C. H. HEWLETT.]

59

1.—17.

the time of the year the notice was given ; but I would rather you ask a practical farmer that question. No matter what notice is given, some of the farmers whose system with certain areas is worked in with those methods of farming would be affected tremendously. Rev. Mr. Carr.] It is stated that with regard to the very best types of seed wheat the price is sometimes prohibitive, and when the farmer is able to purchase it has deteriorated ? —The price is fixed by arrangement with the Government. The Department of Agriculture arranges certification, and the price of the wheat is fixed. There is no foundation for that statement regarding the prohibitive price of wheat ?— No ; it is one stated price. The wheat is inspected while it is growing to see that it is pure and free from disease, and the merchants and millers put in applications for certain quantities of the different varieties, and the farmer gets 6d. extra per bushel for the trouble to which he goes in growing pure wheat. The Department works out the price and fixes the pirice at which the wheat is to be sold, and we are not allowed to charge any more or any less. The Chairman: That will do, thank you. Dr. Frederick William Hilcjendori? examined. (No. 18.) Mr. Wright.'] You are a Doctor of Science, and head of the Biological Department of the Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln ? —Yes. You have been there for the last twenty-five years ?—Yes. You are also Director of the Wheat Research Institute, incorporated by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research ? —Yes. The objects of that Institute are to improve the quality and cheapen the production of New Zealand wheat, and to assist millers and bakers in the economical and efficient conversion of wheat into flour and flour into bread ? —Yes. I think investigations have been undertaken by the Canterbury Agricultural College at Lincoln in connection with the growing of wheat for the last sixteen years ?—Yes. Will you please proceed with your statement ?—I would like to say that my object is to try to interest the Committee in the work done by the Wheat Research Institute. We have been working at Lincoln College in connection with the improvement of wheat yields for the last sixteen years, and the result has been that we have put out pure strains of all the wheats that are normally grown in New Zealand. These wheats have been tested out at Lincoln College for upwards of five to seven years before being put out, and the result has been that the wheat-yields have increased on an average of about 3 bushels an acre. Ninety per cent, of the wheat grown in New Zealand now originates in wheat produced at Lincoln College. We did that work for seven years out of our own resources, and the Department of Agriculture, recognizing that we were doing good work, gave us a grant of £500 a year, which was afterwards raised to £700 a year, which has always been expended. I want to indicate that the work must have appealed to the farming community as doing some good, because two years ago, with the consent of the farming community, the millers, and the bakers, our resources were raised to £4,000 a year, and the Wheat Research Institute was established. I merely mention that as an indication that the research work is doing some good to New Zealand —at least, the farmers, millers, and bakers think so, otherwise they would not have placed their resources at our disposal. For every 50 bushels of wheat the farmer sells he gives us for every ton of flour the miller makes he gives us l|d., and for every ton of flour the baker buys he gives us l|d., and those sums, with the Government subsidy of £1 for £1, make up our income of £4,000 a year. The subsidy is given on the assumption that the work of the Institute will benefit not only the farmer, the miller, and the baker, but that the consumer will benefit in the long-run by the improvement in bread brought about by the Institute's investigations. I think I may say it is almost a unique organization to have such a large number of people with different interests all subscribing to one particular fund ; and this has placed the Wheat Research Institute on quite a good footing. The first work the Institute is doing is in connection with wheat-breeding, with the intention of producing wheats of better quality than the wheats at present grown, so as to give the baker a more satisfactory flour and the consumer a more satisfactory loaf. For this purpose we have at Lincoln this year 4,995 plots of wheat under observation on the College land, these varying from a single row up to 10 acres. They consist mostly of crossbreds, made with the intention of combining high quality with high production. Besides that, we have 1,100 kinds of wheat from all parts of the world —Cambridge, America, Russia —for the purpose of seeing if we can find any more suitable wheat for New Zealand conditions. The work in the laboratory in Christchurch has been going on for the last six months or so. The laboratory is fitted with all the most modern appliances for cereal research, at a cost of £2,500. The chemist, Mr. West, comes from Winnipeg. The wheat-breeder whom we have at Lincoln comes from Vienna, and has a world knowledge of wheat-production. The objects of the work in the laboratory are to test small quantities of wheat so as to indicate baking-value, and so act as a guide to plant-breeding ; to indicate to millers as early as possible in the season the quality of wheat to be expected from different varieties and localities, so that they may regulate their blends and thus produce an even quality of flour all the year round, a most intricate problem ; to test various methods of baking, and so help to solve bakers' difficulties ; to collect books and periodicals of wheat production and conversion from all over the world, and assist the introduction of any processes that may appear to hold out hope of cheapening or increasing the production of wheat or its products ; and to assist in co-ordinating the efforts of all the industries that work with wheat. In testing the various methods of baking we are using various kinds of milk—fresh milk, dried milk, and so on —as additives to bread to see to what extent a more satisfactory loaf can be made. We have quite a considerable library fund, and collect books from all