WAR ON LEATHERJACKETS

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXV, Issue 42, 20 February 1915, Page 6

WAR ON LEATHERJACKETS

i ■ I These arc not an item of martial equipment designed to take the place of the tin dinner-plates with which cerj. tain soldiers} seek to protect (heir “tummies” from the intrusive attentions of the bayonets of the Tommies! but are a particularly voracious sp<f cies of caterpillar, of dirty dun Conor 1 ,1 and very tough skins, and possessing a powerful pair of nippers with which they bite through stalks of the leaves of cabtiageTand similar plants in order to suclf the juice. When the plants are small these pests drag the I’eaveS down into tehir holes in the ground, there to discuss them at their leisure. A Stanley Road farmey a fortnight ago made the unpleasant .discovery that a most promising 12-acrc paddock of rape which had been previously in barley had been taken possession of by these pests; eight acres had been absolutely destroyed, and the remainder was going. Something had to be done: the paddock was to valuable to be surrendered to the enemy. It was resolved to re-sow, but the attack continued without abatement. Something more was evidently called for; so, after consultation with men learned in the land, it was resolved to try the effect of ground burnt lime at the, rate of Bqwt.’ to the acre. A wire to a wellknown Wairarapa kiln through a Stratford firm of merchants quickly brought the lime t;o hand, and a first sprinkling of 4ewt to the acre evidently caused Some dismay, but not enough to compel retreat; the second dressing was, however, too much to withstand. The foe cleared out, and both sowings are now thriving apace, the birds being on duty to attend to the fen; .adventurous stragglers who have escaped the attentions of the lime. It may, or may not have a bearing on the question that the birds were so numerous when the barley' was sown, and were so destructive, that poison had to be used on a liberal—perhaps too liberalscale, the result* possibly being that the 'balance of nature had been disturbed. And there, are sonX people who think that a farmer’s life is monotonous and uninteresting!