MENACE OF PRICKLY PEAR.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3372, 29 December 1919, Page 5

MENACE OF PRICKLY PEAR.

22,000,000‘ACRES INFESTED IN

TWO AUSTRALIAN STATES

Some_ 20 million acres of land in Queensland and Over two million acres in New South Wales -are infested with prickly pear, and the pest is spreading in Queensland‘ at the rate ‘of a million acres a year. ‘L ‘

If it were possible, one of the best means of dealing with the plant would be’ to find a use for it, but’ even if a profitable use could be found it would be quite impracticable to establish in Australia factories on a. sufficiently‘ large scale to deal with any substan-i tial proportion of material. The most likely use for prickly pear is for fodder, but all the cattle in Australia could not keep pace with the rate at which the plant ‘is spreading in Queensland alone. Serious attention is being given to the problem by the Commonwealth Advisory Council of Science and Industry, which has _now recommended that investigations should be carried out and that three. laboratories should be established and maintained in Queensjland and New South Wales with a lqualified scientific staff. ‘A Sum of j£Booo a year for a period of five iyears, it is recommended, should be lprovided for this work.