GOATSRUE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 2045, 23 October 1919, Page 3

GOATSRUE.

The spread of the noxious Aveed, goatsrue, on the lands adjacent to the ManaAvatn River is causing settlers a good deal of alarm. Various counties, excepting the Manawalu County, have declared goatsrue a noxious Aveed, A correspondent to our Levin contemporary" supplies the folloAving particulars: —

Goatsrue’s botanical name is Galegia, a liguminous plant, of Avhich there are several varieties. The variety in the Manawalu is Officenalis. It is found principally in river beds or marshy ground, is not difficult to deal Avith Avhere you can use the plough. A throe-foot 'crop of goatsrue ploughed in is a good green manure, hut on river beds it is impossible to eradicate, owing to a peculiarity of the seed. It is a hard seed, and Avill sink in Avater and live dormant in the silt for years, and Avhen conditions arc right Avill groAV. ‘There are six or eight seeds in airtight pods, Avhich do not open and shell the seed like most plants, but the pods fall and are carried away by floods, and the air in (he pods keep them afloat, and they are thus distributed Avhercver flood water goes, and Avhen germination lakes place you will find six or eight plants in one place. Some folks mistake lupin for goatsrue, but the former is tree-shaped, with a yellow flower. The latter is rank of groAvth, with a purple llower, and when dry resembles a hunch of canes, Oft. or Sft. high, so hard and strong that horses cannot lie forced through them. If you . burn the canes it improves the next growth, 'fhe settlers in the loav country are spending largo sums of money in erecting a stop hank to keep ther Hood Avator out of tlie Jlax swamps, and the exclusion of the goatsrue seed is an element in the scheme. While eveiy effort should he made to keep it doAva, it is an impossibility to eradicate it -from a river bed. Stock will nut eat it. It is a native of Spain.