PLANT RESEARCH

Taranaki Daily News, 12 November 1938, Page 17 (Supplement)

PLANT RESEARCH

ORGANISATION OF BUREAU WIDE SCOPE OF WORK Since the inception of the Flant Researdh Bureau of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research some two years and a-half ago good progress has been made towards providing improved facilities for the promotion of research work into all aspects of agriculture concerned with the growing of crops. Through the vaijious divisions a' the bureau provision is now made to assist by research all classes of the farming community in the solution of their pasture, field, disease, insect, and weed problems, and at the present time all those of prime importance are receiving attention. This research work has come under tlie control of a thoroughly representative committee. The Plant Research Bureau Committee comprises the Director-gen-eral of Agriculture as chairman, the secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial research, the director of Cawtliron Inslitute, the principal of Massey College, the director of Lincoln College, the director of the fields division of the Department of Agriculture, and a representative of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, as well as a North Island and a South Island farmer. This committee of nine meets quarterly, reviews all plants research work, initiates new projects, and deals with all expenditure for the work. Moreover, in addition to administering research, it also co-ordinates this work with the educational functions of the agricultural colleges and the instructional service of the Department of Agriculture and ensues that there is a full collaboration between all those concerned. The very representative and executive nature of the Plant Research Bureau Committee puts it in a position of staffs and facilities. upon any research project, thv.s saving expense and unnecessary duplication and overlapping. During the past two years the committee has been giving a great deal of attention to the man;- details involved in the provision of an efficient farm research service, and its achievements have been very sound, and a Dominionwide research organisation has been built up. In the main the Plant Research Bureau functions through five main divisions, the Cawthron Institute and Massey Colleges. The five research divisions are: (1) Plant Diseases at Mount Albert, Auckland; (2) Grasslands, Palmerston North; (3) Botany, Wellington; (4) Entomology, Nelson; and (5) Agronomy, Lincoln. Tiie head office and administration of the bureau is in Wellington. The divisons are located so that the whole Domnion is provided for as far as possiblc and to facilitate ready cooperation with institutes already established such as agricultural colleges and Cawthron Institute. It will thus be seen that the Plant Research Bureau organisation affords a means whereby the Departments of Scientific and Industrial Reasearch and Agriculture, the agricultural colleges and Cawthron Institute can be readily availablc to deal syste- • matically with all aspects of any crop problem. I