Taranaki Herald. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1910. NOXIOUS WEEDS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LV, Issue 14134, 14 February 1910, Page 2

Taranaki Herald. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1910. NOXIOUS WEEDS.

With regret we learn that noxious weeds, especially blackberry and ragwort, are rapidly gaining ground in some parts of this province. The Franklcy Road district has been named to us as a locality in which this is, .particularly noticeable. If our information is correct there are-consider-able areas of once fairly clean land already overrun with these weeds, which are spreading at an alarming rate. There are farms, we are told, which ara becoming almost impenetrable thickets of blackberry, while the grazing capacity of others has 'been largely reduced on account of the spread of this and the ragwort. Farms which a few years ago carried a cow to three acres or less will not now graze one to less than five or six acres, and the milk supplies at the. factory have been correspondingly reduced. Now this is a very serious state of affairs, for which a remedy ought to be found at the earliest possible moment. The noxious weeds inspectors, we believe, find themselves almost powerless in the matter, and the owners and occupiers tjhemselves are unable in some cases to overcome, or even to check, the trouble, which lias got quite out of band and too formidable a task to successfully cope with. Yet it cannot be allowed to continue without effectual check, otherwise the whole countryside will in a few years be affected, for a farm affected with these particular weeds is a menace to the whole neighbourhood and a source of expense and anxiety to adjoining owners. It is, of course, quite possible to check, if not to completely eradicate the weeds, but the trouble is to apply the necessary remedies. These are simple, though in the case of blackberry somewhat expensive, and that is where the trouble comes in on badly affected land. Ragwort, where it has taken a strong hold, can be best dealt with by means of sheep. This has been demonstrated over and over again, and so successfully that in Southland ragwort is not regarded very seriously; at least, so we gathered a few years ago from Southland farmers who had experience of it. Californian thistle was their trouble. Where only isolated plants are present nothing but constant vigilance can hope to keep them from multiplying rapidly. A few days’ relaxation of vigilance at tins season of.tbe year may be fatal to tbe chance of keeping a farm free from the weed. But no vigilance, no possible precautions, can prevent the seed from neglected and badly infected areas being carried on to adjoining land, so that in justice to those who are exerting themselves to eradicate the weed where it already has a hold, or to keep it away from farms .where it has not yet made its appearance, the owners of infected land must be compelled to adopt whatever means are best to prevent the weed from spreading and to eradicate it. Blacky berry is a more serious menace to the country. The seeds arc carried many miles by birds, and the sin all plants have a much more insidious way with them than the

ragwort, which, whatever its faults, does not hide its head. On broken land, or rough hush clearings, it is an exceedingly difficult pest to keep in check, hut ou small areas, where it is possible to use the plough, it is by no moans a difficult matter to keep it down. But here again eternal vigilance is the price of exemption from harmful effects. In drawing pointed attention to the fact that those two weeds are rapidly gaining ground wo do not wish to exaggerate the evil, hut to impress upon those whose land is affected, as well as those whose land is threatened, with the serious nature of the danger which will result from any negligence in dealing with them.