VERDANT PASTURES

Evening Star, Issue 23728, 8 November 1940, Page 4

VERDANT PASTURES

TAIERI FARMLANDS SMILE AGAIN BEKtHFITS FOLLOW FLOOD DAMAGE The Taieri Plains in May—a sea of swirling flood waters, dead cattle caught in trees and fences. The Plains in November —long, luscious, green grass and sleek-coated, fat cattle grazing contentedly. Such ate the transformations which the whimsies of Nature bring about. To anyone who rowed over that great expanse of Hooded farm land in May no greater scone of desolation could be imagined, and yet to-day the only visible sign of that devastating flood is a superabundance of lush feed—an improvement brought about by the deposits of silt on tb; grasslands—a gaping hole in the stopbank by the river, and a» unlimited supply of shingle deposited over a fairly wide area adjacent to the stream. Even this is not altogether a disaster, for contractors are busy carting it off and it is all being used for building purposes. “ We are so used to floods in this district that we take no notice of them,” a well-known Taieri farmer told a ‘ Star ’ representative yesterday, when discussing the May visitation and its aftermath. “We have a worrying time while they are here, but once they arc gone wo soon forget them. They do good.” he added. “ Not an nnmixed blessing altogether, but if we lose stock and suffer discomforts through an inundation, we benefit or, should 1 say, recoup, afterwards. The paddocks arc all top-dressed for us. I would rather farm in a flood area than in a drought area,” he said. This last utterance is borne out by the abundance of feed now showing, while in hillier and loss fertile districts, especially at the present time, the same fertility of growth is not apparent. There can be no doubt that the big flood in May did cause serious loss—a loss which will not be made good in one season. However, metaphorically speaking, Mother Nature has set the stage for that recuperative process. The flood caused.much loss of cattle through drowning, but that was not all. Milch cows in many instances had to stand about over their udders in water. They naturally suffered as a_ consequence. Apart from drying off immediately they have come in this season milking in only one or perhaps two quarters. Others have been ruined altogether. Again, in the early spring, when the first new growth began to show itself, stock ate a considerable amount of sandy silt, which set up all manner of complications, while sheep also suffered, a number dying because of it. Pigs, too, were badly set back. Sows with litters dried off. the offspring being useless. Those which survived have never developed, and animals which should by now be good porkers or baconers are of no use whatever. These things constitute some of the setbacks and worries the farmers of the district were forced to bear, but the country is all smiles again, stock losses have been replaced, and, providing there are no more’torrential rains for a few seasons, the additional outlay will be made up. There is no gainsaying the simple fact that Nature smites hard with one hand and caresses with the other.