SAVING MARSH AREAS

Greymouth Evening Star, 6 January 1934, Page 2

SAVING MARSH AREAS

GRASS THAT “GROWS” LAND. Chelmsford has achieved remarkable success as an Empire centre for the distribution of rice grass, the sturdy, salt-loving grass which the Institute of Agriculture here lias proved capable of reclaiming derelict mud-banks which will yield to no other treatment (states a correspondent of the “Morning Post.”)

Within the last few months new areas have been planted with this grass at four places round the British Isles, while consignments of the grass have either been recently sent or are about to be sent to India, Australia, and Canada.

A report showing how hundreds of acres of Essex marshland are being saved in this way from the sea will be presented at the- next meeting of the Essex County Council. Harwich and Dovercourt, for example, put down 4500 plants a fewmonths ago between the end of the promenade and the borough boundary, and are so satisfied with the results that a further 3000 plants have just been put down, by which it is hoped to reclaim a considerable area of land. Other Essex centres where similar measures have been started are the Crouch above Burnham, and Mersea. Towns such as Maldon and Harwich are also considering how the incursion of the sea can best be resisted. Other places in the British Isles to which plants have recently been despatched, Mr. J. Bryce, of the institute, told me to-day are Sidmouth, Devonshire, and a sea loch near Oban, in Scotland.

“The last few months definitely show that the plant is succeeding where it has been established,” Mr. Bryce stated. “From a farmer in New South Wales I have just heard that 1000 plants have been successfully propagated from twenty which I sent him.

“The New South Wales agricultural authority has now asked for 20 plants, as well as cuttings of another type of grass. A similai* request has been received from the Department of Agriculture of the Punjab.

‘‘ln these cases attention is likely to be concentrated on the value of the grass as fodder. Our own results have proved that all grazing animals will take it without inducement either as grass or in the form of hay. “inquiries for seed have been received from British Columbia and Nova Scotia, and one thousand plants are to be put in on the mud-banks of the St. Lawrence to render them more stable.” For land reclamation the great merits of rice grass, technically known a,s Spartina townsendii, are its rapid growth and its capacity for raising the level of mud-flats and binding them together. Up to this year the necessary research has been assisted by a special grant from the Ministry of Agriculture, the total amount received by the institute being £1220. A grant was also made by the now defunct Empire Marketing Board.