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DAIRY. Since the establishment of the new Dairy Board, the Dairy Research Institute has been reorganized. The finances of the Institute have been given more stability bv a grant from the Dairy Board of £6,000 for a period of three years and a grant from the funds at the disposal of the Research Council of £5,000 per annum. The Institute is controlled by a Committee on which are representatives of the Dairy Board (3), Department of Agriculture, Research Council, Executive Commission oi Agriculture, Massey College, and Dairy Factory Managers' Association. Steps are being taken to grant the Institute a fairly full measure of autonomy. During the past°year the Institute has made notable progress, particularly in the direction of improving the starter cultures for cheesemaking, the providing of a method of more equitable payment of milk for cheesemaking, controlling the flavour of cheese by the use of special cultures, processing of cream, controlling food flavours m butter, package and storage of butter, and in the manufacture of ghee. The Dairy Research Institute maintains the closest contact with the Dairy Board, and by annual meetings with factory-managers, as well as with the assistance of the Dairy Division, passes on the results- of its research work to the dairy industry. Many of the results obtained have been new to the dairy industry and oi world-wide interest. . . , « Pll AAA For the previous three years the Institute has received a grant oi £2,000 pei annum from the Empire Marketing Board for special problems of common interest to New Zealand and the Mother-land. With the passing of the Empire Marketing Board this grant has now been extinguished, but the Institute still keeps m close touch with dairy-research organizations in the United Kingdom. These organizations are more specially interested in the production and treatment oi liquid milk for consumption, which accounts for approximately 65 per cent, of the total milk produced in the United Kingdom. Whilst these institutes m the United Kingdom therefore naturally devote only a limited amount of attention to butter, cheese, and other dairy-products, it is obvious that we in New Zealand, who supply Britain with about half of the cheese consumed there and 28 per cent, of the butter must from our own resources provide the research work necessary to maintain and continuously improve our high standard of quality. It naturally behoves our Dairy Board and the Research Institute to keep continuously m touch with the varying needs of our British consumers and ensure that New Zealand is providing them with the type and quality of produce which they require. This necessitates investigation into transport, storage, conditions of handling, tastes, and uses. The various researc i institutes in Great Britain have been of considerable assistance m technical examination of experimental produce, and I noticed everywhere a keen desire to co-operate with us in this way. WOOL. Owing to financial stringency, the Department's activities in regard to wool research have been much curtailed, although indirectly much information conies from other allied research activities. At Massey College, however, valuable work has been carried out on hereditary and growth characteristics of wool fibres, and, in addition, the Principal has developed a scheme for routine evaluation of fleeces from the point of view of hairy or medullated fibres. Moreover, both at Massey and Lincoln Colleges careful tests have been carried out on sheep-branding fluids. It is obvious however, that from the point of view of the importance of the sheep and wool industry to New Zealand far too little organized research is being carried out. An important factor in wool investigation is the obtaining of reliable manufacturing opinion on the value of various types of fleece as a guide to eradication of harmful features or development and exploitation of valuable features. During visits to Bradford, Leeds, &c., I took the opportunity of discussing these questions round the table with the British Wool Federation and the Wool Industries Research Station at Torridon, and I have been impressed with the good helpful spirit evinced by members of these organizations, which showed that they are very

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