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Progress in all branches dealing with, primary-industry problems has been marked during the year. The Soil Bureau has prepared further maps indicating the regions where soil erosion has occurred or is threatened, and has been called upon to an increasing extent for information of the physical characters of soils required to withstand the weight and stresses of large buildings. The Plant Diseases Division has found a ready means of controlling a number of hitherto difficult bacterial diseases of fruit-trees, and has made good progress on methods of preserving timbers against insect and fungus attack. The Grasslands Division has continued the production and testing of improved pasture plants. The nutritive values of herbage and vegetable crops have been further examined by the Plant Chemistry Laboratory. The Botany Division has been actively engaged in investigations of the weed menace, of seaweed resources, and of the vegetative cover of hill-country areas. The Entomology Division has made good progress in the development of its work against grass grub, and the Agronomy Division has continued the production of improved strains of fodder crops, together with maintenance of the pure-seed supplies of a wide range of farm crops. The Wheat Research Institute's designing and testing of an improved flour-detacher has enabled New Zealand flourmillers to change to an 80 per cent, extraction and maintain flour quality in a period of very serious grain shortage. The Dairy Research Institute's work on starters, flavours, and fat examinations continues to provide valuable assistance. in improving quality in all our dairy products. With the development of the Information Section during the year it has been possible to give wider publicity to the achievements of research, in an endeavour to shorten the gap which always occurs between a discovery and its actual assimilation into practice. D. G. SULLIVAN, Minister in Charge of the Scientific and Industrial Research Department.

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