Hill-country Erosion

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 171, 22 July 1939, Page 9

Hill-country Erosion

VALUE OF SOLID TURF OF GRASS The value of bush aud a good solid turf of grass for combating hill-country erosion was referred to by Mr. E. A. Madden, agristologist in the ment of Scientific and Industrial Research, Palmerston North, in an address to members of the Citizens’ Lunch Club yesterday. There was considerable bush iu the North Island yet to bo felled, but he doubted whether it was worth felling, and considered that the top country was better left bush clad. One hundred million acres of once productive country in America was now a barren waste as a result of erosion. Similar erosion was taking place in jiarts of New Zealand, evidenced by the silting up of rivers, which meant that good grasslands on the plains would bo reduced to a mass of silt, as in the Esk Valley, Hawke’s Bay. In order to combat such erosion, the right grasses should be used on hill country and bush left where it existed. There was an agitation that certain areas be put back into forest, but Mr. Madden emphasised the value of a good turf of grass through which rain filtered instead of washing away the soil.