FARMING RESEARCH

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 14, 9 October 1937, Page 16

FARMING RESEARCH

Onr Own CorreBUondent.)

Work of Scientists In Australia PLANT BREEDING WORK

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PALMERSTON N., This Day. I Certifled New Zealand grass seefls jare aiding Australia to extend her ipastoral areas, according to comment made yesterday by Mr L. Corkill,. of the Plant Research Bureau, Palm.erston North, who returned last week after spending fourteen months at Catiberra working in the laboratories of the Division of Plant Industry of Australia. Mr Corkill said that the Council for flcientific and Industrial Research was a Commonwealth institution est?iblished 11 years ago to carry out research on problems of both primaTy and secondary industries. It was independont of the State Departments of Agriculture but worked in co-operation with theni so that overlapping of work was avoided. "The Council," said Mr Corkill, "has laboratories in each of the capitaJ cities and some thirty odd field stations throughout the Commonwealth and in • addition some work is carried out in the laboratories of the universities. Problems to be investigated are extremely varied and the council is organised under five divisions which in turn are organised into a number of seetiohs each of which deals With a group oi iftllied problems — problems ranging from soil erosion to radio research on atmospherics and fading. "At Canberra the main laboratories of the Division of Plant Industry are situated and it is in these laboratories that i have been engaged. The laboratories I are very well supplied with •equipmcnl and about 150 acres of land, are available for field experiments. ' ' Mr Corkill gave an outline of the plant introduction and plant broeding work on which he had been particularly engaged. With pasture plants attempts { were being made to obtain valuable types for various conditions by introducing seeds from other countries, and improvement of existing types was being attempted by plant breeding methods. In New Zealand there had not been the necessity to develop the plant introductive work to suck an exient as in Australia where there wero vast areas which were praetically valueless at present but which miglit i prove prcductive if types of plants j tfritvl lO the conditioaii could be discov- ' ,ercd. SfpmM11* tj»M. J»d .Akcady

been obtained ~ for some areas. Jn (^ueensland in particular various intro* duced grasses and legumes were showing great promise. Plant breeders in Australia were working with a much wider range of pasture species .than in New Zealand because of the extreme variation in climatic conditions in the Cbmmonwealth. For certain of the higher rainfall parts of New South Wales in particular New Zealand certifled grasa or clover, seed was at present being used successfully. The weeds problem in Australia was a very live one and was being attacked from various angles, such as the use of insect parasites, chemical means, and methods of management. The outstanding ihstance oi insect parasite control was the case of the priekly pear in Queensland where 1? million acres had been opened -up through the destruction of the priekly pear by the insect cactoblastis. So, highly is this little insect appreciated that a ' 'Cactoblastis" memorial hall has been ereeted on land previously covered with dense pear but now completely cleared,