HEATHER

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 246, 12 July 1921, Page 5

HEATHER

Sir, —It is useless wasting' time and' your space in continuing a controversy with ths Tararua Tramping Club mom- i hers when they have t'o poor an opinion. 1 of the intelligence of their fellow-country-men as to imagine that the mere repiti-' tion of the word "pest” will make them i condemn the introduction of heather. Ur. Cullen and I have given specific instances ; in Now Zealand and Scotland where ■ heather has been growing for fifty years or more without spreading or causing I the farmers a moment’s want of sleep, and in reply to these Mr. Vosseler can only quote again Mr. M'lntoah Ellis.. Well, I am sorry I cannot accept sweep-’, ing general statements by that gentle- ■ man or anyone else against evidence of' my own eyes. If he can name definite examples to warrant his assertions that; heather is a curse to the farmers in Scotland, let him produce his evidence, and I will submit it to the test in Scotland, and adviss your readers of the result, i Apparently if these perfervid tramping New Zealanders had been here in the J early days they would have preferred the. tussock and native grasses to the intro- i duced clovers and other grass seeds on which wo have built up our great dairy, produce and meat export trade! Their opposition to a beautiful and useful foci--der plant like heather is unjustifiable, and the distorted view they take of the. remarks of Mr. M'lntosh Ellis is shown in the grotesque picture drawn by Mr. Vosseler of Scotland smothered with heather, and with her "other forms of plant life compelled to succumb to it!”' I shall not ask you, Sir, for the favour of any space in future to reply to such absurdities.—l am, etc., J. D. REICH. Belmont Road, Lower Hutt. July 9, 1921.