SERIOUS PEST.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 295, 26 September 1935, Page 10

SERIOUS PEST.

SKELETON WEED IN WHEAT.

DANGER OF IMPORTATION. The Federal Council of Agriculture and other agricultural bodies in Australia are seriously concerned with the spread of the “skeleton” weed. Scientists, Government officials, and practical observers are unanimous that its depredations will ruin a great area of wheat land if something drastic is not done to cheek the pest. Already many thousands of acres of wheat growing land have gone out of action as a resuit of its spread.

The position is not without serious interest for New Zealand agriculturists. The Dominion is importing free of duty or any other restriction quantities of feeding barley and maize for the poultry and pig industries in the North Island and it would appear that there is no inspection or other safeguard to prevent the seeds of the pest being imported in these cheap feeds. If the weed should b introduced by this method it will be the agricultural land that will be affected and this is where the matter is of direct concern to wheat growers. The position apparently is that whilst the Dominion cannot export its perfectly disease free potatoes to Sydney on account of' political pressure, there is no restriction on the export to New Zealand of inferior feeds which may contain all the elements of a. destructive pest to the wheat industry of the Dominion. Origin of the Weed. The origin of the weed, in Australia is stated to be that it came in to New South Wales from the Argentine in shipments of» chaff or hay during the drought of 1914, and in subsequent war periods. In its- early stages it looks something like a dandelion with a rosette of soft leaves, which unfortunately are appreciated by sheep. This fact has convinced some farmers that it is not so serious a pest, after all. Eiut it soon sends up hard, fibrous stalks and leafless stems—hence its illomened name —while it develops a strong and extensive system of roots that almost defy extirpation. It is known and dreaded in Europe and Asia, but it seems to have developed with amazing speed and success in Australia, where the wet seasons since 1930 have sent it along “by leaps and bounds” states a Sydney report. It was not till 1927 that it was regarded as a serious menacehut at the present time many agricultural and pastoral experts in New South Wales hold that it is quite as dangerous a menace to cultivation -and settlement there as the prickly pear ever was to Queensland, Wheat Cultivation Impossible. Some time ago the Agricultural Bureau Conference listened to an address en skeleton weed from Mi Cain, one of the agricultural instructors. He told them that 135,000 acres in New South Wales are now so heavily infested with the weed that wheat cultivation there is impossible, and that from the Victorian border to the irrigation areas, one-third of the way through New South Wales, “it is difficult to And! a farm on which the weed is not growing.” Even on land not actually over-run the presence of the weakened growth and serious damage

weed causes a reduction of yield to machinery at harvest time.

At .a, meeting of Coolamon Shire Council a member stated that during a recent tour, he had seen in the district hundreds of acres of wheat that could not be harvested, and thousands of acres that would never grow wheat again until the skeleton weed is eradicated. Another councillor declared that “thousands of acres are so badly infested by the weed that the stubble cannot even be burned.” Evidence to the same effect could be secured from other districts to almost any desired extent and the local bodies which have long since realised that skeleton weed is now completely out of control have been appealing to the Government for some time past to assist them. Spraying with sodium chlorate or salt, has some effect on the young growths, but at a cost of £4 to £5 an acre for even slightly-infested ground, the price of the remedy is prohibitive.

Recently the Minister for Agriculture, accompanied by several experts toured some of the infested districts, and assured himself that the damage done by the weed and the danger to which farm lands are exposed through it have not been exaggerated.

Reward of £SOOO Offered. Under this pressure the Government offered a reward of £SOOO for any method of treatment —chemical, cultural, biological, mechanical which could he shown to eradicate completely both seedlings and mature plants. At tho same time, experiments in the cultivation and growth of skeleton weed are to be carried out by experts of the Agricultural Department, so as to secure more detailed information as to the habits of the plant and 1 the influences most likely to promote its growth or to check and destroy it. Finally, to aid farmers who find! their holdings so hopelessly over-run that wheat growing is now impossible, financial aid will be forthcoming.

A grant of £IOO,OOO has been made to assist them in “changing over” from wheat cultivation to grazing and stockraising—the money to be used for fencing, water conservation, and purchase of sheep. The magnitude of these efforts to grapple with this serious national menace may serve to give some idea of the damage it lias already done in New South Wales, and the harm that it threatens in the near future.