The Flax Grub.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 May 1913, Page 2

The Flax Grub.

There has been a lot written about the ravages of the flax grub iu the Aiau.iwatu district lately, and it \u\: b.-er. asserted that the flax that has snfl't :ed the worst from the grub "s (lax vhat has a lot of vegetation and graces growing round it; but it is not only that sort that suffers. The gru 1 - flourishes on dry land. l''<» instuicc. anyone who will take the trouble to visit some of the flax that is grown in various gardens in Levin will notice that whore it is situated on ;i place that has no surface water the flax is damaged. Anyone wishing to further investigate this matter need only to go on to the Horowheuua run. There flax is to be seen growing on the top of sandhills as well as in swamps, and one will he able to find there flax affected by the grub that has not enough grass growing around it to make n good swallow for a rabbit. Yet not a chain away, where the flax is growing iu the water and is surrounded by all kinds of vegetable growths, there is no grub. It is not natural for ilax to grow on dry land, booause then- it has not the natural advantage i that it has in the water. Otherwise the country ere this would have been overrun with flax. Nature never allows anything to change its natural place or mode of living without she checks it; and flax as much as anything else. The green blade, as everyone knows, grows in a bunch right down to the ground, and if the earth underneath it is dry enough to allow of the grub (that unpaid stripper) breeding, there is little chance of tho pest being hurt by winds or any other kind of natural pest killers, because of the shelter that thoy have, when they are located in the centre of a flax bunch. Everything lias been allotted its work, and the bounds of ite habitation is marked; and if nature's conditions arc altered by man then will nature protest and kill it as 't does all things that rebel and try to alter their condition of life. Flax belongs to the swamp; drain that swamp, and at once the flax will he set upon by its dry land enemies.