And A Big Job in Radio

New Zealand Listener, Volume 14, Issue 345, 1 February 1946, Page 7

And A Big Job in Radio

myself at home with a group of cabbage trees. I told him they were Cordyline australis, mistakenly called palm-tree sometimes in England.

"Australis? A native of Australia?" he asked. I was almost sunk again, but I told him I thought australis merely to mean southern cabbage. I then told him about the heads of wonderfully, powerfully scented flowers. "Everything seems to be scented," he said, crushing ‘mock-mint as we walked up a clayey face till we could see Rangitoto and the Channel. Could one get to Rangitoto, climb to the top of it, he wanted to know. He decided to try if he had time. He said enough admiring things about the Auckland harbour that sunny day to please the most demanding Rangitotophile. One Thin Wire We talked about moving stock from paddock to paddock in rotation, topdressing and so on and he told me about a scheme he devised on his own farm. "T use an electric wire and graze the cows on successive strips across a field till the whole is eaten. If I let them on the whole field they’d eat some and

trample some down and make the rest uneatable. But just one thin strand of wire keeps them on a concentrated strip and saves the rest." "This is fresh green feed?" "Yes, Either alfalfa or one-year leys of rye and red clover. Oh. Lucerne you call it here? I had to. change-over in America and now I'll have to change my language again." The filly’s canvas cover was hanging on the fence in the sun. ; "We call those New Zealand rugs in England," said Mr. Green. "In the old days no one used a canvas rug-if it was too cold out of doors the horses stayed indoors with their blankets on. Now it is quite usual to find horses grazing out in fairly cold weather in those canvas rugs of yours. Visitors to New Zealand apparently picked up the idea and the name has stuck." We walked towards the main road and Mr. Green continued to ask questions

about native shrubs and _ introduced hedge plants we passed. I continued to wish for my Cockayne and Turner or a pocket edition of Hilgendorf. "When I come back I shall have to watch myself and not go mad trying to see everything," he said. "I’ve decided that I'll have to concentrate on main typical regions--I must see Taranaki and I specially want to visit, the Canterbury sheep country because I believe they have some of the same very serious problems we have ourselves — and of: course I’ll be visiting the research stations and agricultural colleges. But I know how it is-the temptation to go everywhere is always so great. I'll just have to limit myself." How Mr. Green will get on when hebegins to see the country with experts who do not have to answer "I don’t know" to so many of his questions J don’t know. Perhaps he will carry a dictaphone tucked away under his coat.

J.