In the laboratory for testing diseases the spore of a particularly, virulent fungus disease was in process of being cultivated, for the purpose of ascertaining the cause and in the hopes of discovering a cure. Though of not actually working on it at the time of my visit, this department has also been carrying out wide tests for the control of "smut" disease in wheat by the hot water treatment. In some cases It aids germination, in some cases It destroys, and in others again hot water treatment is effective where fungicides merely Kill. As the treatment costs nothing except the fire to heat the water, and as fungicides are always expensive, it will readily bbe seen, what a boon this will be to farmers, for though it requires an average of intelligence to. put. the treatment into operation, it will by means be difficult for the farmers to learn how it is done.
'The head of the agrimony work 'a woman, and the first of her sex in. China to' take up agriculture and botany as a serious study, but T hope by no means the last if her example is a sample of what other Chinese women will eventually achieve, It would be impossible to meet anyone more radiant with enthusiasm, keenness and knowledge, and moreover someone with the! courage to be a pioneer of manual labour, and who realizes that there no loss of dignity to an oficial in doing able to do the actual work in person, rather than sitting "in office and dictating from afar what, others shall do.
Mrs. Chen is at work in the fields by seven o'clock, and continues there Lill eleven o'clock, when after halt an hour's rest she does office work till, lunch time. At 230 she is back in the fields (or greenhouse) again until 6.90, and certainly deserves the success 1 with her experiments which she is obviously obtaining. The chief concern of this department is wheat, rice, cotton and potatoes, and it has its own office building, storage rooms, ud greenhouse.
At the moment the greenhouse is being used for experiments in the crossing of wheat and rye, specimens collected from Australia and North West China. It is hoped to produce a really good variety with the advantages of both grains, ie. che large ears of the wheat with drought resisting qualities of the rye.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.