H.—34.

Granny Smith.—Oiled wraps round every apple again substantially reduced the severity of ripespot, and also this year gave an appreciable control of superficial scald. Sturmer.—A very extensive series of trials showed that although a waxed-paper case-liner controlled wilt fairly effectively it accelerated the ripening of the fruit and increased the losses from ripe-spot, chiefly Neofabrcea malicorticis, in the lenticels. The use of such liners is not recommended for orchard storage. The low-temperature store again gave the best results, and early-April pickings kept better than late-April pickings. Early-picked fruit sprayed with summer-strength Bordeaux developed less ripe-spot and other fungi than lime-sulphur-sprayed fruit. Docherty. —Scald was again confined to the uncoloured portion of early-picked fruit. For long holding, only very well coloured fruit of early picks should be stored. Fruit picked later, about midMay, kept almost free from scald but developed some ripe-spot. Tasma. —In all stores .the variety kept in good condition without loss till the end of August. TOBACCO RESEARCH. Advisory Committee.—Messrs. L. J. Schmitt (Chairman), F. R. Callaghan, W. K. Dallas, N. J. Adamson, H. L. Wise, C. C. Nash, E. M. Hunt, F. A. Hamilton, B. T. Rowling, J. F. Balck, and Sir Theodore Rigg. Four meetings of the Tobacco Research Association Committee were held during the year. Further progress has been made at the Tobacco Research Station by the purchase of implements ; additional buildings have been erected, including al6 ft. by 16 ft. commercial kiln ; additional quarters provided for casual workers ; and the grading and bulking sheds have been enlarged. Mr. R. Thomson, appointed Director of the Station in April, 1941, was then sent to Canada and the United States of America where every facility was granted to him for the study of the flue-cured-tobacco industry in these two countries. He returned to New Zealand early in December, and took up his duties as Director of the Station about the middle of that month. During his absence Sir Theodore Rigg acted as Director of the Station. WoEK AT THE RESEARCH STATION, RIWAKA. The tobacco crop from the 1940-41 season was the best crop yet handled at the Tobacco Research Station, 12 acres of tobacco producing 11,337 lb. of cured leaf. The quality was good, and no difficulty was experienced in the sale of the tobacco, an average price of 2s. o|d. per pound being obtained for the whole crop. Rather cold weather was experienced at the commencement of the 1941-42 planting season, and growth of tobacco was retarded until the middle of January, when rain and warmer weather were experienced. Dry weather in February affected the development of the crop, and brought about a rapid ripening of the leaf. It was fortunate that the new 16 ft. by 16 ft. kiln was ready, otherwisegreat difficulty would have been experienced in handling the ripening tobacco. Good progress was made with harvesting during February, enabling this to be completed prior to Easter. The crop, although much freer from mosaic, was not quite as heavy as in the previous season. Fertilizer Experiments. —An experimental programme on somewhat similar lines to the previous season was conducted at the Station during the 1941-42 season. Field observations have indicated (1) that the heaviest application of standard fertilizer gave the highest yield and the darkest leaf; (2) the importance of nitrogen, in that the plots without nitrogen were poor in colour and inferior in growth and quality ; (3) in a rotation, tobacco taken after oats was definitely darker in colour and gave slightly better growth than that from the continuous tobacco plots ; (4) the importance of some of the fertilizer being placed within easy reach of the root system was again demonstrated ; (5) that wider planting within the rows on coarse sandy soil was associated with better growth and bigger leaf production ; (6) that tobacco seedlings transplanted from boxes enabled the tobacco to get away without much retardation, and to ripen at least three weeks earlier than plants transplanted from the seedling beds. Mosaic Investigations. —A comprehensive series of experiments was conducted at the Station during the past season in an endeavour to ascertain what factors were associated with the incidence of initial mosaic in the field. In the conduct of the mosaic experiments every care was taken to prevent introduction or transference of mosaic in the seedling beds. Generally speaking, the amount of mosaic, both in the seedling beds and in the field, was low until the end of December. In some experimental blocks the amount of initial mosaic was under 5 per cent., while perhaps 10 per cent, would represent an average for the Station grounds. Owing to the low incidence of mosaic, many of the experimental plots failed to show any striking differences due to particular treatments. The more important points emerging from the investigations were — (1) Apparent increases in the amount of mosaic in the case of plants obtained from seedling beds with heavy applications of manure. This was more striking in the pricked-out seedling beds than with bed-sown plants : (2) The association of higher percentages of mosaic in the field with certain manurial treatments : (3) The absence of any important differences in the amount of mosaic due to using soils of different texture for the seedling-bed work: (4) The absence of any significant differences in initial mosaic when tobacco plants were planted on areas where the previous crop had been pulled or alternatively disked in. Seed-production. —One hundred lines of Harrison's Special variety were grown from seed saved from selected plants of the previous season. These lines covered selections of Harrison's Special grown by the three principal manufacturing companies. In addition, about seventy-five lines of "C " variety grown from seed harvested from selected plants of the previous season were planted out.

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