POPPIES AS A PEST

New Zealand Times, Volume L, Issue 11685, 24 November 1923, Page 12

POPPIES AS A PEST

Mr R. McGillivray, an official of the Department of Agriculture, who has returned to New Zealand after an ab senoe of over twelve months in Great Britain, expresses tiro opinion that the importation of the seed of the scarlet field poppy is frau'ght with danger to the agricultural community. The plant, he says, is now quite conspicuous in many fields in the South of England,, much to the concern of landowners, as it is most difficult to eradicate. Hie has seen fields of wheat practically ruined by it. On one field, near Edinburgh, Mr MoGi'livray noticed a crop of wheat that ordinarily might have threshed 40 bushels to the acre, but which were half poppy-flowers. It was the only farm m the district on which the poppy was to he seen, and the explanation was that the farmer had got the seed from tho South of England. It flourishes amazingly, and is not long in acquiring complete control. This is proved by the way it grow's in France, in spite of the intensive land farming prevalent there.

Farmers in England, said Mr MoGillivray, had declared to him that the eradication of the poppy was impossible once a field became infected. He strongly urged those farmers who had received any of the seed to carefully control its growth.