Hydroponics to Wake

In greenhouses on the eucalyptus-shaded campus of the University of California, Dr. William Frederick Gericke has worked out a technique for growing flowers and vegetables in shallow tanks of water, containing in solution the minerals that plants must have. Dr. Gericke calls this kind of crop-growing "hydroponics" (Greek, hydro, water; ponos, labor). His tanks have yielded some remarkable results (TIME, March 1, 1937, et seq.), but there has been much argument over whether hydroponics has any commercial value. Nevertheless, several commercial growers are using the Gericke system, foreign governments have asked questions, and the National Resources Committee has spot lighted hydroponics as one of the applied sciences which may be of future importance to the national economy.

Last week Science Service reported that hydroponics would soon get under way at Wake Island, the tiny speck of land in mid-ocean which Pan American Airways uses as a way station for its trans-Pacific Clippers. For Wake Island's barren half acre, hydroponics is a natural. In the mild tropical climate no greenhouses will be necessary. If the open-air tanks of mineralized water function as expected, Wake Island will have fresh beans, tomatoes and other vegetables for the resident personnel and for the Clippers' crews and passengers.

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