PAMPAS GRASS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22612, 2 July 1935, Page 7

PAMPAS GRASS

A VIGOROUS DISCLAIMER LIMITED USES EMPHASISED NOT OFFICIALLY RECOMMENDED •The Department of Agriculture In Otago and Southland is not advocating the general use of pampas grass for the simple reason that the published views of Mr B. C. Aston (chief chemist of the department), which caused such a etir in Wellington are definitely not in accord with official departmental opinion." With this uncompromising remark, the Helds superintendent of the Department of Agriculture in Otago and Southland (Mr, J. M„ Smith), answered a query put to him yesterday by a Daily Times reporter on the subject of pampas grass, with special reference to the claims that were being made in respect of this fodder plant by a departmental official in Wellington. “I am afraid,” said Mr Smith, “that Mr Aston has allowed his enthusiasm for pampas grass to run away with him. He was always very keen on it, and seems determined to find for it a place in the sun, although that, after all, is not the work of the chemist. I would not say that pampas grass has no place in this country. Good use can be found for it on rough, third class country, or in odd corners and gullies. But I will say definitely that farmers will be very unwise to use this grass on good country where first class pasture can be maintained.” Referring further to the limited usefulness of the plant, Mr Smith said that in the North Island it was grown occasionally as a winter fodder for bullocks, hut it had yet to prove itself as a feed for dairy cows. The fact that dairy cows w,ould eat it determined little, as cows could often be seen chewing flax and similar growths which had absolutely no value as milk-producing, fodder. The glowing account of the value of the grass recently published from Wellington could not be substantiated by actual experience to date, and h* could say very emphatically that the views expressed at that time did not represent the considered opinion of the department. “Since Mr Aston burst into print on the subject,” concluded Mr Smith, “district offices of the department have been inundated with letters from farmers clamouring for; plants and information. While-one does not wish to damp their ardour in any way, it is only fair that they ehould be told that the department in Otago and Southland is not advocating the general use of this grass.”