MENACE OF THE NASSELLA TUSSOCK

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22079, 22 July 1946, Page 4

MENACE OF THE NASSELLA TUSSOCK

x \Lthough last week’s House of Representatives debate on the Nassella Tussock Bill would not attract much attention from the majority of New Zealanders, it had a strong significance for extensive farming communities in parts of Canterbury and Marlborough. And, since farmers everywhere _ are usually interested in one another’s problems and in conditions found in districts other than their own, a few observations on the nassella menace should not be out of place. The nassella tussock, difficult to distinguish from the native tussock, has been an insidious invader of country where it can gain a grip on open, sunny faces and where the natural cover has been weakened or destroyed by burning or slips. From warm spurs it will spread to shady faces. It will lie in the form of seed for a very long time where the native or other grasses arc thick and vigorous and it "is when this cover is destroyed, that it germinates freely. Eventually all other growth is suppressed and stock arc unable to obtain even a picking in the thickly-matted mass. Under these conditions it is easy to understand the alaim felt by the southern farmers whose land is threatened. Control is reported to be easiest where land in ploughable, and some farmers have been forced to increase cultivation in order to maintain carrying capacity. The difficulty is that there are obvious limits to the extent to which big holdings, especially in the high country, can be cultivated. It will probably be found that two forms of control, are necessary. On large and heavily-infested areas the authorities may have to rely on afforestation as a means of smothering the tussocks and preventing the seed from blowing to places where it can germinate. In regions where infestation is light and windblown seed can be kept out a campaign of grubbing should be effective as a method not only of control but even of elimination. But. generally speaking, the trouble lias advanced beyond the stage at which individual farmers can deal with it. That is why farmers have bad to look to the Government for assistance and why the special Bill has been considered and passed by the House,