LOCAL AND GENERAL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 59, Issue 40, 26 November 1938, Page 4

LOCAL AND GENERAL.

The annuals that wore recently planted on the cast end of the island in the Ashburton Domain are coining on remarkably wtell, and every plant is in a healthy condition. When there is comparatively little other vegetation in this vicinity the annuals will provide a picturesque effect from the paths that run past the lake.

Traffic by rail was heavy this morning, and the South express comprised two engines and a maximum number of carriages. There was a special from Christchurch for the Ashburton races, while many extra passengers travelled by the Timaru train to attend the meeting. Road traffic was also particularly heavy to-day.

The planting of a special bed of flowers and the laying out of the plot in West Stjreet, at the corner of Burnett Street, was completed yesterday. Several men worked on the plot during the week, and the corner now presents a very much improved appearance. The work was done by.- the Borough Council.

Accustomed to long stretches oi straight roads, the Ashburton farmers have been at a complete loss in Central Otago because of the meanderings of the roads that have to be followed in the course of the inspection of farms. Up hill and down dale, travelling miles to reach a farm that, half an hour before seemed to be a fiveminute journey away, the farmers have been bewildered bv these twistings and turnings. One member of the party said: “At home we go straight to a place, but here they go somewhere else first.”

Several thousand of sweet African marigolds 'were recently planted out on the island on the east side of the Domain reserve, with thje hope that before long they would provide a colourful effect in the section of the Domain. They were given no chance, however, for on the very night after they were put in the resident ducks got to work and nipped the top off every one. It. is possible that the birds were attracted by the sweet taste of the plant, but if this were so, it is strange that several boxes' lying on the ground and filled with the marigolds in readiness for planting on the following day, wiere not even touched.

One of the most remarkable growths noticed by the Ashburton farmers’ touring party in Central Otago this week is the scab weed. This is an ugly looking, circular dome that is to be found in almost every uncultivated paddock. In some areas there are millions of the tilings, and a man walking over the hillside would have difficulty in not walking on some of them, so close do they lie. They are soft, almost spongey, and the colour varies from dark green to blue and yellow. The absence of water on the poor soil is .said to be the cause of the phenomenal number of scab weed patches, hut as soon as water from the irrigation channels is (run over the area the woods start to fade out and in a year ,or two they arc gone completely.

Californian thistle, which is becoming so much of a pest in Ashburton County, where farmers have recently discussed means of eradicating it, does not trouble the Central Otago farmers. They do not attempt to kill it, and patches are springing up all over the valleys that are under irrigation. “They make good feed in the winter if snow falls,” said one man when asked what he did about the thistles which -liberally sprinkled his paddocks. “Often we have more than two inches of snow and that means the thistles ■will be the only things showing above the snow and the sheep eat them down. They feed off the thistles at normal periods, too.”

A girls’ tennis team from the Ashburton High School travelled to Timaru to-day to play against Timaru Girls’ High School. The match is an annual fixture.

Post Office departmental examinations were conducted in Ashburton this week. They will conclude on Monday evening. Five candidates from the staff of the Ashburton Post Office sat the examinations.

There was a very large attendance at the Hampstead Social Club’s card evening!, when the following*were the prize winners:—Mrs Spicer and Messrs MoCrea and Jamieson. A dance was held after supper, the music being played bv Mrs Pile.

Though most of the towns in Central Otago have power lines connecting them with generating stations there are some where the hotels and houses have to depend on private plants to supply electricity. Diesel engines are mostly used to generate power and many of these were seen by the Ashburton farmers during their tour this week.

Owing to the illness of a member of the staff and the absence of a large number of children on account of the measles epidemic, the Springburn School has been closed for the past week. /Senior pupils are to return on Monday morning and the infant department will resume on Monday week.

The five large planting programmes carried out this season in the Domain and other reserves in the town have keen attended by most fortunate weather conditions. On every occasion, when the bedding out lias been completed a substantial fall of rain has followed during the night.

“In China, we have learned the art of living civilly together,” said the R©v. O. W. McDouall, speaking at Hamilton recently. One could walk all day, he said, through Chinese villages of up to 10,000 inhabitants and never see a policeman. The Chinese were, in fact, the world’s greatest pacifists.

Cows that gave 210 pounds of but-ter-fat on a farm in Galloway Flats, Central Otago, before the irrigation scheme was put through, now average 340 pounds, according to a. statement made by the owner of the animals to the Ashburton farmers on Wednesday. He has 90 acres under irrigation and on that he runs, besides sheep and hordes, 50 cows, and his average of butter-fat- production is 240 pounds to the acre. One of his Jersey cows returned 6601 bs of fat for 257 days.

“Has a landlord any rights -to-day ?” asked Mr Justice Quilliam, in the Supreme Court at Wanganui recently. Mr *W. H. Maclean (Taihape) contended that he probably had some. His. Honour: I wish you, would show me where they are? Mr Maclean: Weil, he is not yet in the position that he can be charged criminally with being a landlord. That may come in the future. It is hard to say.

Tlfore appears to he no limit to the things that Central Otago farmers can grow, and grow well, under irrigation. A farmer on Galloway Flats planted two almonds three years ago. To-day the trees which grew from them are about 17 feet high and are loaded with fruit. On the same farm 60 tomatoes to one bunch are the regular thing. Many thousands of plants are put in each year and only four bunches are permitted to grow on each. The tomatoes go off the farm at round about 3s 6d a. case.

Eight members of the Pigeon Patrol of the St. Stephen’s Boy Scout Troop, went into camp in the Ashburton riverbed for the week-end this morning. The patrol outings have been organised with the object of giving the younger scouts a grounding in camp-craft and outdoor scouting activities before the main troop camp during the Christmas holidays. Patrol-Loader A. W. Stayt is in charge of the camp.

For all the remarkable crops of fruit and the .rapid growth of grass, Central Otago cannot, boast many trees. Poplars are seen more than any other, with willows coming second, but pine trees are few. Thousands of acres have not one tree. There are no fierce winds to worry the stock, and the farmers rely on tlije rushes which seem to spring up all oyer the place, to shelter the sheep and the lambs. In the old days, the party was told, the people planted large numbers of trees, but the succeeding generations used them up as they reached maturity and failed to replace them.

A white Muscove duck and a black swan are nesting on the island in the Ashburton Domain. Precautions will be taken to ensure the safety of the young birds, for on previous occasions hatches have been molested by cats and dogs. Before, too, the swans and ducks were enticed away with their young to different parts of the Domain .through people feeding them, and at night time the small birds would qften be lostband fall prey tocats or weasels. With a lake as large as the one in the Domain a lot more water bird-life would he desirable.

Bridges in Central Otago were not made to carry big ’buses such as those which are conveying the Ashburton farmers through: the district. The roads rush down steep hills and as often as not there is ai sharp bend at this bottom, with a narrow bridge spanning a river, and twice the ’buses have struck the sides of the bridges as they have made their slow way across. One ’bus tore two uprights out of one bridge that allowed only an inch or two on either side, .but the ’bus itself was not damaged. Fortunately, tir*? bridge was an old one and the wood gave way very easily.

Forty-seven degrees of frost wore experienced in Central Otago last winter, which was the most severe known in the district for many years. Speaking to members of the Ashburton farmers’ party an Ida Valley farmer’s wife stated that ,new-laid eggs were frozen solid in less than an hour. Ii they were not collected and taken indoors before they froze, the shells cracked as the liquid set hard and the egg was useless. Drops oi milk which splashed up on tlve sides of the buckets at milking time were frozen as they touched the tin./ Meat killed for consumption on the farm froze so quickly that the cn,reuse had to he cut up at once, otherwise axes would not break it up. The farmer’s u'ije sought to improve on the story by saying that meat •was put into the refrigerator to thaw out 1 The other tales were said to be authentic.