Productive Work.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20283, 18 April 1934, Page 6

Productive Work .

Excellent Results

Relief Labour in Former River-bed.

j£>ELIEF WORK can be productive. This is the contention of the Waimalcariri River Trust, which yesterday made its annual tour of inspection. In the course of the day a visit was paid to an area which a few years ago was a tangle of gorse and scrub, and now after being grubbed, ploughed and levelled, is producing wondertul winter feed. The work in the first place was done by relief labour on a strip of land by the Waimakariri just above Belfast. The advance of protection work had assured that the land would be free from flooding, and it had rich grazing possibilities on account of the deposit of silt. Over most of the area the gorse and broom were grubbed out the willows cut, and an area of 150 odd acres leased to Mr J. Johns. Members of the trust were Anazed yesterday at the results which scientific farming has achieved. The first paddock visited showed a crop of choumcllier, a winter feed which has won popularity over the last few years. The crop stood over four feet high, was in first-class condition, and was estimated to produce between 40 and 50 tons of feed to the acre. The additional value of this feed is that whereas mangolds have to be treated and left to dry for a period of six weeks to two months, the choumollier is ready for the stock to eat as soon as it is cut. In other of the recently reclaimed paddecks Italian ryegrass has been sown, and is making great progress. Before the members left Mr Johns’s property, the chairman (Mr J. H. Blackwell) made congratulatory comment on the fine work Mr Johns had done in bringing the area under such a high state of cultivation. The trust also inspected an area of 300 acres at Clarkville, on the north side cf the stream, which has been brought by relief labour to a point where cultivation is possible, and the land is to be offered for lease.