DEALING WITH FERN.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 19643, 12 June 1929, Page 13

DEALING WITH FERN.

HEAVY -MANURING AND STOCKING. One of the most hopeful messages brought from New Zealand by the Tasmanian Director for Agriculture (Mr F. E. Ward) following his recent tour of the Dominion (says a Melbourne paper) is that the destruction of bracken fern is economically possible. It might be said that the farmer with good, cleared land suitable for the plough can cope with this pest as well as with the blackberry by thorough culture. The culture which destroys tho weed pests will also enhance his return from the soil. Heavy fertilising, constant culture, including catch crops in the off seasons, with lieavy stocking, will make the weeds so scarce that they will give little, trouble. The running of goats as a means of combating the blackberry is practised with much success in the Dunorland district, once overrun with the troublesome brambles. It is where the land is choked with blackberry briars and ferns in hills, rocky and broken. country that the problem is a serious one. Mr Ward (who was instructor in the Canterbury district before taking up his Tasmanian position) says that it is metin New Zealand by heavy fertilising with superphosphate), grassing with suitable seed, including clovers, and heavy stocking, following the cutting in the first instance of the old growth. Under this treatment the grasses and clovers develop quickly and vigorously, and the weeds are kept down and eventually choked out. The policy will be found efficacious for blackberries, as well as ferns, but Mr Ward refers principally to fern-infested- land. The bracken was for years a grave menace to land holders in the Dominion until the new system was tried out, and now there is no anxiety felt, while the farmer has discovered a fresh way to improve his stock returns. Mr Ward intends to institute a campaign in Tasmania for the adoption of the New Zealand plan. He also brings the news that topdressing for pastures is adopted to an extent which would be hardly believed in Tasmania, heavy dressings of 4cwt., being common. This treatment increases the stock-carrying capacity appreciably. Fortunately for New Zealand, the price of superphosphate is much lower than in Tasmania, where the farmer is weighted not only with a charge of close on £6 per ton, but a super-charge of & 1 per ton for manures bought on credit. The manure which should be used in the State, according to the evidence of the chief executive officer of the Agricultural Bureau, tendered to the Tariff Board, is 66,000 tons, of which 40,000 should be applied to grass land. The quantity of artificial manure used is not much more than a third of this, and only a small percentage is spread on pastures. The aim of the Department is to add to the quantity used, believing that, as experienced in New Zealand, the resultant returns will show a big profit to the industry.

PLANT RESEARCH STATION. MAY GO TO LINCOLN. It is likely that the Government Plant Kesearch Station in Canterbury ■will soon be located at Lincoln College, the College Board having offered a block of 100 acres on College property for the purpose. Speaking at yesterday's meeting ot the Lincoln College Board, Mr 11. S. k.. Kyle, M.P., said it -was patent that the station, at present situated at Ashburton, would be shifted from there, and there lvas no more suitable place for it than Lincoln College. The ensuing discussion showed tha. the Board had offered Henley's block of 101 acres to the Department, but that the Government officers thought this Tras too far from the centre of Lincoln. There tvas also some difference of opinion about the quality of this land. Members said that this block was offered only because it was considered suitable. The Board vra3 open to give anv other portion of the College land that it might think suitable. Messrs John Deans, C. H. Hewlett, and H. S. £. Kyle were appointed a committee to confer -with the Agricultural Department officers so that the question might be settled