GOOD LAND MADE FROM MUD FLATS IN NORTH-VALLEY

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6849, 2 March 1929, Page 4

GOOD LAND MADE FROM MUD FLATS IN NORTH-VALLEY

SPECIES OF GRASS FROM NOVA SCOTIA INTRODUCED—MAKES EXCELLENT GRAZING. EDINBURGH, Jan. 30. The conversion of more than 2000 acres in all from useless mud flats into good land providing a livelihood for many hundreds of people during the last century aud a half, was described by H. M. Cadell of Grango when he lectured recently to the Scottish Geographical Society on the scheme of the Forth Conservancy Board near Bo’ness for the reclamation of tho foreshore. All this work had been carried out by private individuals or by the railway company which owned the harbours. Mr. Cadell discussed tho best way to add to tho rise and productiveness of tho land, and said that afforestation was suitable for poor high-lying ground but in the Forth Valley there was an area of that land inherently rich and potentially valuable if reclaimed. Much land had been reclaimed during the past century and a half and was now used mainly for agricultural purposes. The long strath of good carse land above and below Stirling remained for centuries buried under deep morasses of peat. In 1927 the recently constituted Forth Conservancy Board began the reclamation of over 300 acrc3 at Kinneil, west of Bo’ness. Here tho conservancy had constructed a low dyke or embankment at half tide level that impounded the tide in a shallow lagoon in which the calm water could deposit its mud. Natural accretion would go on till the mud had silted up several feet and finally, after the foreshores had been heightened, the tide could be excluded by raising the bank above tho level of high tide. Within this century a new species of grass land had been introduced into the country which flourished on mud that was submerged at high tide. This was lice grass or spartina, an exotic which was rapidly overspreading the mud flats in the English Channel'and had been found useful in catching a sediment and assisting reclamations there. Rico grass was first experimentally planted .in the Forth 14 years ago. Thia autumn some plants of a different species from Nova Scotia had been put in. This might suit tho climate better and the growth of tho new variety would bo watched with interest. It mado excellent grazing and the cattle wero very partial to it.