Show BEEN III 01 j f There is one farm in the United States an astonishing acres in I California's rich San Joaquin Valley where the red carpet is rolled out and fungi and blight are invited to come in and destroy the It is Shell Oil's laboratory to experiment with pest extermination and crop growth chemicals and controls derived from The modern laboratory is the nerve center of this Not only new but also new methods of application are At right a new soil fumigant is being injected into irrigation water to treat a young peach tree infected with root n Not all agricultural research deals directly with plants and pest Many hours of careful laboratory work in fundamental biochemistry lie behind each successful field As new chemical uses come from the test constantly experiment with new application Devices like huge hypodermic needles inject soil fumigants directly into the I ft healthy stalk will be deliberately d mosaic virus and then treated with I mot ni of hundreds of such tests may ulti-I th savings of thousands of dollars for I the 6 tobacco farmer in many parts of the A technician examines plants grown in a large lath house to protect them from the valley Such carefully grown plants can be depended on to give uniform results in testing This is one of the few farm-laboratories of its kind in the Scientists report numerous successes in their experiments The laboratory's scientists work hard to raise bugs and insects then work harder to destroy them with sprays and L. C. Glover examines a crop of plant lice which thrive under 16 hours of light a day in the bug nur His experiments eventually may lead to c new spray or that will moke farming easier and more |