RAGWORT MENACE

Waikato Times, Volume 116, Issue 19364, 18 September 1934, Page 9

RAGWORT MENACE

NEED FOR ACTION. UTILISATION OF UNEMPLOYED. SCHEME IN YVAIPA COUNTY. The need for urgent measures to restriot the spread of ragwort through the farm lands of the county was stressed by a number of speakers at a meeting of the Walpa County Council yesterday, and strong support was forthcoming to a scheme to enlist the servloes of the unemployed to oradloate the weed In the Infested area 3. 'Discussion arose from an inspection by members of the council of a section at Plronsia where experiments with various preparations and chemicals had been carried out by officers of the county In an effort to ascertain the most efficient eradicator. Over a dozen separate plots, all badly infested with ragwort, were treated with a number of different remedies, the results of the tests indicating that sodium chlorate was the most reliable medium for killing the weed. Some of the preparations exerted little or no effect on the ragwort. Work of Mobile Gang. In . subsequent discussion In the council chamber on the results of the tests, Mr G. B. Melrose, the local noxious weeds inspector of the Department of Agriculture, thanked the council for its co-operation in the campaign against the ragwort last season, and he asked If it was the council’s intention to proceed on similar lines as those followed last year, particularly in making a mobile gang of men available to work on any Crown or native land adjoining farms where they were working. He reminded the members that under this scheme the gang was engaged by farmers to clear their' land of ragwort at the rate of is per day per man. The county engineer, Mr J. W. Civil, said there were men available at present, and it appeared to be principally a matter of arranging transport. The county clerk, Mr T. Grant, mentioned. that application had been made for men from Auckland to work in the county, but so far none had arrived. ' Mr Melrose said that the mobile gang was used chiefly on land which was not badly infested with ragwort. Tlie gang had proved its worth by the work which it had done. The opinion was expressed by the chairman, Mr S. C. Macky, that the council should ask that all unemployed in its territory should be made available for ragwort eradication, j “It is no use playing with the thing. The summer is .coming on, and the ragwort is growing all the time," commented Mr D. B. Livingstone. “It is a question of getting the farmers to employ the men,” added Mr J. S. Fisher. Remedial Measures. It was decided to ask the Commissioner of Unemployment that all unemployed In the county should be made available for the campaign against ragwort. The council also decided to take action against the occupiers of ragwort infested property who made no efforts to check the spread of the weed and clear their land. Mention was made by several speakers of the magnitude of the work entailed in inspecting the various farms, and it was decided to suggest to the Department of Agriculture that the noxious weeds inspectors operating from Te Awamutu, Cambridge, and Hamilton, should be given assistance during the ragwort season by the appointment of additional inspectors. The possibility of a subsidy on sodium chlorate was discussed and a decision was reached to communicate with the Minister of Agriculture' in the matter. * " I think that the settlers are waking up to the gravity of the ragwort menace, because they certainly did more last year than ever before to check it,’’ said Mr Livingstone.