BLACKBERRY PEST

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16874, 11 February 1929, Page 2

BLACKBERRY PEST

CONTROLLED BY GOATS

SUCCESS AT TUTIRA

Mr. H. Guthrie-Smith, of Tutira Ration, ilawko's Bay, has had remarkable sueecss in clearing land of blackberry by the use of goats. j n the Journal* of Agriculture he relates his experience on his own station. After faoing kept clear of blackberry since 1882, Tutira became infested during the war period between 1914 and 1919. Certain areas on the station "got away." Owing to the shortage of men it was impossible longer to dig out- the scattered bushes. These —in 1914 probably insignificant seedlings or actually not yet dropped by birds — increased both in numbers and size. By the entl of the war they had possessed themselves of a valley or gorge facing south and of auothcr locality facing east, the one of 150 acres, the other" of double that extent. This comifrv had mostly been under light bush.

"HOEEIFIED." '•'When in 1919 I returned from the Old Country T. was horrified and astounded at the state of the run," writes Mr. Guthrie-Smith. "There were enormous blackberry bushes actually oa the homestead lawn; there w'ere 3ft. high thickets on the swamp lands, where blackberry bad been unknown; on every eligible site individual thriving plants had established themselves. The two areas already mentioned bad' got far beyond the spade; ploughing or spraying with poison were alike impossible, because of landslips, limestone boulders, and dead timber. "Prior to the advent of goats the methods of defence adopted were dig-1 ging, poisoning, ploughing, chipping, superphosphating, and salting. Of these, digging is the least expensive and most satisfactory M'here only scattered bushes exist; indeed, even before the coming of the goats nine-tenths of the run had been thus cleared —a man having been put on with orders to the manager that nothing short of murder and arson was to call him off his job." COSTLY METHODS. The writer describes 'the various costly and usually ineffectual methods employed in ridding land of blackberry, and specially emphasises ttio danger to stock of the use of chemical remedies. Curiously enough the smell of arsenic-wdthered leaves attracts cattle for miles around with fatal results when they cat them. Hundreds of pounds yearly were spent on blackberry eradication labor alone at Tutira without materially reducing the pest. Then Mr. Guthrie-Smith thought he would try goats. He continues:— '■'Goats finally were bought about seven years ago. Several of the small lots acquired ■were well-bred Angora; the others the very refuse of the race—terrible-looking' brutes of every color, siae, and make. Year by year this unprepossessing herd has increased, only the best male Angora kids being retained as billies, and fast tho flock is becoming white. "We have now 600 mature goats—an ample supply for our requirements—and this year got over "200 kids. So far no attempt to utilise the fleece has been made, but at next dqeking the best will be roughly taken off and bagged.

BOUGH STUFF PEEFEEEED. "Since airival of the goats the ah - nuai cutting of the blackberry hni . altogether ceased. The bushes on the twin plague-spots—portions of 70(tacre and SOu-acre paddocks—are now browsed flat. At first some care WitH exercised in herding tho goats .back to these infested corners, but after a. week or so the newcomers .settled dovrn, and since then have been left pretty much to their own devices. In summer they somewhat spread out to i search for and devour the prickly tops of three or four species of thistle growing on the run; in autumn and . winter they contract their range and conline themselves to a diet of hard thorny stems. I have reuson to believe that during their summer excursions any outlying lawyer or blackberry discovered is never afterwards forgotten. !No doubt the goats do take a certain amount of grass, but the area of land kept open by thorn and grazed by sheep more than makes up for the pasturage devoured. : They prefer, in fact, blackberry, lawyer, and coarse hard herbage to the best grasses. 1 have known a mob pass over newly laid down grasses and cdovers two or three inches high—f excellent sheep feed —to reaeh tlir,! roughest of herbage. Scattered blackberry bushes on the rich alluvial fl/jta are more than held in hand; I havf; no doubt whatsoever that even .-blackberry in lucerne would be discovered and nibbled back. ' Certain]-/, too, goats eat much seedling njs.rmka of an ineh or so in height; t'faey also trim the bigger bushes.

GOATS AS "At first I did .not e.a re to s ee goats j in every paddock, but t .owadays we let them go where they 7 iiko, sure that they can do no harjr a . an d sure, too, that any seedling bV ackberrythat-'kay have escaped humaj L cyCB -will never be allowed to grow • more than an inch or so in height o r spread. They arc the police of th' , s countryside; they arrest all sorts r.",f vegetable ne'er-do-wells. We are glad To see thern establishing thom.' .elves in paddock after paddock. The success of the goat as a blackberry destroy er is the more remarkable in tha't- -on Tutira at any rate—the most V ir ulent and luxuriant growth or rubus fjuticosus is to bo found on steep, r.spncts, hillsides facing due south 'and therefore damp., cold, and almost su nless* throughout the winter mont/is. There, nevertheless, goats do mmt.cor gregate, and there they have ' mfeblcd the bushes as box edgings are triminer.l by garden shears." Since the stocking 6f Tutira with goats at the rate of 00 per 1000 sheop wytltin.g and poisoning of blackberry have* fdtogether and absolutely ceased. Spade, work, too, has been stopped in paddjoek after paddock. The 6 per cent, of goats carried has made no difference in the feed available for sheep. In paddocks of six and seven hundred acres goats work the blackberry areas without shepherding. At the worst they are no worse than merinos; indeed, they are less restless and''wilu than this'breed of sheep" remarks' Mr Guthrie-Smith. "Nor must it be thought that only large areas of ground can satisfactorily be treated with goats. Settlers on SOO and 1200aere farms are making a g(W' T job oi the pest. The countrysviu is in appearance improved out of all knowledge. Sections that have until lately been regarded as practically worthless will again support settlers. ' "The stocking of Tutira with goats to the extent of 60 per 1000'sheep has

been in my estimation an unqualified success. Ido not see how this method of bhickbcrrv control can be bettered.",