The Rural Voice, 1980-09, Page 3210,000 cattails
should treat
Listowel
sewage
Students, elected officials and
Environment Ontario staff planted
about 10,000 cattails near Listowel
recently, to treat part of this
community's sewage effluent.
Helping out the students from the
Maitland Conservation Authority were
Ontario's Environment Minister Harry
C. Parrott, D.D.S., Listowel Mayor
Vincent Judge, several of the town's
council members and Environment
Ministry staff.
"This artificial marsh is a new
approach which could be used in other
parts of Ontario to treat sewage effluent
without building expensive treatment
plants," said Dr. Parrott.
If the marsh works as expected, it
will mean the end of a problem for
Listowel, a town of 5,000 people, 90
kilometres north-east of London.
Other forms of sewage treatment
were far too expensive for the commun-
ity to install and further commercial or
residential development without new
facilities would threaten the short,
shallow Maitland River which receives
the town's sewage effluent.
Cattails use the nutrients found in
sewage effluent in much the same way
lawns use nutrients from manure and
other fertilizers. With the cattails
removing much of the nutrients from
the effluent, water courses will be kept
free from an excessive build-up of
aquatic plants and algae which cause
large daily variations in life-sustaining
dissolved oxygen levels. Dissolved oxy-
gen is essential to any watercourse for
the life of fish and other aquatic life.
Listowel's experimental marsh will be
fed sewage effluent from the com-
munity s lagoons. Nutrients will be
removed by the cattails before the
effluent reaches the nearby Maitland
River. In the Environment Ontario
study, cattails will also be assessed for
their ability to remove heavy metals
from the effluent. Heavy metals are
another pollutant found in sewage
effluent.
The community's experimental
marsh will use about 2.5 acres of land.
Harry Parrott, Minister of the
Environment, with summer student
Gay Frederick plant cattails at
Llstowet9 lagoon system.
OAC grads
on first exchange
trip to Japan
Two recent Ontario Agricultural
College graduates are working in Japan
in the first agricultural foreign ex-
change between Ontario and Japan.
Debbie Steinhoff, 23, of Kitchener,
and Rob Macrae, 23, of Guelph, left
Canada early this month to begin a
six-month employment period on two
Japanese farms.
"Although we have had exchanges
from Japan to Ontario for the past 24
years, this is the first time any Ontario
young people have been placed on
Japanese farms," says Cay Johnson,
coordinator of the foreign exchange
program for the Ontario Ministry of
Agriculture and Food.
The young people begin the exchange
with a short language and customs
orientation program. Then they begin
working on the chosen farms --a nursery
and a greenhouse operation. They also
receive four weeks training in Japanese
horticulture and farming practices in a
formal education setting.
"During the work period, the young
people are treated just like the Japanese
farm employees," says Mrs. Johnson.
"They live and work with the farm
family and participate in all of the area's
rural activities."
The exchange program is not a
money -making proposition for the
young people. They are paid about S200
per month in addition to food and
accommodation. They are responsible
for their own travel expenses.
"The purpose of the program is to
give young people an opportunity to
work in their field of endeavor in
another country," says Mrs. Johnson.
"They have an opportunity to apprec-
iate another country by living with the
people --not as a tourist."
The Ministry of Agriculture and Food
recruits and interviews young people to
participate in the five foreign exchange
programs, and acts as a liaison with the
other countries. Exchange programs are
also available to Denmark, France, the
United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Fifteen young people from across
Ontario have participated in the two-
year-old program.
To qualify for the exchange program,
participants must be 18 to 28 years old
and have at least two year's experience
in agriculture.
Corn smut a threat
again this year
"Corn smut is a real threat to corn
crops again this year ," reports Pat
Lynch, the soil and crop representative
for Perth.
Last year corn smut received a great
deal of publicity. If head smut was
found as much as 35% of the crop could
be affected.
This year the smut does not seem as
wide spread as last year. One way to
relieve the threat is to treat the seeds. A
number of hybrid varieties of corn have
been found to be susceptible to the
smut.
There are two varieties of smut. One
variety is head smut, which clings to the
tassel and ears of the corn stalk. No
tassels on the ears means the whole ear
is infested.
The second type, common smut, can
be found on the stalk, ear and tassel.
Its damage to the crop is not as
extensive as head smut.
"In each of the agriculture offices are
corn stalks showing the different
varieties of smut," said Mr. Lynch.
"Seeing the difference between head
and common smut clears up the
identification problems in your fields."
Call your local ag. office for any
assistance you may need concerning
this problem.
THE RURAL VOICE/SEPTEMBER 1980 PG. 31