Fiji Wheat

Interesting Experiments in the Highlands

GOOD results from experiments with wheat and barley are reported by . Mr. Theo W. Riaz of Navai, near Nadanvatou, Fiji. This is high fertile country.

“I have had outstanding results with lucerne, white and red clovers, cocksfoot, and Italian rye grasses,” he writes. “The lucerne gives a cut every 40 days, and the seed does not require inoculating.”

A small syndicate, of which Mr. Riaz and Sir Hugh Ragg are members, was formed; and it got 50 acres from the Government, in order to give the area a thorough testing. Mr. Riaz sent through Mr. Parham, Department of Agriculture, six samples of the wheat grown, with particulars regarding soil, location and rainfall, to Professor W. L.

Waterhouse, of Sydney University; and the latter’s Faculty manifested the live liest interest in this grain grown in the tropical islands.

Professor Waterhouse is particularly interested in discovering the conditions under which rust occurs in wheat—the absence of rust from the Fiji wheat was a surprise to him. “One of the problems is to find the rust fungus on its way to Australia in air currents.” he says. His investigations link up with those being earned out in India, Egypt, and North and South America.

Observations concerning the wheat growing experiments in Fiji are now be ing exchanged between Mr. Riaz and his friends, and the scientists at the Faculty of Agriculture, Sydney University, through the Fiji Department of Agriculture.