VALUE OF SCIENCE TO FARMERS

Southland Times, Issue 23647, 24 October 1938, Page 2

VALUE OF SCIENCE TO FARMERS

NEW ZEALAND EXAMPLE QUOTED

. LONDON, September 29. The president of the Royal Society, Sir William Bragg, in an address to the boys of Shrewsbury School, where Charles Darwin was once a pupil, spoke of what science had done ana is doing for the production of food and agriculture generally, the method of transport of food from one county to another; and travel by air, land and sea. For industries such as steel, textiles, potteries and rubber, for the means of communication, for matters of defence, and for the investigation and detection of crime unseen knowledge and aids to the senses were being brought into Sii' William gave instances, to illustrate how “this new knowledge" had helped to solve some problems. He said he was approached a few years ago to examine two parcels of soil and rocks from New Zealand, both apparently the same. Sheep in the district where one of the rocks was to be found thrived, while those in the district where the other rock came from were dying. On examination it was found that in one sample there was an absence of cobalt, the one or two parts to a million generally to be found. An injection of a tablet of cobalt beneath the skin of the sheep sufficient to last a year met the case.