PROFIT FROM PESTS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXIV, Issue 3342, 26 November 1934, Page 7

PROFIT FROM PESTS.

The “Blue Devil” nearly ruined Florida, yet some foolish person introduced it to India and within a few years choked half the waterways in Bengal. The Blue Devil is the water hyacinth, a plant that floats on the surface of rivers and lakes, buoyed up by balloonlike roots. Its exquisite flower resembles a great blue hyacinth, but it spreads with such speed that it forms rafts of vegetation through which the most powerful steamer cannot churn its way. Every sort of poison spray has been tried in vain, but now Dr. S. K. Sen, a Calcutta scientist, has made the discovery that twenty-four gallons of firstclass alcohol can be produced from a ton of the weed at a cost of only fivepence per gallon, while the residue can be made into valuable manure.

A little while ago H.M.S. Blanche turned up at Simon’s Town, all shining with new white paint. The Admiral signalled: “Where did you paint ship?” The skipper explained that it was done with coral lime mixed with the juice of prickly pear, and that the three coats, exclusive of labor, had cost seven shillings! The prickly pear caused much trouble in Australia, covering thousands of acres. Yet this pest is not only useful for paint, but its ash, when the leaves are burned, contains fifteen per cent, of potash, a most valuable fertiliser.