GRASS BULWARK.

Putaruru Press, Volume VII, Issue 296, 11 July 1929, Page 3

GRASS BULWARK.

On the low-lying coasts of Southeastern England, where the land is only protected from the sea by huge walls, a grass-like plant known as Spartina Townsendii is do.ng more to protect the land from eros.on by the sea than man can do (says the Daily Telegraph). It is even helping the farmer to regain land that has been lost where the sea has broken through the walls, and where valuable pasture land has been turned into a dreary waste of mud.

j This form of Spartina appeared, apj parent ly from nowhere, at South- | hampton Water 58 years ago. Its , chief quality is that it will settle I on the softest mud, even in places ! where a man would sink. Sometimes' | such expanses have been barren for thousands of years. The plant grows very thick’y, until it attains the he'ght of wheat, and it continues to grow in spite of the fact that there is often two feet of water over it. It has the power of raising the level of the mud in which it is planted as much as e’ght inches in a year, until at length the ground becomes high and dry. It can then be turned into valuable grazing land which, on account of the salt in thg J earth, will fatten cattle faster than J any other pasture. In one part of the coast of Southeast Essex, much of which lies below the level of the sea at high water, I there, was risks of a sea wall be ng i j broken, in which case a valuable farm I j would have been doomed. About 100 j j cuttings of the grass were planted ; on the sea side of the wall in order I that they should form a protection. I Inv the following spring only three J cuttings remained, but they have now spread to such an extent that the > farm has been saved.