DAIRY SCIENCE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 October 1938, Page 3

DAIRY SCIENCE

IMPERIAL AGRICULTURAL BUREAUX. SCOPE OF RESEARCH WORK. The recent appointment of Mr W. G. Sutton of Massey Agricultural College to the position of Deputy-Director of the newly created Imperial Bureau of Dairy Science draws attention to the valuable services to agricultural science the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux provide, not only in the Empire, but in foreign countries as well. The Imperial Agricultural Bureaux were established as a result of recommendation of the Imperial Agricultural Research Conference which met in 1927, and they are financed by proportionate contributions from the various countries of the Empire. At the present time there are eight established' Bureaux covering the fields of soil science, animal health, animal nutrition, plant breeding and genetics, pastures and forage crops, horticulture and plantation crops, and agricultural parasitology, while the Bureau of Dairy Science referred to above will soon be functioning, to be followed by a tenth, a Bureau of Forestry. In each instance the Bureaux are attached to appropriate research stations. The Imperial Bureau of Pastures and Forage Crops, of which the the Deputy-Director is also a New .Zealander, Dr R. O. Whyte, is situated at the Welsh Plant Breeding Station, Aberystwyth, while the Bureau of Animal Nutrition is located at the Rowett Research Institute. For general administrative purpose; the Bureaux come under the Executive Council of the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux, which is constituted of representatives of contributing countries. It is noteworthy the part New Zealanders are playing in the furictioning of the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux, for Mr Nevill Wright, the London Scientific Liaison Officer of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, is now Chairman of the Executive Council. In addition to the enumerated Bureaux, the Imperial Mycological Institute and the Imperial Institute of Entomology are associated with the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux. In order to maintain close contact between the Bureaux and their respective fields of work in the various Empire countries, a system has been adopted of appointing in each contributing country Official Correspondents, who are concerned not only in the supply and dissemination of information, but also in the addressing of inquiries for information on specific topics? The Bureux do not attempt direct experimental work though the Imperial Institute of Entomology and the Imperial Mycological Institute both provide identification services. The Bureaux, however, are of immense value in the collection and dissemination of information for each Bureau, collects and indexes all scientific information throughout the world on its subject and regularly issues an abstract journal available to subscribers. By virtue of its contribution to the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux New Zealand receives . a number of these abstracts free and these are made available to appropriate institutes and individual workers. In addition, quite a number of private subscriptions are held by agricultural scientists in this country. Besides the above abstracting work the Bureaux provide a number of other services. They will, for instance, arrange for the exchange of workers, the holding of conferences of workers in the same science, and prepare translations of important scientific papers in the lesser known foreign languages. From time to time special publications are prepared from the available information on subjects of particular concern. Recently the Imperial Bureau of Soil Science prepared a full account of the vital problem of erosion and soil conservation, while the Imperial Bureau of Animal Breeding and Genetics has published a bulletin on the technique of artificial insemination. These are but instances of the valuable services being provided by the Imperial Agricultural Bureaux.