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Show m w win, ill! ' ' I - s 5 - l .HK,'-,l-.J to. rr of' I There is one farm in r t)ie United States an as-!?C! as-!?C! pishing 140 acres in Blri coiifrnia's ' 1 c h j0oquin Valley where the redcarpet is rolled out and tugSi worms, fungi and ' blight are invited to come e j and destroy the crops. . vl , is Shell Oil's laboratory "ai to experiment with pest extermination and crop growth chemicals and con-trols con-trols derived from petroleum. petro-leum. The modern labora-u labora-u lory (above) is the nerve center of this $600,000 agricultural experiment. iyAyt Ui - - J ---' r rv -N lis r f"( fT , -l f " ' !iVi;! v k s bit' ' ' , i-vmii " f I 3 Q Not all agricultural research deals directly with plants and pest control. Many hours of careful laboratory work (above) in fundamental biochemistry lie behind each successful field test. As new chemical uses come from the test tubes, fieldmen constantly con-stantly experiment with new application methods. Devices like huge hypodermic needles (left) inject soil fumigants directly into the soil. is- :l " Q Not only new chemi-cols, chemi-cols, but also new meth-r. meth-r. cJi of application are ex- plored. At right a new l; soil lumigant is being in-jected in-jected into irrigation water a to treat a young peach l" tiee infected with root rot. 1 1 j.'j Q A technician (left) examines plants grown in a large lath house to protect them from- the dry, hot, valley winds. . Such carefully grown plants can be depended on to give uniform results re-sults in testing programs. This is one of the few farm-laboratories of its kind in the world. Scientists Scien-tists report numerous successes suc-cesses in their experiments i -- ' S J; , - . . f , " , , -A ' ir -k - tote heQlthy tobacco stQlk (ri9ht") wiM be deliberately inocu-Tke inocu-Tke tol)acco msiic virus and then treated with chemicals, mat !UC,Cesses an1 failures of hundreds of such tests may ulti-the ulti-the trnslated into the savings of thousands of dollars for Practical tobacco farmer in many parts of the world. X. t 'jr.- A I vY ;i ' ' '' ' s. - - f - 1 , - . . , , ' Tf r ,T. 5- " t ' 1 I 5 J Q The laboratory's scientists work hard to raise bugs and insects in-sects then work harder to destroy de-stroy them with sprays and fumigants. Dr. L C. Glover (left) examines a crop of plant lice which thrive under 16 hours of light a day in the bug nursery. nur-sery. His experiments eventually eventual-ly may lead to a new spray or himiganf tliat will makt farm-i2 farm-i2 easier and more profitable. |