SEASONAL NOTES

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 139, 8 March 1941, Page 8

SEASONAL NOTES

Mowing Of Californian

Thistle

At this autumn season some farmers have cause to be concerned with all-too-excellent stands of Californian thistle, and many may be found mowing these. One such conscientious farming friend tells us he will never do so again. ,On one of his best and biggest paddocks a very bad infestation came about four years ago, and just across the boundary fence his neighbour was similiarly afflicted. The neighbour just let nature have its will, but our friend, imbued with ideals of good farming, mowed his thistles in the first autumn, in the second autumn, and again'in the third autumn; and in each season there was a lot. to mow, for they seemed not to lessen. Yet at the end of that third season the neighbour's thistles had practically disappeared, and now our friend is “kicking himself” for his waste of effort and declares that never again will be bother mowing Californian thistle. Of our weed enemies one of the toughest is hemlock. A farmer on some hard hill country has been considerably worvied with this, and, in his . words, has “tried everything” to eradicate it. He declared that grubbing is no use, and that chemicals were a failure —this though he applied them on one patch at a vote which he worked out would have cost £lO for a full acre. He spoke well of chemicals, however, as regards ragwort, and also said they had proved very effective on water-fern. But for hemlock the only effective treatment he had found was to cut it—just as.it came to full flower not earlier, as it would then regrow. In crops on Manawatu farms a great quantity of weeds could be seen this season over an unfortunately large proper-, tion, and fathen is one of the worst. An observant farmer told us of a little phenomena he had noted last winter concerning these weeds. His mangel crop was infested with fathen in one area and willow-weed .on another. Early last winter he noticed hundreds of goldfinches feeding on the fathen seeds, while a flock of linnets consumed that of the willow-weed. He was impressed that they did not seem to mix at all, each variety sticking t,o its own favourite, and so he has wondered as to why they should have a decided preference, and also at how there came to be such a concentration of each of these breeds of birds, which usually do not seem very plentiful. , . Italian Rye Value.

A question soon to be faced on many farms is the sowing down of areas that have had crops harvested or fed off from them, and to those so concerned consideration of Italian rye is recommended. A good sowing of Italian rye together with red clover will, when topdressed and well handled as to grazing, provide a good stand for three years; this, we are assured by one of the beet farmers of the district, is so on Marton country, and what Marton country can do could be very widely repeated. (Marton readers, please do not take this as reflection upon your excellent district.) Ido know of a case on very heavy alluvial land in the Manawatu where such a pasture was good for five years, doubtless because ot a certain amount of reseeding. What I have in mind in drawing attention to the possibilities of Italian rye is that on many farms there is not a groat deal of land available i 'to the plough ; some may be too steep, or too distant, or otherwise unsuitable for cultivation, and again so much of the farm may be in first-class permanent pasture which it. would be a shame to plough up. That, in crop this season may, therefore, be wanted again in. three years’ time. Doubly Valuable. In such cases an Italian sowing is doubly valuable. First, and least, it is a very cheap sowing; secondly, and ot greater importance, is its wonderful - produetivity. For this very first winter's feeding it will produce about twice as much feed as any other pasture, and in my opinion a greater quantity than would be obtained from either oats or barley sown as a green feed crop. A high rate of growth will be maintained till next summer’s dryness sets in, and then the red clover will show its worth. This prorides two splendid alternatives, in that it may be harvested for hay and/or seed, or alternately used as an ideal lamb fattening feed, and/or for general grazing purposes. . When this pasture is again ploughed up. say in two or three years’ time, it will be a well-nourished area, rich both in animal fertilizer and in soil nitrogen placed there by clover roots. As a practical policy a farm regularly cropping could well rotate its operations over three paddocks, one of which would carry this year’s crop and the other two be in an Italian rye-red clover pasture, the whole group making an ideal combination. Chou Moellier. Chou moellier can be fed fairly hard at this season with lambs or “gummy” ewes, and still give a heavy winter crop. This statement was made by a very competent farmer at the 1940 Sheep Breeders’ Conference, and verified by two experienced growers of the crop, from widely separated districts. I notice the white butterfly is extremely thick about the Manawatu this past fortnight, but as yet have not observed its ravages as serious in crops. I have seen, though strangely enough it has been devastating on some Palmerston North vegetable gardens. There are still some six weeks to go before frosts are likely to check the pest, and so it may yet cause serious depredation among farm crops.