INSECT “PACKS.”

Hokitika Guardian, 31 January 1929, Page 8

INSECT “PACKS.”

FROM C-AWTHRON INSTITUTE

DEADLY WORK AMONG BESTS

FASCINATING RESEAHCH

An interesting visitor to Auckland for the! science congress is Professor T. H. Eastcrfiekl, director of the Cawthron Institute at Nelson, where, among other things, they raise strange insects which are aitenvards turned loose on pests that beset our orchards and other liJds of agriculture. It is stock breeding' on microscopic lines, and the man in the street can never understand how they keep track of such infinitesimal animals. For instance, there was that interesting little thing called the apiielinus which has been at work in New Zealand orchards for some time now, cleaning up that very objectionable ‘beastie,” the woolly aphis. It was an easy win for the aphelimis, which, though only about the. size of a flea, is a demon to work. Of this engaging I'ttle immigrant theCawthron Institute bred and distributed AjO.O(X) in tubes containng 59 each. To-day the institute is busy on 111a av other problems affecting our agriculture industries. TOMATOES AND FRUITS. “The main object of the work at the institute,’’ said l J rolessor Easterlield, to the “Star ’ reporter this morning, “is to carry out investigations on pro--1 Perns relating to agriculture in its widest sense, and since fruit growing and market gardening are of outstanding importance to the district in which the institute is situated it is natural that Liiese industries have received great attention. Thus Nelson produces more than £50,000 worth of tomatoes Annually, and the tomato growers have placed before the officers of the institute many problems in connection with tlie manuring of tomatoes, with the selection” of tomato varieties, and with the control of fungal pests. The Tomato Growers’ Association has expressed enthusiastic thankfulness tor the honefits which tlie industry has received. “Then there is the apple industry w'hicfi is increasing by leaps and hounds, and at least two-tliirds of the export apples which leave New Zealand are grown in the Nelson area. Most of these apples, again, are produced on the Moutcrc Hills land, which at the beginning of the century would have been considered dear at 10s an acre. A suitable manorial scheme has been evolved lor the orchards, and now for general agriculture, for each type of soil in the Waimea County, and the work is extended into the C'ollingwood and Bailer Counties. I may say that the work on soils is in charge of Mr. 'l'. RiggThe Marketing Board and the Government arc subsidising certain researches ai the institute on the manurial content of pastures and on the control ol noxious weeds by insects.

“Diseases of plants are mostly due to fungi and in the mycologieal department, in charge of Dr. Kathleen Curtis (an ex-Auckland University College student), a large amount of attention is being paid to the control of fungi diseases of apples, pears, stone-fruit, tomatoes and tobacco. One result has lieen that there is every probability that the area- devoted to stone-fruit will largely increase, whereas the tendency for a good many years has been to cut out peaches and other valuable stone-fruit, because of the extent of which tlie.se fruits have lueen attacked by brown rot.”

INSECT PARASITES

“Of tlie entomoligical work that is being done at the institute, the control of the woolly aphis by the introduction of the insect npbc'inus is an old story, practically every apj'.legrower in New Zealand now benefiting by tlie useful work of this insect. Again, tlie insectintroduced with the object of controlling the oak-scale on the Canterbury oaks, though much slower in beroming pro]>erly established, is now settling down, and'the reports from Hagley Park, Christchurch, indicate that the insect is proving of extraordinary benefit. Ai one time it was thought down Micro that they were going to lose all • licit' oaks, but I am told each tree is having a new lease of life.

“Omo more insert should he mentioned—tiie alysia, the insect that pa nisi l ise:-: the maggot of the h!ow-(lv. This work was hegun hy Dr. .Miller at the time when lie was Government entomologist, and lie has continued it at the Cawthron Institute, with the result teat the insert is now hr inn distributed throughout New Zealand and also has been suppled to the t'oiiiinoiiwealth Bureau of Science and Industry. “In the control of noxious weeds h\ insects great attention is being paid to tiie gor.se and to ragwort, the reduction of which in all the warmer parts o! New Zealand is a mailer ul urgent necessity.

‘The ij nest ion lias sometimes hecn raised whether the introduction ol inSv.'cts of economic value' is not likely to he fraught with danger. No insect however, is introduced into the ( awt.hran Institute insectaries until a specin I committee set up hy tiie Government. on the recnimi'Kiidat ion ol a .special committee, set up hy the Depart nienst ol Scientific and Industrial lie - ;imli; and even after the insects have hren i lit reduced into the iiis.eeI,aril's, they are not lihorntod until their lile-historv and lending bahits have hren most careliill.v studied, and n ivpuM submitted to the Minister ol Agriculture by the abovc-meut im.r.l special committee recommending 'bat a permit for liberation he given

Professor Easterfied stave other instances of llu 1 -sort of work that i.s bointr tloiio at tin l ilist:iLnt-o. Much of if is so- technical that the man in the street would find it diHiciilt to follow, hut everyone can appreciate the results of woolly aphis. To-day a defective apple in a shop would he lint hinkahlo; a few years ago one accented damaged fruit because there was no other. ’I hat is where the man in the street reaps the benefits of weeks, months, and sometimes years of research such as they conduct at the Oawthr.m Institute.