DRY ROT IN TURNIPS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21189, 9 November 1938, Page 3

DRY ROT IN TURNIPS

TREATMENT OF SEED PREVENTIVE ACTION URGED In view of the fact that a practical method of controlling the disease of dry rot in turnips has now been found as a result of experimental work by the Department of Agriculture, Mr D. H. Cockburn (Queenstown) proposed at a meeting of the Otago Provincial Council of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union that the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research should be asked to take steps to see that all seed coming into the country, or produced locally, shall be treated for the prevention of dry rot prior to sale. The resolution was carried unanimously. Mr Cockburn said it was unnecessary to emphasise the losses that occurred as a result of dry rot in swede and turnip crops, and he had brought the matter up that day only because he had been assured that a practical method of controlling the trouble by the treatment of seed had been found. No doubt the specific would be put into use in due course, but he felt that if general representations were made by Farmers’ Union the authorities might be persuaded to act at once. He suggested that if his resolution were carried, a copy of it could be forwarded to other provincial executives with a view to enlisting their support. Value of Semesan Proved Mr J. M. Smith (fields superintendent of the Department of Agriculture, Dunedin) said that it was quite true that a reliable specific for dry rot had been found. Farmers, however, should realise that the treatment was effective only for dry rot. It would not control clubroot, an infinitely worse pest to rootgrowers for which no real remedy had yet been found. Departmental trials had proved that dry rot was a seedborne disease. Tests made with 280 samples of soil from rootgrowing areas throughout the Dominion had failed to disclose the existence of any dry rot spores, from which it was deduced that the spores did not persist in the soil. Of 11 commercial varieties of seed tested, however, six were found to be infected. That having been determined, trials were made in the control of the infection, and it had been found that treatment with 0.25 per cent Semesan at a temperature of 115 degrees Fahrenheit disposed of the infection without any damage to the seed. The operation, however, was a difficult one and could not very well be carried out on the farm. But it was considered that seed could be effectively treated in bulk at the place of origin. It was this work that the plant diseases authorities might be asked to do. Personally, he thought that the authorities would welcome support from farmers in this connection.