified ; every available penny was wanted for research, and they should 'not substitute attention to machinery for the real thing. An Australian delegate replied that there could be nothing more important than an effective scheme for the interchange of information. The conference was so much of this opinion that the recommendations were adopted without further recorded debate. They have now commanded the necessary wider approval, and their practical application is under way.