The Scotch Thistle.

Clutha Leader, Volume I, Issue 17, 29 October 1874, Page 4

The Scotch Thistle.

The following letters upon this sub- j ject have been addressed to the ' Aus- 1 tralasian': — v S'r, — I .have read several letters lately in your columns in reference to thistles, and I quite agree with your : correspondent in New Zealand who \ speaks of the thistle as a benefit instead of an evil. I And in paddocks wjiere thistles are cut down year. after year they always come up as strong -and grow as high each succeeding 'season; but in paddocks where they are left alone, in two or three seasons they get quite dwarfed, and consequently the sheep can reach 'their heads. In the summer, just before the buds burst into flower, the sheep are <very:-fpnd of them, and dorft let one in a hundred seed. Besides this I notice patches that were almost impenetrable two or three years ago have now only odd single thistles all over them, and the grass is,. very much thicker and keeps greener in the summer than it used to do, which, I believe, is accounted for by the soil having been opened up by the thistle roots dy'ng and rotting in the ground. The thistile I allude to is the common Scotch thistle, and not the variegated variety. -i am, &c„ W." " Sir, — Although to some the thistle controversy may be stale, if not unprofitable, still, in defence of Scotland's na'iona'l emblem, permit me to state that Tn this dismet at least not a few small farmers and dairymen are turning the so called pest to profitable use. 1 do not go so far as your Xew Zealand correspondent, who states that farmers there give 3* per lb. for thistle drtwn, although possibly that time may come here. On several farms in this vicinity I lately was rattier surprised to lenrn that thist'es had been aimust entirely extirpated, through their being .used as winter fodder for both cattle and pigs. The thistle— l allude to the genuine (l wha daur meddle wi' me" variety — after blooming and the tops withering away before winter, leaves a tap-root, white, very like a parsnip in appearance. This root, when boiled with the green winter or spring tops, both cattle and pigs devonr greedily, and even where there is but scanty pasture, cattle so fed look sleek and fat, and at the same time are good milkers. On some dairy farms here, where the. land was for yea?s overrun with thistles, scarcely I any are now to be found through the adoption of this system Leaving out I of the question the benefit the land deiives being turned up by the root, I think a trial of the latter as winter fodder for cattle would convert thistlehaters in other di-trieM from bitter enemies to at. least better friends.-" I am, &c. Ar%toh."