WAR ON PLANT DISEASE

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 898, 15 February 1930, Page 29

WAR ON PLANT DISEASE

What The Research Council Is Doing In This Field TO PRODUCE Be\y and improved strains of seeds and to combat the diseases that are causing so much damage to plant growth in New Zealand is one phase of the valuable experimental work being carried out b.y the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture. With the big expansion in pastoral farming, upon wiiich the country relies chiefly for its primary wealth, the need for making the proverbial two blades of grass grow where' one grew before has become increasingly apparent, and it is only by systematic research that gradual starvation of our pastures can be avoided.

In broad outline the following problems stand out in this field of work: the improvement in crop production by the better control or elimination of plant diseases or insect pests, the improvement jo production by the employment of better cultured methods, the improvement in production by careful selection of the types of seed sown —intimately linked, of course, with the question of seed certification—the better establishment and maintenance of the grass pastures, and finally, the improvement of the seed trade through the activities of a seed-testing station. A thoroughly-equipped seed and plant Nation has heen set up at- Palmerston North, financed partly by the Government. and partly by the Empire Marketing Board. A basis of co-Operation between the Department of Agriculture and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research has enabled the council to secure the services of a highly qualified team of workers drawn largely from the department’s staff, and steady progress is being made along the lines indicated. The magnitude of the issues at stake is realised when it Is recalled that about 80 per cent, of the swede and turnip crop is annually lost through the attack of dry rot. In round figures damage well over £2,000,000 is annually infected. The ravages of cereal diseases such a* smut and rust are also very farreaching. In this respect il is gratifying to report that the activities of the research staff, coupled with the cooperation of the Canterbury Seed Co., on the field side, have already resulted in a striking success. Many of thes# disease# are now

If a cow has to spend too much energy in getting her feed it is clear that she cannot turn the maximum portion of that feed into milk. There are cases where Ayrshire cows in Scotland have produced over 2,000 gallons of milk in a lactation, but the aim of the Ayrshire - breeder is to have his whole herd, w r hich may consist of anything from 25 to 150 cows, yielding an average of 900 to 1,000 gallons of milk of about 4 per cent, butter-fat and producing a calf every year.

known to be seed-borne and an attempt has been made to attack smut at the source of infection itself. The method is very simple, barley being steeped in hot water under carefully controlled conditions, and afterwards kiln-dried. Extraordinary success has attended the experiments, so much so that only one and one-eighth bushel of “clean” seed is now required per acre instead of the usual one and three-quarters to two bushels, a very considerable saving fai itself, while the yield has increased fully 22 per cent. Records show that in the 1927-28 harvest a crop of 334 acre* sown with clean seed actually harvested 105 bushels to the acre. The extraordinary vigour of the plants grown from these healthy seeds may be most forcibly brought home by the state*ment that large numbers of the barley seeds send forth as many as 18 shoot* from the one seed. Furthermore, ihc seed harvested from such clean stock has been shown to retain its freedom from disease, due precaution, of course, being taken to prevent infection during threshing and sowing, so that there is an element of hope that by breeding up a supply of clean seed the menace of smut infection of barley will be permanently overcome. Similar work for other cereals jeeds is in progress. The programme already jn hand, dealing as it dan* with all forms of disease of the staple crops of this country, the elimination inferior types of farm seeds by type* superior in producing capacity as well as in quality, all aspects of grass land maintenance and management including top-dressing in its many aspects, the control of secondary grasses and ture weeds by chemical means, is a® ambitious one, but with the team of workers selected valuable result* 1 assured.

The manner in which top-dressing pasture land increases the carrying capacity is illustrated by a return recently published by the South Australian Government statist. Thirteen typical sheep districts are selected, and it is shown that when 24,920 acres were top-dressed in 1924 the number of sheep carried was 392,700. In 1928 a total of 93,449 acres were returned as being top-dressed and the number of sheep had increased to 521,359 head.