RAGWORT MENACE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXX, Issue 5395, 4 March 1929, Page 2

RAGWORT MENACE.

o GRUWTH AT KARANGAHAKE; DISCUSSION BY COUNCIL. The seriousness of allowing ragwort to grow unchecked at Karangahake, a v matter of grave concern to the whole countryside, was debated at letgth at the last meetitg of the lOhinemuri County Council. Members were unanimous in the, opinion that spmething had to be cJcne .in the matter, and done quickly, Cr. Morris g.oing so far as to say that if rag,wort gained any more, people in his district (Karangahake) would be. driven out. So much land had been abandoned round Karangahake that it was ha’xl to apportion blame fax nan-e;radic.ation, and' to know who could be- made to d 6 the work. A. lot of the land had reverted to the Crown, so. that the noxious weedq in-, spector could force none of the present inhabitants in the matter. It was to be deplored that while a noxious weeds inspector could prosecute private landowners, Crown land was allowed to stand c.overed with ragwort.

Cr. Johnstone suggested that the council should: Spend a little money and put on a man who knew the Karangahake district to clean up the abandoned land. It would, be money well spent.

Eventually a resolution was passed that the department be written to an I attention called, to the menace of ragwort on unoccupied Crown lands.

Councillors then pr.ocqcdedi to discuss their own experienc.es in regard to attempted eradication of the pest. Cr. Mason asked if it would not be advisable to request the Government for a supply of the ne.w moth to be liberated in the county.

Cr. Johnstone replied that it was too latq; the rag.wort was already seeding. He had seen the indigenous caterpillar in action and noted that it only attacked the plants when they were about to seed. While It undoubtedly stripped the stalk bare, it did not kill the seeds. Through personal experience, his own conclusion was that, the only way to deal with the weed was to pull it out, root and all, and fill up the vacant hole salt.

Cr. Mason said he had found that levelling to the ground and then salting was satisfactory. The chairman rqmarked that ragwort flourished especially where land was top-dressed and supered, a finding also arrived at by other eounc.illois, whereat Cr. .Morris, amid much laughter, quietly said that there must be a lot of super used round Ka.rangahake;

A fact elicited in the discussion was that ragwort, despite cutting, made four attempts, to seed iri ooe season. *