MARAM GRASS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7048, 9 February 1910, Page 8

MARAM GRASS

INTRODUCED BY WELLINGTON SETTLER. . There are few countries in the.world where the wandering' sand dune is a greater menace to agricultural, areas near the coast line than, is the case with New Zealand. Afforestation is declared by Dr Cockayne to be the true remedy and the only profitable means of utilise ing the sand country. In the meantime, however, excellent work is being done: by planting the dimes with marom grass, and in a lesser degree with lupin. Few people realß-se the extent to which maram grass is employed by settlers ‘who • are fighting the sand encroachment of their farms. At the mouth of the Rangitikei river and further north np to and beyond the Wanganui river this great sand binding plant has been sown to an enormous extent, and has rendered the settlers concerned excellent service. "Speaking of the "subject to the writer the other day Mr D. H. Guthrie, M.P., said maram grass waa first introduced, if not to tho Dominion, at least to this island, hy the late Mr J. C. Crawford, of Miramar, who employed it with good ■Jl'oct. Soon after its introdnotion to Vtiramai" the late Mr J. Dalrymple and Mr Donald Fraser (then directors of the Wellington Meat Export Company), when on a visit to Wellington, heard of the work of Mr Crawford in controlling sand dunes, and visited Miramar. They obtained a number of the plants, and them initiated a very successful campaign in fighting their own sand drifts with, maram, ' giving np the use of lupin, which they had used with only fair success up to that time. Their example was followed by other settlers up the coast, ono or two of them doing well by selling plants to neighbours.