GISBORNE TREND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22198, 7 December 1946, Page 6

GISBORNE TREND

MORE GRASS SEED WEEDS IN PADDOCKS The trend in the Gisborne district is to shut up more and more paddocks for seed, and this year an increase of 713 acres has been entered for certification by the Department of Agriculture. Although entries closed last month, it is expected that there will be one or two more late entries of perennial ryegrass. ‘•Probably as a result of last year’s drought the areas are very dirty with weeds such as goose grass, buttercup, winged thistle, and so on,” said the fields instructor to the department, Mr. V. P. Boot, when speaking of his experience in field inspection to date. ‘‘This applies largely to the older areas, but even in some of the maiden crops there is a very high weed content. Due to the unseasonable weather the formation of the ryegrass heads has been very erratic and it is considered that from the present appearance of the crops the yield per acre will be a little lower than last year,” he said. The acreages of crops subject to inspection are as follows, the areas for last season being shown in parentheses for comparison.—Perennial ryegrass, including pedigree and Government stock areas, and not including mother seed, permanent pasture and old areas, 1004 acres (700 acres); short rotation ryegrass, 14 acres ( ); while clover. Government stock. 52 acres (631 acres); Montgomery red clover, 1212 acres (87;, ! acres); broadleaf red, 25 acres ( ).