ROUND COLYTON AND BEYOND.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 470, 31 March 1909, Page 5

ROUND COLYTON AND BEYOND.

HOW THE COUNTRY IS LOOKINC. The dry weather, now fortunately broken, was playing havoc in some parts of the Colyton district. There is a good deal of heavy land on a clay subsoil in this district, and, iii one locality, there is a layer of shingle at a shallow depth. On these sections the grass had become quite parched, and was just so much dead stubble, then, as one gets up into the Harbour Board block, and the upper parts of the Manchester block, among the more hilly and down country, there is much more grass. The water courses had still kept flowing, and altogether the district wore a much greener look. The rape and turnip crops have proved almost a failure, so far as regards any second growth, but when one gets into the localities mentioned about, and' into a lighter class of soil, these crops look better in every way. I notice (says our travelling correspondent) one very nice rape paddock ■ in Mr. F. B. Cousins's property, and an excellent paddock of soft turnips in Mr. N. Beetham's. There two are on the zig-zag road.

I frequently see printed remarks on the spread of noxious weeds. One of these, pennyroyal, if not taken heed to, is going to be a dangerous nuisance on all the roads leading to Feilding. I suppose the seeds are earned in sheep's wool, and I notice that it is very bad in most of the accommodation paddocks. In Colyton district it is becoming very prevalent. One is surprised that so few farmers seem to give it any ateither in their paddocks or frontages. I could count on the fingers of one hand the number of men who have grubbed or mown it in frdnt of their farms. Some men are trymg salt, which, no doubt, gives it a severe check, but is not a permanent cure. 1 heaTd one may say that he had seen a paddock which was very bad, dressed with half a ton of salt to the acre, but, next S!\ w M «P again,. though not so strong as before. Of course, where land is m cultivation, it can bo kept in check, but m« Ll bUSh and not stumpedrit may prove a serious matter.