WHEAT RESEARCH

Hokitika Guardian, 16 May 1928, Page 4

WHEAT RESEARCH

ftORK OF INSTITUTE. STANDARD SEED CERTIFIED. AVELLIXGTOX, May 14. In order that wheatgrowcrs might bo provided with seed wheat oi standard quality the recently constituted V heat Research Institute took ilie matter up and for the first time in New Zealand crops have been critically inspected and examined by officers? oi the Department of Agriculture. This work necessitated visiting a number of crops of Tuscan,'Hunter’s and Velvet wheat, some four hundred acres throughout Canterbury coming under inspection. As a result 10(10 bushels of wheat have been certified and will be available to farmers who particularly desire the use of the best seed in sowing down this season’s crop.- A bonus oi sixpence per bushel has been paid to those growers whose crops succeeded in reaching the standard demanded, (train merchants, it is stated, greatly facilitated the work by arranging to dispose of the wheat to those who required it. To have available a supply oi good wheat is of considerable importance to grower, miller and baker, as it is considered that the absence of pure lilies of wheat in recent years lias increased the difficulties encountered in milling and baking. Pun!lasers of the wheat are given some assurance that it is free from disease and impurities, and that it possesses a constitution and yielding capacity which render it better than lines purchased at random. The practice of sowing certified lines of seed is very general in every large wheat-growing area in the world. The inaugural meeting of the Wheat Research Institute has been bold, and n committee, representative of wheatgrowers, millers, bakers and Governuiynt departments, has been constituted’for the purpose of undertaking wheat Research work. The personnel „r the committee is Growers’ representatives. Messrs .7. Carr. \V . AV . Alrl--I,oiland and Talbol; bakers’ represent.,;• : fives, Messrs C. E. Boon, V. H. Hawker, and the president of the Batters’ Federation; grain merchants’ representatives, Messrs R. lv. Ireland, IJ. ,). Lyon and AV. Pratt; Department of Agriculture, Air J. partment of Industries and Commerce, Mr I). Colqiihouii ; Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, Professor 11. G. Denham. The Lincoln College representatives remain to l>e appointed. Proposals regarding the establish moot of the laboratory were completed, it being decided to locate the institution in a building on the Canterbury College property in Montreal Street, Christchurch. Applications, it was reported, had been called for a wheat research chemist, but advice was being awaited from the British selection committee upon applicants from the United Kingdom before an appointment was made. Arrangements were made to facilitate economic investigations into matters connected with wheat production, and a special committee "'as set up to deal with the details ol that work.

It was announced that the British Float-millers’ Research Association had been in communication with the institute committee in regard to co-opera-tion of effort with the- association’s