PLANTS & FRUIT

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 June 1943, Page 2

PLANTS & FRUIT

PROGRESS FROM RESEARCH WORK NOTABLE DISCOVERIES MADE. ADDRESS BY ORCHARD INSTRUCTOR. An informative address on technique and science as applied to horticulture and its by-products was given at today’s luncheon of the Masterton Rotary Club by Mr Mason Davey, orchard instructor, Wairarapa district. Mr Davey illustrated his address with many diagrams and photographs. Referring to work in the held, Mr Davey spoke of the activities of the research station at East Mailing, in Kent, England, which were confined to the standardisation of fruit trees, with a view to obtaining uniform trees giving uniform results; the selection of stocks, to improve the vigour, colour and quality of the fruit, and the raising of strains of plants from a small nucleus of selected trees by negatative propagation, so as to give plants increased resistance to fungus and virus diseases. A Russian horticultural research station had produced by plant selection, potatoes and tree tomatoes which stood low temperatures. This strain of potato, Mr Davey pointed out would be a substantial factor in making the Chinese, especially under war conditions, independent of rice as the staple food. The Boyce Thompson Institute of Plant Research, in the United States, and the Wisley»Horticultural Station, England, had done a lot of recent work in the propagation of plants from cuttings by immersion in various acid solutions.

FROST PROTECTION. Giving an outline of orchard frost protection in New Zealand and other countries, Mr Davey mentioned the means that had been evolved to effect this —special air circulation, liquid fuel, special heaters, hot air circulation from central heaters, and solid fuel heaters. Additional aids were given by meteorological forecasts and by electrical alarm thermometers. Referring to the cool storage of fruit, Mr Davey said knowledge of the subject was very limited 20 years ago. Very valuable research work had been carried out by Mr R. Waters, of the Department of Agriculture, with regard to the relationship of humidity and temperature, the tolerance of different varieties of fruit, and the use of oiled and copper sulphate impregrated wrapping paper to control scald and fungus diseases in the cool store. Mr Davey explained the difference between the grid and battery system of cool storage on ships. The carbonic acid gas system for storing fruit was in vogue in England, by which the fruit was placed in scaled chambers and the gas was controlled by dilution with oxygen. Interesting photographs were shown demonstrating the starch unconverted to sugars prior to maturity of apples and pears, which was shown by applying potassium iodide to the cut surfaces of the fruit. By this means an estimate could be arrived at of the suitable maturity of fruit before shipping overseas. Various seeds, too, had to be frozen before they would ger-' minate, raspberries, for instance, so as to conform with the natural environment in which the indigemous species existed. Beneficial insects, said Mr Davey, making reference to the entomological aspects of his subject, were classed as parasitic or predatory. Parasitic insects controlled wooly aphis, and the white cabbage butterfly. The predatory class included the ladybirds. which controlled gum scale, red citrus scale, cottony cushion scale and mealy bug. There were other insects which controlled noxious weeds, such as the gorse seed weevil and the ragwort caterpillars. LABORATORY RESEARCH. Passing on to speak of laboratory research, Mr Davey said horticulturalists were indebted to the chemist, the physicist, the optician and the engineer. He quoted a few examples of the attainments made in recent years in relation to horticulture. The chemist provided spray materials, oils, nicotines and copper compounds; the biochemist chiefly analysed plants to ascertain requirements to sustain health. Recently, in the United States, a laboratory had made syrup from rejected apples and it was possible to manufacture 1-2,000.000 gallons of this syrup annually. It was sweeter than sugar and could be used to replace both sugar and glycerine. The optician was of value in microphotography in demonstrating the difference between the uses of flowers of sulphus, precipitated sulphur and colloidal sulphur, for the control of fungus diseases. An instrument called the fleuroscope was used by means of which the interior of citrus fruits could be examined to ascertain frost injury prior to packing. To the engineer the horticulturalist was indebted for mechanical power sprayers, planting machines and implements to maintain cultivation. Mr Davey said he had only touched the fringe of the various branches of horticulture which depended for assistance on research workers in various forms of science and technique in relation to progress in horticulture.