THE CALIFORNIAN THISTLE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1992, 9 November 1888, Page 3

THE CALIFORNIAN THISTLE

The following report of a sitting of the Select Committee appointed by th<Vio'orian Parliament to consider tho ques tion of the eradication of this thistle, wiil show what a serious master land holders will have to contend with, should they not stamp out the pest on its first appear auce. At the meeting of the Committee, Daniol Gates, who was examined as a witness, said ha believed the thistle had been fini brought to the district by seed m honae feed imported from England or Oaliforfornian, and had spread when land came to be cultivated. It hal cost him £1 a plant to destroy tho thistles on his land The best and cheapest remedy was common salt, but it bad the drawback oi making the land ÜBslees for yoara afterwards. Another witness named Millet said he had tried very many different things, but the only remedy he found of aDy nee was chloride of lime. The land had depreciated m value owing to the past from about £36 per acre, the price he had paid for it, to about the same number of shillings. J, Forbes, farmer, of Warreiiheip, stated that after all the experiments with obloride there waa soaroaly a paddook m Bungaree without some patches of thistle. JJe waa using 10 toua of salt per acie to dress infected patches. The salt cost him 35a per ton, delivered at the Junotion.