PRICKLY PEAR MOURNED.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 308, 27 November 1936, Page 5

PRICKLY PEAR MOURNED.

CATTLE FEED IN DROUGHT. The work of the minute cactoblastis insects lias resulted in huge areas of southern Queensland and northern New South Wales being freed from tlie prickly pear pest, and made these tracts available for settlement, but cattlo owners in these dry days are bemoaning the disappearance of the pear. Recently jubilant at the conquest of the pest, they are now attributing their present cattle losses, because of tlie drought, to the absence of the pear which, they claim, was eaten by cattle and provided both moisture and food. Still, the balance seems largely on the side of the cactoblnstis.

For years, until it was eliminated, prickly pear was regarded ns the greatest menace confronting the pastornlists, woolgrojvers and dairymen of the affected areas. Twenty years ago,' an area twice the size of Victoria had been rendered completely worthless because of the terrific growth of the pear. Early in tho present century it covered 10 million acres of valuable country, and during tho subsequent decade its growth doubled. Queensland was faced with the possibility of being, within a comparatively few years, completely overcome by the pear, and before its ever-increasing advance hundreds of small settlers walked out of' holdings that were submerged by a growth whose elimination had baffled science. Ten years ago the cactoblastis imported from Mexico got to work in earnest, and to-day the insects have cleared 25,000,000 acres and given Queensland a new State. Land that 10 years ago had been given up as useless has been reclaimed and is being intensively cultivated. About 10,000,000 acres of New South Wales havo been similarly cleared. Residents of Chinchilla, on the fringe of the Darling Downs, recently erected a ball, which bears a plaque in memory of the work of the cactoblastis.