1,739 research outputs found
The value of alar sprays for apples
ALAR* is a growth retardant which has been die subject of intensive research in other countries. It tends to slow both fruit growth and ripening and to reduce shoot extension.
Overseas and local investigations with apples have shown that Alar will reduce preharvest drop, restrict shoot growth and increase flower bud formation for the following season
Stop-drop sprays for Jonathan and Delicious apples
STOP-DROP sprays prevent excessive pre-harvest drop of Jonathan and Delicious apples.
Recent research has thrown more light on the best methods of employing these materials.
TWO CHEMICALS used as stop-drop sprays are available commercially in Western Australia. One of these, alpha napthalene acetic acid (NAA), is also well known as a thinning spray for apples
Fertiliser recommendations for citrus : detailed fertilizer programmes for citrus growers
CITRUS growers should adopt a well balanced fertiliser programme to safeguard tree health, cropping and fruit quality. While moderate dressings are a wise insurance in most situations the rates required vary with tree age and soil type.
The recommendations are given in detail in the tables in this article
Fertiliser recommendations for apple trees
THE increased use of irrigation and chemical thinning in apple orchards and the planting of trees in light soils have resulted in responses to regular fertiliser dressings
Towards a modeling of the time dependence of contact area between solid bodies
I present a simple model of the time dependence of the contact area between
solid bodies, assuming either a totally uncorrelated surface topography, or a
self affine surface roughness. The existence of relaxation effects (that I
incorporate using a recently proposed model) produces the time increase of the
contact area towards an asymptotic value that can be much smaller than
the nominal contact area. For an uncorrelated surface topography, the time
evolution of is numerically found to be well fitted by expressions of
the form [, where the exponent depends on
the normal load as , with close to 0.5. In
particular, when the contact area is much lower than the nominal area I obtain
, i.e., a logarithmic time increase of the
contact area, in accordance with experimental observations. The logarithmic
increase for low loads is also obtained analytically in this case. For the more
realistic case of self affine surfaces, the results are qualitatively similar.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figure
Some recent rural radio talks
Current experiments with vegetable crops - By T. WACHTEL, Agricultural Adviser, Horticultural Division
Pedigree seed planting - By H. G. CARISS, B.Sc. (Agric), Regional Agricultural Adviser
The Ruakura round farrowing house - By P. BECK, Field Assistant, Dairying Division
How the random sample laying test could affect the poultry industry - By R. H. MORRIS, Officer-in-Charge, Poultry Branch
Feeding the milking goat - By K. NEEDHAM, Dairy Cattle Husbandry Officer
Fertilisers for vegetables in summer months - By J. P. FALLON, Senior Adviser (Vegetables), Horticultural Division
Pastures and their carrying capacity - By H. G. ELLIOTT, Assistant Superintendent of Dairying
Pollination - By J. CRIPPS, Adviser, Horticultural Division
Aeroplanes and insect pest control - By P. N. FORTE, Senior Entomologist
Kill those flies - By H. MASLIN, Dairy Instructor, Busselton
Grazing for pigs - By P. BECK, Field Assistant, Dairying Division
Feed flavours in cream - By an officer of the Dairying Division.
Those old milk and cream cans - By D. C. MICKLE, Dairy Instructor, Bunbury
Overrun in butter making and quality in home-made butter - By A. H. HOBBS, Dairy Produce Inspector
Milk flow indicators - By G. W. SCOTT, Dairy Instructor, Head Offic
Direct metal nano-imprinting using embossed solid electrolyte stamp
In this paper, we report direct patterning of metal nanostructures using an
embossed solid electrochemical stamp. Microforming of solid superionic stamps
using Si templates-analogous to polymer patterning in nano-imprint
lithography-is explored. Silver sulfide (Ag2S)-a superionic conductor with
excellent micro-forming properties-is investigated as a candidate material.
Important parameters of the superionic stamp, including mechanical behavior,
material flow during forming, and feature recovery after embossing are studied.
Excellent feature transferability during embossing as well as etching is
observed. To illustrate the capability of this approach silver nano-antennas
with gaps <10 nm were successfully fabricated. The possibility for large area
patterning with stamp diameters >6 mm is also demonstrated. Embossing based
metal patterning allows fabrication beyond two-dimensional nanofabrication and
several patterning schemes are reported.Comment: 11 pages (double spaced), 7 figures, 1 table, continuation of work
submitted to MRS Spring 200
The Data Quality Monitoring for the CMS Silicon Strip Tracker
The CMS Silicon Strip Tracker (SST), consisting of more than 10 million channels, is organized in about 15,000 detector modules and it is the largest silicon strip tracker ever built for high energy physics experiments. The Data Quality Monitoring system for the Tracker has been developed within the CMS Software framework. More than 100,000 monitorable quantities need to be managed by the DQM system that organizes them in a hierarchical structure reflecting the detector arrangement in subcomponents and the various levels of data processing. Monitorable quantities computed at the level of individual detectors are processed to extract automatic quality checks and summary results that can be visualized with specialized graphical user interfaces. In view of the great complexity of the CMS Tracker detector the standard visualization tools based on histograms have been complemented with 2 and 3 dimensional graphical images of the subdetector that can show the whole detector down to single channel resolution. The functionalities of the CMS Silicon Strip Tracker DQM system and the experience acquired during the SST commissioning will be described
Some recent radio talks.
Light land development in the South - By A. S. WILD, Assistant Superintendent of Wheat Farming, Department of Agriculture.
It is only since World War II ended that successful large scale development of light land near the south coast of this State has been undertaken, although the many millions of acres of treeless plain country throughout the agricultural areas have, for many years, presented a challenge to the pioneering ability of Western Australians.
The use of hormones in viticulture - By L. T. JONES, Senior Plant Research Officer
The discovery and proper use of plant hormones, or as they are more accurately termed, growth-regulating: substances, probably represents the greatest contribution which science has made to agriculture in the past few decades. It was the discovery by Kogl in 1934 that indole acetic acid was an active growth substance which led rapidly to the preparation and testing of large numbers of compounds of similar chemical structure and among these were found many substances which were very potent and also comparatively cheap to produce.
Recent trends in viticulture in Western Australia - By W. R. JAMIESON, Viticulturist, Department of Agriculture, Perth
Today I want to talk very briefly about some of the more recent trends in viticulture in this State. The commercial production of grapevines is centred mainly around the Swan Valley and as most of the suitable vineyard land in this area has been planted, growers are exploring avenues to increase the returns per acre.
Methods of irrigation - By G. GAUNTLETT, Assistant Officer-in-Charge, Irrigation
The success of an irrigation scheme depends on several factors. Important among these is the choice and design of the method to be adopted. There are two methods of irrigation, viz., surface and spray irrigation.
Canker disease of Red-flowered gum - By W. P. CASS SMITH, B.Sc. (Agric), Government Plant Pathologist
Of the many beautiful native plants in Western Australia, few are esteemed more than the red-flowered gum known botanically as Eucalyptus flcifolia. This shapely tree commences blossoming about Christmas time—and provides a magnificent display for several weeks—the blossom shades varying from dark red to pink.
Why many beans grow crooked - By M. HARDIE, Vegetable Instructor
Sometimes in the process of growing a crop, bean growers find a number of pods which, instead of being long and straight and suitable for marketing, are crooked or bent and quite unsuitable for sale unless beans are in very short supply. It is not unusual for a small number of pods to be affected in this way, generally at the tail-end of the crop, but occasionally the percentage may be high. When this happens the grower is often at a loss to account for his failure to grow a marketable crop. To the best of his ability he has followed methods which normally return a crop of first-grade pods and yet for some reason, his crop is an unpayable one and he is anxious to ascertain the cause.
Salt land programme for Autumn - By T. C. STONEMAN, Adviser, Soil Conservation Service
Now that summer is over and winter approaches, the time has come to decide what you\u27ll do with that salt problem on your farm. What you SHOULD do, will depend on how severely the area is affected. To make quite clear how the recommendations made by the Department of Agriculture can be applied I will deal with each degree of severity in turn.
Orchard cover crops - By J. CRIPPS, Horticultural Adviser
The sowing of a cover crop is one of those routine operations which the orchardist often undertakes without much thought, but it is an operation worthy of consideration.
Lupin seed - By B. J. QUINLIVAN, B.Sc. (Agric), Botanist, Weeds and Seeds Branch
The three types of lupins which we grow in this State are the New Zealand, the W.A. blue, and the yellow lupin. The first two types are very common, the New Zealand lupin being grown mainly in the South-West, while the W.A. lupin is grown over extensive areas of the central and northern wheatbelt, particularly on the sandier types of soil.
Cereal rye will grow on wind-eroded areas - By G. H. BURVILL, Chief Plant Research Officer.
Travelling around the wheatbelt, one often sees areas of sandy soil quite bare, A due to wind erosion. Surface soil blown from these patches has built up against fences, or as mounds in the nearby scrub. Many of the eroded places are quite small— perhaps less than an acre or only a few acres. But some are large, with one to three hundred acres of bare yellow sand. As much as two feet of soil has been blown from big areas.
Autumn-winter feeding for the fat lamb flock - By N. DAVENPORT, Senior Adviser, Meat Production
The autumn-winter period is the most important part of the year for the fat lamb crop from a feed point of view. It is important not only from the aspect of the wellbeing of the sheep, but also of the pasture. Pasture plants are living things, too, and they also require consideration and care for their development. When a new season pasture is kept hard grazed in those critical first few weeks of growth it cannot carry as many sheep over the season as one which is lightly stocked during that time.
Plant diseases in the home garden - By W. P. CASS-SMITH, B.Sc. (Agric), Government Plant Pathologist
Recently many home-gardeners have complained that plantings of vegetables or ornamentals are making unthrifty growth, in spite of liberal waterings and fertilisation. These symptoms are commonly caused by root-knot eelworm, a pest which has unfortunately become very widespread in the sandy soils adjacent to Perth, and in many other parts of this State. This eelworm parasite attacks the roots of many kinds of plants causing them to rot and to develop bead-like swellings or galls. As a result, the intake of plant food and water is restricted and stunting of the above-ground parts occurs.
Principles of commercial beekeeping - By R. S. COLEMAN, R.D.A., Government Apiculturist
We have many queries from small beekeepers, and from people who have never opened a hive, on how to break into full-time beekeeping. So it was thought that you would like to know just what are the principles of successful bee farming.
Grasshoppers and locusts - By C. F. H. JENKINS, M.A., Government Entomologist
Grasshoppers and locusts are among the most ancient enemies of mankind for they figured prominently in Biblical times, and periodically throughout the ages have devastated crops in all parts of the world.
Acetonaemia in dairy cattle - By P. M. A. HARWOOD, M.R.C.V.S., Veterinary Officer
Acetonaemia, more correctly known as ketosis is a metabolic disease. Unlike infectious diseases such as tuberculosis or mastitis, which are caused by microbes, metabolic diseases result from an upset in the normal bodily processes.
Molybdenum for subterranean clover - By T. C. DUNNE, B.Sc. (Agric), Ph.D. (Calif.), Chief Plant Nutrition and Research Officer
Subterranean clover is undoubtedly the most important pasture species in this State. Because it is a legume, it can make excellent growth on soils with a low nitrogen content. The nitrogen it needs is, of course, provided by bacteria which inhabit the nodules found on its roots. These bacteria provide nitrogen by taking it from the air and converting it to a form which can be used by the clover. However, it is now known that the bacteria can use the nitrogen of the air only if enough molybdenum is available to them.
Cobalt deficiency in sheep and cattle - By C. R. TOOP, B.V.SC, Chief Veterinary Officer
With the establishment of group settlements at Denmark after the first world war, it was observed that young cattle, although running on lush pastures, developed systems of unthriftness and wasting and usually died. Research conducted of Filmer and Underwood later revealed that this condition was caused by a deficiency of cobalt and that it could be cured and prevented by addition of this mineral to the diet. Cobalt deficiency has since been met with other parts of the State and was recently diagnosed in sheep at Mount Manypeaks
Insights from two decades of the Student Conference on Conservation Science
Conservation science is a crisis-oriented discipline focused on reducing human impacts on nature. To explore how the field has changed over the past two decades, we analyzed 3245 applications for oral presentations submitted to the Student Conference on Conservation Science (SCCS) in Cambridge, UK. SCCS has been running every year since 2000, aims for global representation by providing bursaries to early-career conservationists from lower-income countries, and has never had a thematic focus, beyond conservation in the broadest sense. We found that the majority of projects submitted to SCCS were based on primary biological data collected from local scale field studies in the tropics, contrary to established literature which highlights gaps in tropical research. Our results showed a small increase over time in submissions framed around how nature benefits people as well as a small increase in submissions integrating social science. Our findings suggest that students and early-career conservationists could provide pathways to increase availability of data from the tropics and address well-known biases in the published literature towards wealthier countries. We hope this research will motivate efforts to support student projects, ensuring data and results are published and data made publicly available.The project was made possible through funding from: JG: EUs Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie program (No 676108) and VILLUM FONDEN (VKR023371), HA-P; National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) (203407/2017-2), TA: The Australian Research Council Future Fellowship (FT180100354), The Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and The Kenneth Miller Trust, APC: the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC DTP [NE/L002507/1]), LC: Cambridge International Scholarship from the Cambridge Trust, FH: the Newton International Fellowship of the Royal Society, DM: the Australian Government, Endeavor Postgraduate Scholarhip, HM: Branco Weiss Fellowship Administered by the ETH Zürich and Drapers' Company Fellowship, Pembroke College BIS: the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC DTP[NE/L002507/1 and NE/S001395/1]) and the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 Research Fellowship, HW: Cambridge Trust Cambridge-Australia Poynton Scholarship and Cambridge Department of Zoology J. S. Gardiner Scholarship
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