PROSPECTIVE DANGER.
RAGWORT v. COWS. Farmer’s Challenge. “ I don’t think farmers realise the danger from ragwort. They talk about the price of butter on the LonI don market, but shortly we .shall have no cows to send butter from if something is not done, as we shall have to put on sheep to graze ragwort out.” In. the above words Mr. J. Simpson commented on the ragwort menace at the last meeting of the Matamata branch of the New Zealand Farmers’ Union. Continuing, Mr. Simpson stated tfiat he thought he must have pulled up thousands of .plants this year, and in 25 years he had taken care that not one plant had seeded on his farm. 1 Mr. Prowse: You are stretching it a bit, are you not? Mr. Simpson: No. I am willing to state that one day I went round with a pen-knife and pulled up at least 100 little plants. Mr. Prowse: Oh, yes, little ones. Mr. Simpson: Well, they grow into big ones. (Laughter). Continuing, the speaker stated that in his opinion every man who let ragwort seed should be had up before the court and fined heavily. It was one of the most serious questions affecting farmers, and if they kept drifting as they had done in five years time it would be a very serious matter indeed. He was prepared to pay a very substanital sum to anyone who could find ragwort seed on his farm. “ I don’t care how plainly the press puts these .remarks, because it is a most serious matter,” he concluded. Mr. Higgins: We must keep pegging away at them. Mr. Rollett explained that it was hard to know what to do. The county council had no jurisdiction over the Town Board area, or over the county. The latter was the j stock inspector’s job, and when he last brought some cases in the local court he got' a very poor hearing. He had been pulling plants on his farm ever since he had been there, and now there were more plants on the farm than 'ever. The plants were ' all in the gullies where the prevailing wind blew. No action was taken, and the matter then dropped. . (
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Bibliographic details
Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1112, 7 April 1930, Page 5
Word Count
368PROSPECTIVE DANGER. Matamata Record, Volume XIII, Issue 1112, 7 April 1930, Page 5
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