PRICKLY PEAR ERADICATION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23044, 21 November 1936, Page 28

PRICKLY PEAR ERADICATION

WORK QF TINY INSECTS (From Our Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, Nov. 11. The work of the minute cactoblastis insects has resulted in huge areas of Southern Queensland and Northern New South Wales being freed from the prickly pear pest, and made these tracts available for settlement, but cattle-owners in these dry days are bemoaning the disappearance of the “ pear.” Recently jubilant at the conquest of the pest, they are now attributing their present cattle losses, because of the drought, to the absence of the pear, which, they claim, was eaten by cattle and provided both moisture and food. Still, the balance seems largely on the side of the cactoblastis. For years, until it was eliminated, prickly pear was regarded as the greatest menace confronting the pasturalists, woolgrowers and dairymen of the affected areas. Twenty years ago an area twice the size of Victoria had been rendered'completely worthless because of the terrific growth of the pear. Early in the present century it covered 10,000,000 acres of valuable country, and during the subsequent decade its growth doubled. Queensland was faced with the possibility of being, within a comparatively few years, completely overcome by the pear, and before its ever-increasing advance hundreds of small settlers walked out of holdings that were submerged by a growth whose elimination had baffled science. Ten years ago the cactoblastis, imported from Mexico, got to work in earnest, and to-day the insects have cleared 25,000,000 acres and given Queensland a new State. Land that 10 years ago had been given up as useless has been reclaimed and is being intensely cultivated. About 10,000,000 acres in New South Wales have been similarly cleared. Residents of Chinchilla, on the fringe of the Darling Downs, recently erected a hall, which bears a plaque in memory of the work of the cactoblastis.