THE UTILITY OF THISTLES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3105, 10 June 1881, Page 3

THE UTILITY OF THISTLES.

We extract tho following from a report given by tho Auckland Weekly News of a lecture delivered at the Cambridge Farmer's Club by Mr R. W. E. M'lvor, F.C.S., F.L.S., &c, a celebrated agricultural chemist, who visited that district for a few days :— Agentleman in the hall asked if Mr MTvor considered thistles a good fertilizer for this district: —

Mr M'lvor: Well, as a Scotchman, lam always glad to rise and defend my national emblem. But I remember that the first time I addressed an audience in Victoria, in the Academy of Music, Ballarafc, I said in the course of my speech that I hoped to do a good deal for them, I hoped to clear their market of adulterated manures, to remove rust in wheat, and I hoped to be able to prove to them that the thistle was not a curse but a blessing to the country. This observation brought down the house with loud laughter, and there was no laughter louder in that house than that of the Scotqmen. I may tell you there was a Thistle Act in force at that time, and if the farmers did not cut their thistles they had to pay £5. I was fortunate enough to meet with one or two large landowners who paid regularly year after year their £5, rather than cut their thistles. When tho drought set in one of these men, who had paid £500 or £600, said that nothing but thistles saved his sheep. I think I may say I was the first chemist that ever examined a thistle for the purpose of finding its nutritive value, and it may interest some of you to hear that thistles have a higher nutritive value than cabbage, if once you get your stock educated to eat them (laughter). I have seen horses walk over fine pasture and prefer thistles, and I have also seen sheep prefer them, and cattle go some miles to get them. It is altogether a matter of education, and in time you will find the thistle tako the same place in the education of New Zealand cattle as it does in Victoria. The thistle has advantages as a food material provided your stock gets accustomed to it, and you will find that a large number of the stockowners of Victoria have come to see that the thistle is not so bad as it is represented. There is a large extent of country in Victoria known as the Smeaton Plains, which are now worked upon for gold. They had been cultivated with wheat for years, I think for nearly a quarter of a century, until ultimately they became exhausted, and the farmers left them. They became barren and would not grow decent grass, but a few thistles settled there, and the whole of the Plains were covered with thistles in a very short time. The thistles grow, if they get the chance, to a very great depth, they bring up plant food from the very depths of the soil, 10, 12, and 15 feet, and in course of time they die out, and the surface of the soil is enriched with what they have brought up, the result being that the Smeaton Plains have regained their fertility, and this is attributable to the thistle roots. I may safely say that for every argument you bring against the thistle, I will bring ten in favor of it. It is true that it takes the wool off your sheep if they get too fond of it, but if I were a farmer in this district, I would rather have a thousand acres of thistles than of fern.