Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1921. TRANSFORMING SHIFTING SAND DUNES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 2295, 28 June 1921, Page 2

Manawatu Herald TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 1921. TRANSFORMING SHIFTING SAND DUNES.

TO suggest tlii.il tlie* shill iii”‘ sand dunes !o be found ii!<mir tin.* roust of most .•ounlries run be turned into dairying propositions reads like an absurdity. But there is a possibility of this happenin'?. The plant railed melilot Ims already completely changed the outlook ot the land industries of King Island, oif the coast of Tasmania, from a hopeless barren waste to an area of great profit. This plant is not only a. valuable fodder, but being leguminous. it rapidly elmnges the cliaracier of the soil by fixing nitrogen. A Victorian was struck with the possibility of repeating the changes made on King Island at a place railed Rye, and he set about backing his opinion. The land upon which he experimented was worth very little, but since he has held it he lias improved the value of it by one thousand per cent. „ The remarkable tiling about this melilotus is that on good land ii is mi e\ilsnielling curse —a hated weed which the careful husbandman follows up with the hoe and mattock to get rid of it before il spreads. In Australian fanning districts it is called Hexhamscetlt" —a name taut.is tinned over in tlie speech of the caieful farmer with viciousness. But on sandy wastes it is valuable in the higher meaning of the word. When it is growing it is not unlike lucerne, and if the place suits it there is no odour of any sort from it. When it is a weed the taint in the milk is verv strong, while cattle do not care about touching it. If raised on sandy land they will prefer it to anything else. There is no need to do any cultivation in planting it. All that is required is to get the land cleaned of the dCntb 01 * weeds that it may carry. This should be burned off, and then the seed piiuitr ed on the embers, for it will not germinate unless the seed gets a scorching. In this respect it is like the Australian wattle. It may be that the seed would respond after being thrown into boiling water, mjs the case with the Wattle. The Victoria;. 1 - who has been grazing a number of ritpry stock on the paddock that he planted, says that for months in the year It fed tnore than a beast to the acre. It died in the winter time, and has to be re-sowß-It makes splendid hay, especially whenjnixed with oats.