NELSON BUSH LANDS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1754, 20 May 1913, Page 10

NELSON BUSH LANDS.

IMPRESSIONS 01' A NORTHERNER.

Writing further of a tour in the Nelson province, our Travelling Correspondent states that after visiting Stanley Brook his next journey was up the railwaj ino to Glcnhope. Oil tho way a varied Uass of. country was seen. I lie railway runs along a valley, and after leaving I>elgrove begins to mount up the sule ot the low range. All tho way one could see densa masses of the ever-present blackberrv, and few, if any, patclies seemed to have been cut, though on some ot tho farms Angora goats were to be scon browsing on the weed. J. he country has been clothed in the past byliea\) black birch bush, with a sprinkling of more useful, timbers at the base. Iho only grass ono could see was' danthonia, except on now burns or uowly-broken-up land. No matter what is done, danthonia eventually comes in and takes charge. Inough its carrying capacity is not great, still it is a good thing l'or the farmers that this useful grass dons make its appearonce, as, taken on the whole, this class of soil does not take the English grasses. They 1 soon disappear, and if tho dautboma did'not. come, it would simply mean a mass of hawk-weed and other rubbish. After passing the highest part of the line,-the train runs out into a narrow valley, with high hills on each side. I his looks poor land indeed. Thero is a little dahifion'ia, a good deal of Scrub, and fern and stones. Land like this needs to be held in -big blocks, and is by np means poor man's country. By and by tho vallev widens out, and tho land improves, evidenced by tho appearasco of the holdings all tho wav past Tvohatu, Tapawera, and Tadmor. Getting into newer country, only recently felled, thero is not much settlement yet. Largo areas of standing bush have been burnt by tho fires spreading from tho felled portions, and as these standing areas are not sown with grass, nature puts in her own clothing of fern, which gives an immenso deal of trouble to the farmers. On nearing Glenhope, at the end of tho line, tho land looks very, very poor. It is all bush-clad, with the everlasting birch, and from appearances a lot of this country will be difficult to farm. However, on© never knows, what yesterday was thought impossible in manyparts, is to-dnv quite feasible, and it may be the same with these poor Nelson bush lands.