GOATS, SHEEP AND BLACKBEERY.

Shannon News, 3 April 1925, Page 4

GOATS, SHEEP AND BLACKBEERY.

In an account given in "The New Zealand Herald," "Novus" tells how a farmer effectively cleared 130 acres of gorse and blackberry * within the short period of twelve months. "Only twelve months before," says the writer, "it had been a wilderness of blackberry that aggressive scrambler, suggestive scrambler, suggestive to town-folk of picnics and iam-makung, but to many a farmer suggestive of aching ( arms and heart-breaking struggle." Asking the owner of the property as to the secret of such a wonderful change he was told the following ,St< «7'had to cut the plants first of all," related the farmer. "In the more accessible places, such as the flat down there at the foot of the hill I had them cut with a mower and raked into heaps with a, hayrake. Then we set Are to the heaps and burned them. But so far, I was of course, only following methods employed by most farmers, who haye to grapple with the pest. Usually, however, the plants spring up and take possession again as quickly as they are cut, unless the farmer can plough and crop the infested for several years in succession, That is generally impossible; it is beyond the means of the settler, who is trying to knock a living out of a rough back-country farm, and besides, is quite out of the question on steep hill-sides. Even ." if the flats are cleared in this way, the steeper slopes soon become again; a thicket as tall and dense as ever, and form a stronghold from which the blackberry "sets out to re-conquer dts lost domain. My success is due to a different method from that, a method which few seem to apply,—or, at least to apply with sufficient thoroughness. With -blackberry half-measures are useless." Goats, Sheep and Blackberries. "My method is to just stock," the farmer continued, "concentrating sufficient stock on limited areas of the land to destroy the green s hoots that spring from the old roots before they can grow to any size. "I have at present three hundred sheep and one hundred and fifty goats. They are my blackberry-ex-terminators. I put them, all, sheep and goats' together, on to any area before shoots from the blackberry roots grow bigger than strawberryplants. In this way the plants are prevented from making growth —and they are dying, I. have not had to do any cutting at all this season, I feared thaKthe plants might get ahead

of me during their rapid-growing season, but no! The sheep and goats kept them down, —shave them right off."

Being asked as to the blackberry in the gulleys, whether he cut them, the farmer replied "no." "That is the goats' special province. People do not realise goats' powers of destruction. Blackberry and gorse formed a seemingly impenetrable mass in every gully. I myself did not expect the stock to force their way into it. Yet when the goats had been concentrated around it for a week or so they began to clamber over the thicket, in search of tender shoots on top; then to break it down and makie tracks through it; and • finally every trailing shoot of blackberry was stripped of leaves by my voracious friends, leaving mere skeletons in place of the once-flourishing bushes. When dry, a fire completed the destruction, and reduced gorse and blackberry alike to a few charred sticks; and now periodical concentrations of stock prevent the plants from shooting out afresh. Gorse, if tall, yields to burning quite well. This slope over here was a thick gorse-brake, but one hot, dry season I put a match to it —and you see the result!" A Great Transformation.

"The clearance in every part of the farm is wonderful," remarked the newspaper man, "and the grass is growing so well." "Yes," said my friend, "This hillside is cropped close now, but in the spring the grass was knee-high." "How many acres are there altogether in the property?" I asked. "One hundred and thirty—but thirty of that is bush... Last winter I carried 150 sheep and 100 goats, some forty head of cattle, and a half a dozen horses; and I had no extra feed at all. There were three stacks of hay on the farm, but I did not have to touch them. My sheep brought me a good woolrcheque this year," added my friend. "It is a pity that goats are not productive of income like sheep," I re-, marked. • "Well," was the rejoinder,, "I think they are. On the last place that I had, I bought thirteen goats at ten shillings, each, and after a year or so sold forty goats at. twelve shillings and sixpence each. That was not bad, was it? Goats multiply so rapidly: they breed three or four times in a year."