DEATH OF RAGWORT

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 108, 9 May 1931, Page 20 (Supplement)

DEATH OF RAGWORT

VALUABLE EXPERIMENTS FARMS FREED FROM PEST Twelve months or so ago the couu try comprising the Croydon soldier settlement at Waipuku was one sea of yellow, so badly was it infested with ragwort, reports the “Budget.” I’o-day a large portion of the country appears to be almost free of the pest. It. presents a Wonderful transformation., this being due to the efficiency with which sodium chlorate docs its work. It was unfortunate that when this blcvk of country was thrown open for selection that a number of sections were not taken up immediately. In the meantime the ragwort spread in all directions from these properties. Several settlers wii» did take up iand endeavoured for years to cope with the weed. It was one ceaseless round of mowing, but still the ragwort thrived, ami finally they gave up in despair and abandoned their farms. Others still struggled along, working hard from dawn to dark waging war on the ragwort, but it was always the same story. The weed continued to spread in spite of them, and losses of dairy stock due to ragwort poisoning added to their difficulties, until they, too. felt all their efforts were in vain, and that the only thing left for them to do was to “walk off.’’ Then it was announced that the i awthorn Institute had discovered n m«Mh—the Cinnabar—which attacked ragwort, and that eggs of the moth were to be distributed by the Fields Division of the Department of Agri culture in districts selected, and the settlers at the outset felt their troubles would soon be over, despite the fact that the departmental offivers had stated definitely some time must elapse before the moths became accliinatisca and sufficiently well established to show any appreciable effect. Two years ago the first moths were liberated, and because the ragwort was not destroyed in the first year the farmers becani* sceptical as to whether they would ever be of any real value. The moth has certainly become well established, but. when one thinks of the miles of ragwort infested country, one quite naturally took the view of the farmei that in any case years must elapse before the moth made any real impression on the ragwort. In the meantime the Department of Agriculture had been conducting exhaustive experiments in other directions, and ultimately was in a position to announce that; spraying with sodium chlorate was .100 per cent, efficient in destroying ragwort. Demonstrations were given throughout the district, and recognising that the claims advanced could be substantiated farmers who had ragwort on their properties —at, any rate the majority of them — began to use the spray, and to-day it would be no exaggeration to say that scores of properties on which ragwort had been present for years are now entirety cleared. To-day there is no excuse for the man who neglects ragwort. At Air W. Hooker’s property on the Croydon Road, the Department of Agriculture has continued experiments with sodium chlorate solution of varying strength, side by side with trials of calcium chlorate solution, also ot varying strength, but to date results are strongly in favour of sodium. With this solution, as already intimated, 100 per cent, kills have been obtained, but the calcium docs not appear to bp so effective, many of the plants sending out a secondary growth some weeks after spraying, although the parent plant itself seems to be quite dead. Air Hooker’s farm twelve months ago was as badly infested perhaps ns any piece of country in the district. To day it is almost cleared, so much so that while a few months ago it would take days to spray one paddock; to-day the ragwort; over the whole farm could be sprayed in as many hours. His neighbours, too, have not. been idle, and ore long the settlement should be one of the most productive stretches of country in the district. MANNER OF LIFE DIFFERENT It i« also a fact that people own automobiles and do loss walking, hence wear out fewer shoes (remarks the Live Stock Journal). They dress in silks and rayon, hence have reduced the demand for cotton and for wool. The situation thus created was well expressed some months ago when someone said that formerly it took two sheep working a full year to clothe one woman, while now two silkworms can do it any Sunday afternoon. Consumption of farm commodities is thus declining, and production is increasing. We are breeding and raising that yield more, beef ia one and a-half years than cattle formerly did in three, and pigs that yield mora pork in six months than the old type yielded in ten.