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Hokitika Guardian, 8 June 1929, Page 8

BA.CKJ3ERIIY AND GOATS. No one has yet lifted the £IO,OOO offered by the Government for something that •would eradicate the blackberry. The goat is the best antidote that has vet been found. Writing in the “New Zealand Journal ot •Science and Technology,” Mr E. E. Northcrol't says that too sudden results should not be expected from the attack by the goats on the blackberry bushes. But in time they manage to feed right into the centre of blackberry masses, reducing once healthy bushes to a mass of tangled bare canes, new shoots, as soon as they make their appearance, being immediately nibbled off. 'file great ouficulty found in attempting to concentrate goats on any area of blackberry was that as soon as food became short they would wander into the adjacent blocks in search of more blackberry, and no matter what precautions were taken, it was almost impossible, without incurring considerable expense, ro erect a fence which would keep the goats enclosed. In .spite of the surprising prejudice on the part of some farmers to goats, they were, without doubt, the cheapest means of controlling blackberry, and, if properly used and managed, all the usual objections, such as slow breeding etc., were completely overcome. Further .that if goats were used in conjunction with top-dressing experiments of the proper kind, no farmer could use tlie arguments that goats reduced the carrying capacity of the land, but that under proper conditions goats could lie run with increased stocking.