DANGER TO LUCERNE CROPS.

Putaruru Press, Volume IV, Issue 130, 29 April 1926, Page 7

DANGER TO LUCERNE CROPS.

AN ARGENTINE REPORT. New Zealand Should Beware. ' At the last meeting of the Piako County Council, the chairman (Cr. F. W. Walters) drew attention to a paragraph in the Auckland Star referring to the ravages of the larvae of a but-ter-fly and maintained that the New Zealand farmers should guard against its introduction into this country. The paragraph referred to read:— “ The dairy industry of tire Argentine is built up on lucerne (alfalfa). [From time to time, complaints have been received of a mysterious com-

plaint which threatens to devastate the lucerne fields of the country. The destruction is now said to be caused by the larvae of a very brilliant butterfly, which consumes as much as 25 per cent or 30 per cent of ? the crops which they attack. Their devastations are generally most noticeable after heavy rains. If this plague continues to increase, it may inflict as much damage on the local dairy industry as the boll weevil has on cotton plantations in the United States. It Is not only the dairy industry that is affected, but the meat industry as well, as the cattle intended for the freezing works are to a large extent fattened on lucerne. The destruction wrought by these larvae has been unusually severe this year, and the evil threatens to increase.” It was decided to refer the matter to the Farmers’ Union.