Special Collections at Murdoch University

Special Collections at Murdoch University

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Letter to the editor - Dept officer disputes salt claims

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Negus, T.R. (1978) Letter to the editor - Dept officer disputes salt claims. The Countryman, 25 May 1978. p. 10 [Publication] [Special Collections]

Summary

A letter to the editor by T.R. Negus, officer in charge, Narrogin district office, Department of Agriculture.

Mr Negus shares recent statements in the press claiming that seepage interceptors are effective in halting salt land spread and in some cases will reclaim salt-affected land to full cereal and clover production. A previous published article by Jackie Gill in The Countryman on 11 May 1978 mentions eight Brookton farmers who claim that the interceptor banks are proving successful. Mr Negus suggests that the interceptor banks have been installed for only one year with a year of low rainfall, and that this is too short a time to expect any improvements in the severely salt-affected land. The Department of Agriculture is monitoring changes in the land below one of the mentioned farmers interceptor banks. A recent inspection showed no real change in the original salt-affected area. The conclusion must be that the claim that the banks are proving successful, is premature, inaccurate and liable to be misleading to the agricultural community.

This article contains two images: seepage running along the bottom of an interceptor drain on the department trial at East Pingelly; and a grader building a seepage interceptor drain.

PLEASE NOTE: We are unable to provide a public view of this newspaper article as the copyright is held by the publisher of The Countryman.

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This article is part of the WISALTS (Whittington Interceptor Sustainable Agriculture Land Treatment Society Incorporated) Collection.

Item Type: Special Collections
Collection: WISALTS Collection
Copyright: ©1978 The Countryman
Notes: 1 newspaper clipping
URI: http://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/57454
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