THE FRADICATION OF BRACKEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 3102, 27 August 1913, Page 14

THE FRADICATION OF BRACKEN.

There arc few agricultural problems of more national importance to the Dominion at the present time than the successful treatment of bracken growing on light country. If the full carrying capacity of the land on which it grows was available for stock, and the bracken itself wiped off the face of the earth, the number of stock kept in the Dominion would be nearly doubled. The difficulty of doing anything with it is frequently that t.liA is

greater than any accruing return from the land is likely to warrant. The country so covered is usually very broken, and although the best of the land does not lend itself, to anything but expensive cultivation, good virgin land should repay a strenuous effort to get rid of the fern, and if possible replace it with valuable grasses and clovers. Where the bracken can be burned, and the land ploughed, there should not be so very much difficulty. Most of the soil on which it grows strongly is light, but not crumbled easily, and if a wide and shallow furrow is completely turned over on its back and torn about with the harrows and sown with rape and white turnip, some of them will grow and keep a few cattle tramping over it for some time. If these cattle can be fed on the ground, so much the better. A better and cleaner furrow will b? obtained in the second ploughing given as soon as the cattle are removed, and another fast-grow-ing fodder crop well manured may be grown on the ground, and again folded with cattle. If this process is continued, the fodder crop pays for the work done, and the land is improving in condition all the‘time. Two years should suffice to kill the thickest of it. On laud which cannot be ploughed the position is quite a different one. Continuous grazing alone with sheep gives the fern every chance. The sheep graze the finer plants closely and leave the coarse-fibred plants severely alone. I bus we find on tutu country, where cattle would not be risked, fern, flax, and tussock grow profusely, and soon cover tiie ground so that sheep cannot make their way through it. There is no option then but to burh in the autumn, and surface sow with cocksfoot. If a solo of this grass can be secured, it may be thoroughly established by shutting up the section sown for two years, or until the cocksfoot seeds. Cattle grazing will do the rest till the ground is clear enough to carry sheep. A great deal of attention has been paid to this subject in Scotland during the last 10 years on country from 500 ft to 1000 ft above sea level. The plan adopted there to get rid of the fern was repeated cutting of the young shoots as they came up after the "first cutting by scythe or machine. The first cutting was carried out in spring during November, and the operation repeated as soon as the new leaves began to open on the next growth of shoots. Some of our more open country might be treated in that way. three or four cuttings may be required in the first season, and two or three each in the following two, three, or four years till the bracken dies out. This treatment was found to be quite effective. It was determined in the course of the Mivestigations, which extended over several years, that bracken was seldom/ or never found in soils containing a fair quantity of lime. But well established bracken cannot be exterminated by the application of lime, although that might reduce the cuttings, and would certainly help any sole of grass established after killing the bracken. On the surface this treatment appears to be expensive, but in two known cases the' cost was only 14s and 19s per acre respectively from first to last. That should not be regarded as excessive ou what is really the best ground on the run.