RURAL RIDES

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22509, 17 September 1938, Page 13

RURAL RIDES

THE NELSON PROVINCE

(By H.A.M.)

There .is a. good deal to interest the traveller in the 180 miles of country which stretches from Greymouth to Nelson. Every 15 miles or so wellgrassed areas—some of them of considerable size—are to be seen set down in a wide expanse cf fern and similar growth. There is no warrant for believing that the Uats in the rough are less endowed with soil qualities than the grassed areas, from which it may be interred that there is a good deal of country which could be brought into a higher state of productivity. V .. K The Grey Valley provides a case in point. There are: some tidy prosper-ous-looking dairy holdings and sheep properties along the valley of the river. The suggestion has bsen made that an organised system of logging up and burning and clearing the watercourses, followed by ..lime to ameliorate the sourness which has developed through the retention of the water, could turn a big area into good grazing country. Old residents of the Coast have pointed out to the writer at different times where good pasture paddocks have slipped back into fern. The reclamation- of this country would require a good deal of money, and at the moment the incentive towards undertaking such an expense* is not strong. There is a small area of well-grassed flats near Reefton and Inangahua, and they appeared to be well stocked with cattle and sheep when the writer passed through', them the other day. The Murchison district also showed the possession of a .good belt of producing country. This district had been progressing rapidly before the earthquake of 1929, Which gave it a set-back, but in the last few years the leeway has been more than made up. Butter production has been going up in re- 1 cent years, and top-dressing has' also found a place. In the Four Rivers district a lot of stumping has been done. Isolation from railway connexion is the main disability of farmers in the Murchison district. The worst effect of it as minimised by the main activity being dairying, in which the produce can be-got away in concentrated form. There are approximately 10,000 cows in the Murchison County, of which-close on 4000 are return ea as dairy; cows, 54,000 sheep—--33,000 of which are breeding ewes—and 2350 pigs. The scope exists for these figures being much more than | doubled, as the flats are of. good qualNorth of Glenhope there are patches of country showing well-grassed flats, and many thousands of acres of comparatively easy faces, which could be improved, according to local farmers, with lime. It is all healthy .sheep country, and stock do well on it. Rail transport is available to below Glenhope, and better prospects may see some of this country improved, ; There is a block of particularly: wellfarmed flats on the Korere and Motupiko flats. These flats r are well stocked with sheep and cattle; •; most of the lambing is apparently over. Extensive forestry work has been undertaken between Glenhope and Tophouse, the area in course of planting being approximately 30,000 acres. Young plantations are coming away on the Spooner range, and milling is being carried on in a private plantation at Belgrove. Some attractive country corhes under the eye as Nelson is reached, and as the season seems to be a full month earlier there than in Canterbury, this part is looking at its best. At T3rightwater, Wakefield, and Stoke there is a good deal of barley growing. ' It has been demonstrated that most of the Nelson country except the few good areas near the city are deficient in lime. There is a deposit near Wakefield, and another at Glenhope. There are one or two others that are being worked in a small way. With the lime resources exploited more fully, and with the incentive of more stabilised and payable prices, there is scope for a good deal more production in this southern part of the province. There is no- gainsaying that some of the land is of- very moderate quality, but without this there is ai large area that could be brought to better productivity. The mild winter and the need lot less -winter attention to stock is an asset of value. Heath Weed A weed that is commencing seriously to concern farmers is heath, which is spreading rapidly | over some of the poorer country in the, Nelson province ft is also to be seen on the hills near Picton. It has been suggested that the weed is identical with the heather of the Scottish highlands, but to this i plant it has very little resemblance. It has been cultivated in private gardens, from where it has escaped. It seeds very readily, and if thickets of the plant are burned the young seedlings come up in a cluster thicker than ever.. Heath can grow up to eight feet high, something similar to gorse, and has no feeding value. Its spreading proclivities are making some farmers ' apprehensive. The plant revels in sour conditions, and where lime has been applied to patches _ it comes again weakly in comparison, but lime would be too costly a.method to deal with it on the poor class of country it has so far; infested. _ It ris rather remarkable, according -fo one observer, that it is still being cultivated in! some gardens as a. decorative shrub. Apparently it is. a Plant against which there should be a general declaration of war. „..-.. i ■:■- Pakihi Country The decision of the Labour Department to embark on an extensive policy of reclaiming pakihi land in iha Buljer district is not viewed very -favourably by the majority of farmers' tin the Coast. Most of them claim that. experiments with pakihi land have been going on for more than 20 years—as a matter of fact, they commenced In 1910—and although treated areas can be made to look attractive enough, they will not stand the practical test of continuous stock carrying. It is alleged that. the only plant that will grow on the pakihi land without extra- care is lotus major,, and lotus major- does not grow in the winter. A dairy farmer, therefore, would have .to find something ■: to carry .on his herds in the dead months. The reclamation of this pakihi land, plus the xost of fencing, roading. etc., to make a farm property is-estimated at £l3 to £lB an acre, so it was suggested to the writer, and this is much, too heavy, a price,to pay for land of this.clMS. One educational organisation-has been experimenting for. a number of years with a certain of success, as far as producing a clothing of feed .is concerned, but the economy of the work has never been practically tested. Settlers who have .tried fairly extensively to bring the . .pakihi. in have eventually abandoned the attempt. It isAunderstQbd,. that, .an area of; 2000 acres is to be treated first of all, but the ultimate aim is to bring in some thousands -of acres;.: The object of the scheme is to employ labour, but it is not-vet plain that the two departments w'hicli should .cqptain, the pert = knowledges-lands, and , agriculture —have shown any belief that the ■ reclamation of this class of- country is economically feasible. The scheme might ; be justified if there,should be. a dearth of grazing country, but there is a general opinion that the seme amount of money spent on'cleanling up some of the country which is. known to be good would 'far in achieving payable results.