THROUGH NEW COUNTRY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 904, 25 August 1910, Page 10

THROUGH NEW COUNTRY.

: 'TREE-FERN AND SEA-SPRAY. In my last notes I mentioned the extremely broken nature of a portion of the hill,' . country behind Waverloy (writes . oiir travelling correspondent). When I turned the corner, as it were, and got into tho Kohi Koad, I saw good sheep country quite ruined by tho marvellous growth of tree ferns/. There aro ridges which have beeu felled and grassed and are now one solid mass of tree-ferns. The marvel is how there is room for them all to grow.' In that particular spot it seems as if iheso usually beautiful specimens of our New Zealand vegetation, are just an eyesore, and; anything but "things of beauty." The farmers tell'me they simply take charge. It is a pity, as, being blue 'papa land, it.would otherwise- make excellent two to two and a half sheep pasteurage. . I was pleased to note there; was aT decidedly better bite of grass in tho paddocks in Kphi lload than I had yet seen. It os fairly high country—up to a thousand feet or more —and has. a nico gentle slope towards tho sea, from which considerable deposits of saline particles coma to the land. And in several,farmers told me that the very severe salt spray blizzard which.-ravaged that part of the''west coast last Christinas, and which'they considered was responsible for the disastrous harvest yield, had done a great deal .of good in other ivays, grass'.".particularly benefiting, and this year's mangold crops no doubt owing some of their excellence to the heavily salt-charged winds which swept, over. aiid deposited their contents on the surface.