CATERPILLARS AND RIVERS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 407, 16 January 1909, Page 3

CATERPILLARS AND RIVERS.

NORTH CANTERBURY PLAGUE. ; . 181 TELEOBAPH—SPECIAL COBBESPONDENT.) • _ Christchurohi January 15. _ The:caterpillar pest is still the subject.of. 'interest, and concern in North Canterbury. The plague (remarks a local paper) was first reported from the. Cheviot district, but there does not seem to be ground for suggesting that, the insects travelled to tho other parts in North Canterbury. The' cater.pillars Certainly, cannot cross a river. Though .the evidence goes to show that, if they meet with.. running wafer on their forward march, they plunge in, they, are washed' away and drowned in such a case, and they could not have. crossed such; a river .as the Hurunui. No doubt the conditions that produced the caterpillar in unpleasantly large numbers in Cheviot also; operated'in the other districts. : : Cheviot'suffered pretty severely. Though a good-deal of.the. grain is nowin .stook or in- stack,: almost, every settler has complaint to make regarding the depredations of the caterpillars. Some have lost oats, some grass seed,, and some wheat, tho'ugh this in smaller , quantities. Some oat crops have suffered to ; the extent of fully ten bushels an' acre, and in quite a number of paddocks almost every head of grass has been eaten off. Considerable areas of oats and wheat have been out before-they were fully, ripe, in ■order to escape 'the pest, [but. it has -been., found that the caterpillars will even .attack the'cornstalks, in .stook..' Tho reporter found a general feeling among the farmers that' they had been a little too hard on the small .birds. - ; Mr. ; S..F,,Whitcombe; railway, traffic manager in, Christchurch',-states that he, has a clear recollection of : the visitation of' caterpillars in : the •'Wanganui' district about thirty years ago. -'On two occasions trains - were stuck up " \ by;, the caterpillars for about, hfteen ipmutes.- ' The insects were present in millions. They marched on through; the' district devouring everything as they went, like a ravaging .army.-. -Thfe 1 only, effective;remedy was to :driye:mobs of.sheep over them, and have:-them trampled to. death. ■ For, severaldays, after.the visitation."part's].of the'affected districts were undesirable places on' account, of the smell, that'arose'from 'the'dead bodies, of the insects. '