EXTENSIVE WHEAT RESEARCH WORK TO BE CARRIED OUT.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18630, 6 December 1928, Page 10

EXTENSIVE WHEAT RESEARCH WORK TO BE CARRIED OUT.

EXPERTS WILL ATTACK MANY CEREAL PROBLEMS. Mr IT. E. West, who has come frprn Canada to take charge of the cereal experimental laboratory established by the Scientific and Industrial Research Council, near the Canterbury Coliege offices in Montreal Street, is preparing the rooms for the work in hand. Plant-breeding in connection with the work is being done at the Agricultural College at Lincoln. The laboratory equipment is on the way from England. It will consist of two parts. One will be for testing out small quantities of grain. This will be used mainly for testing new varieties produced at Lincoln. In the bakeshop, there will be a large oven and equipment for commercial sizes. Mr West, who is the chemist in charge, working under Dr F. W. Hilgendorf, finds that the old building alloted to the laboratory is suitable for the time being. The arrangements are made so that, if a new building is desired, the equipment can be moved easily, on short notice. The scheme is to have a plant-breed* ing side and a laboratory side to the experiments, and to serve three «ections, namely, the farmers, the millers and the The ultimate aim will be to produce wheat of better qualify, and, at the same time, to keep up the present yield, and if possible, improve it. It is hoped that the scheme will be of service to millers by determining the protein content of different varieties in different districts. Later, the different milling blends will be investigated, to determine the effect of humidity, temperature and conditions in the mills. An effort will be made to improve some of the baking technique, if possible. One of the aims will be to im prove the present quality of wheat by physical means only. Mr West was for two years attached to the National Research Council at Winnipeg. He states that Canada is very strong on work of this nature. The problems there are slightly different from the problems in New Zealand, but the principles behind therr are identical.