NOXIOUS WEEDS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2361, 18 January 1915, Page 7

NOXIOUS WEEDS

QUESTION OF ERADICATION.

(By Telegraph— From a Correspondent/ Wanganuij January 16.

Ah interesting position was taken up by the Taranaki exeoutive of the Farmers' Union in connection with the Board of Agriculture's circular concerning the eradication of noxious weeds.

Mr. Maxwell pointed out that this matter had beeii dealt with by all the branches of the Union, the executives, and -the Dominion CoiifereiitieSj but it had never beeii taken in hand by _ the proper authority, the Board of Agriculture, until now. It was true that the question had been thrashed out thoroughly at the Dominion Conference be•twfeen the officers of the Agricultural Department and the meinbei'B of the Farmers' Union. The difficulty was in regard to the different classes of land. In one case there was flat, ploughable land, and in the other there was land with deep gullies, where it Was not possible to externiinate the. weeds. It was absurd for anyone to say that the Act could be rigorously enforced. The only way in which weeds in the rough country could be dealt with was by planting it with pinus insignis trees. The pdiiit was to ask the Department to enforce the Act where it could be onforced, but not to ask for impossibilities. The circular asked that districts be defined, but in his opinion this could not be done. The land, however; could be divided into two classes. He moved > "That the Taranaki executive of the Farmers' Union is ill favour of the. Act being stringently enforced in cases, where the land is capable df cultivation, but that it be enforced with discretion in cases where the land is of poor quality and of a rough nature, whore weeds have secured such a hold that their eradication would be too great an.undertaking on the. bolder. The Executive also recommends that in inferior and rough land, where eradication of weeds is praotically impossible, the owner be required to plant such with pines and other suitable timbers) or that the State take over the :i!ahd;'and'-plant''iit:"v ; '.i.;j; l J f.-s/.j:';A •>.-■ ■>•- 'The-nidtidn Was carried; and it-Was further resolved that the- Executive does not/consider that .districts can-be classified,' as in>'manycaseß the ■ same farms ■ contain both classes of land; '