PAHIATUA PARS

Manawatu Times, Volume XL, Issue 14016, 19 October 1918, Page 3

PAHIATUA PARS

(From Our Own Correspondent.) At intervals the town boasts of a fish shop. It is again provided with one, a well-known borough employee having resumed business in addition to his varied other callings. The A. and P. Association has got under way its annual milk-testing competitions/ with two classes each for cows and heifers. Woodvillc received in all 34 entries for its competition. The price of wool carting this season has jumped up 15 per cent., and the maximum load is 4ewt, unless the farmer likes to pay extra. Mr and Mrs Halliday have been advised that their son William, who has Been at the front, is due to arrive in the Dominion ‘shortly. Another son was killed in action some time ago. Mr W. Ross, Field Inspector of the Department of Agriculture, who has boon recuperating in different parts, having had a bad attack of influenza, has now recovered. There were 30 births, 4 marriages, and 9 deaths registered here last quarter. Forty-two thousand trout fry were distributed in the local rivers and streams last season. "Our Day” Red Cross fair this week again a big success, and when all the money is in, the total will be over £IOOO. Many town and country ladies took part, and the full list- of workers was much greater than the published list signified. There was a very large number of competitions, and the prizes were distributed in many parts of the district. The Town Band contributed music, the police supervised the drawing of art unions, and Mr Crewe auctioned the goods. DANTHONIA ON FERN COUNTRY. A leading Marima (Pahiatua) settler inquired from the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture recently whether it is practical to sow danthonia on fern country. The soil on his farm is rather light and poor, a good proportion being covered with piripiri and fern which has been eaten doAvn by stock during the summer months/ Cocksfoot is the main grass growing among the weeds —but there arc patches almost devoid of grass. He enquired if danthonia would strike on these patches, and what would be the best time of the year for sowing. The climate in the district is damp. The reply he received form the Department was as follows: — Mixtures including danthonia are regularly sown on poor classes of fern covered country. The fern should be burnt at the end of February or later and the seed sown before the beginning of April. Land where the fern is patchy and will not carry a fire, and where a good deal of bare ground occurs, is difficult to deal with, as the bare patches are generally very hard and offer very inferior seed beds. On such country there is no doubt that heavy stocking in late summer with sheep that have been grazing on good danthonia country is one of the best methods of introducing the grass. If any surface sowing is done it should be carried out in early autumn, and the mixture of danthonia, cocksfoot, crested dogstail, and poa pratensis used. If the ground is of a very poor character, danthonia mixed with Yorkshire fog is perhaps the best to use.