COAST RECOVERS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20086, 4 November 1939, Page 13

COAST RECOVERS

BENEFICIAL RAIN

PASTURES RESPOND

SHEARING DELAYED

GORSE WEEVILS WANTED

The weather in the past few weeks has made a wonderful difference to the East Coast pasture country. The grass is coming away well, and the stock is recovering from the hard experience of recent months.

Dairy cows are responding to the better conditions. Good crops of bay and ensilage are assured. Plantings of potatoes have been exceptionally noavy. The soil contains much, more moisture than at this time last year, and crops are in a flourishing condition.

A southerly gale accompanied by light showers was experienced on the upper end of the Coast during the past few days. Some damage was clone to fruit trees and gardens. Shearing operations have been suspended and if the showery weather continues many settlers who hoped to cut out before Show week will be disappointed This is a great season for strawberries and plants are covered with young berries, which should ripen in a week. The most popular variety with the growers is the Captain Cook, which has a better flavour, is more hardy, and less susceptible to disease than the Marguerite or other varieties.

Many farmers arc anxious to try out the new method of controlling gorse by the use of parasites. The gorse weevils lay their eggs in the flowers, the grubs are hatched and they destroy the seeds before they have time to spread and germinate. The weevils look like sheep ticks. Cutting, grubbing and burning the gorse are of little benefit, as the seeds are still left in the ground to grow again, so that the weevil appears to be only one remedy.

grader and instructor for two years. Two years later again he was appointed manager of the Waverley Cooperative Dairy Company, then one of the largest factories in New Zealand, making 800 tops of butter. After four years there he joined the Kairanga Co-operative Dairy Company as its first manager. Later on Mr. Brash joined the commercial firm of Messrs. J. B. MacEwan and Company, where he stayed for two years, during which time he was offered and accepted a position with the National Dairy Association.