MENACE OF RAGWORT.

Matamata Record, Volume XII, Issue 999, 25 February 1929, Page 6

MENACE OF RAGWORT.

USE OF MOTH.

Question Of Its Value.

A King Country Experience.

In view of the incidence of ragwort and the attempt at its destruction by means of the cinnabar moth the following letter written by Mr. W. E. Cayley-Alexander to the King Country Chronicle is of considerable interest at uiis juncture:—

Many columns of newspapers have been filled with letters on this subject, but I have failed to find any information emanating from the press of practical men, and so therefore I am taking the opportunity of placing my views on the subject before King Country readers. , When I returned from the late war T took my present farm in 1919. Until I had been on it for a‘few months I had never seen ragwort. In December of that year there was little else to see, and I think that if anyone can speak with authority on the subject it is myself, but I will not burden your readers with too much detail of the Various methods I have tried and the results, but will confine myself to practical advice on the subject as a dairy farmer. In the first place, to make myself quite clear on the subject, we all know that if a farm is stocked sufficiently with sheep alone there will be no ragwort, but my remarks are intended for dairy farmers pure and simple. When I first came here and sought advice on the subject everyone who was supposed to know told me the right time to ; cut it was when it was in fldwer, and for several seasons I followed that advige. It was rotten advice, because it necessitates at least three cuttings during the season, and each plant cut goes to seed where it lies, so if it is cut three times there are three lots of new ragwort seed that the farmer may blame himself for having sown by the simple .act of cutting it in accordance* with instructions from noxious weeds inspectors and experts. Grubbing, poisoning and pulling it are all very well for a man with half an acre of ground, but for a farm smothered in it, as many are, such methods are I have tried all of them. Many of your readers will have noticed the large flecks of starlings which settle on the paddocks infested with ragwort, which at this season carries a lot of ragwort cater-? pillars. After they have been in one place for some time they, fly off to another patch. On going to the place where they have just left one cannot find a single caterpillar, and so that makes me think that the same fate awaits the cinnabar caterpillars, as starlings are pot likely to be epicures. One caterpillar is as good as another to them. The sort 1 that we have at present eat the leaves all right, but they make their appearance too late in the season, and they don’t eat quickly enough to consume the plant before it seeds.' If the Cawthron Institute could make them appear just when the ragwort begins to grow we should soon be rid of it, but that is not to be expected, as no caterpillars are available of any sort on any plant before a certain season in the year according to the immutable laws of nature, so for that reason alone the cinnabar caterpillar will not make its appearance any sooner than the present one does, and it is equally certain that the starling will consume it with equal avidity, so whilst crediting the institute with' the best of intentions I pronounce it unhesitatingly as a foredoomed failure. To the dairy farmer I say this with equal conviction : You must make *up your mind to run at least one sheep per cow, preferably to each acre, if you 'wish to carry on dairy farming. In the meantime disabuse your mind of the fact that cutting ragwort in flower gets rid of it. It does not—it only makes it three times more prolific because it has to be cut three times and it seeds each time on the ground.

If a man won’t run sheep with his qows the only time to cut ragwort is before it flowers, and as it grows cut it again, and a third time. If it is not allowed to flower it cannot go to seed. That is obvious, and in spite of whatever so-called experts say this will be found the best method, but everyone will have to do it or it will be no good. One expert informed me seriously the other day that ragwort eats itself out. It may do if one lives long enough to see it done, but

the unfortunate farmer who has it js likely to get eaten out first unless immediate and united action is taken next season before it gets into flower.

In conclusion, I do not wish it to be thought that I am decrying the efforts of the Cawthron Institute. Far from it, but I am pointing out what they probably never thought of, namely, that the starlings will eat off their caterpillars as quickly as they are hatched out.