The Evening Star FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1874
(There is at the present time a straggle igoing on between thistles and farmers, in which, in many parts of the country, the former appear likely to gain the victory. Thousands of acres of land are literally covered by them, and the Area is increasing rapidly. The evil is 1 becoming, in fact, so great that some 1 effort must be put forth to check it. A few years back the thistle nuisance was one of the subjects periodically brought forward in the Provincial Council; complaints of their spread were loud and deep; but latterly we have heard little about it. Whether it is that farmers have given up all hope of mastering thistles, or they have adopted the novel theory lately put forth that they benefit the land and after a while
die out, we cannot say. As an excuse for abandoning all effort, the new doctrine of allowing evil that good may come is certainly unique ; yet we hear it fall ' gravely- from the lips of experienced men daily. Were it possible to confine the growth of the thistle within a limited area comparatively small harm would result ; but unfortunately its winged seeds are not restricted to the limits of the spdt where they were fructified. Those who have travelled in the agricultural districts during the past six weeks will have been surprised at witnessing the showers of thistledown floating “on the air,” spreading over the length and breadth of the Province. In sortie districts there are belts eight or ten feet wide on each side of the road for miles in length; in others, they are rapidly taking possession of the soil. A writer on botany says of the thistle - ...
Considered as a weed in our fields, our principal object is to eradicate it, which, in consequence of the ready dispersion of the seeds by the wind, is not easily done, as a slovenly farmer may seed the whole country around; and where the thistles are not eradicated from the hedgesand sides of the roads, and paths, it is impossible to destroy them entirely ; wherever the soil is newly turned up, especially when it is of a nature where wheat will grow well, thistles invariably arise : hence the saying of the blind man in choosing land, “ Tie me to a thistle.”
It is chiefly in arable land that thistles are most troublesome. In pastures it is sufficient to eradicate them once, and to permit none to grow along the hedges and ditches. The seed does not readily vegetate unless it finds a loose soil. ' ’
Were it only slovefily farmers that had to be dealt with, but little difficulty would present itself iu dealing with the evil. It is obviously the duty of any legislature to provide means whereby a man shall bp compelled to do on his property what is: necessary to prevent his neighbor suffering damage ; and it is just as unjustifiable to poison his land with the :pest of thistles as to inoculate his sheep with scab. The thistle plague to the agriculturist is, of the two, more expensive to eradicate. But it is not merely slovenly farmers who are the propagators of the disease. Thistles are encroaching upon squatters’ runs, and absolutely taking possession of Government reserves. Thus it is that the necessity for Government attending to.the obvious duty of eradicating them upon land in the hands of the Crown arises. On all sides farmers say, “ It is no use our trying to keep thistles under on our own land, so long as they are left untouched on the reservesand we think they have good reason to complain. The plea that land is improved by allowing thistles to grow oh it, and that in' two years they will die out, even if true, does not justify growing a weed that will do battle for possession of the soil with the seed put into ploughed ground by the farmer; for. while suppOsitiously improving one plot of ground, a dozen or a hundred others are suffering injury. This is what the clever author of the “Gardeners’ and Farmers’EeasonWhy” says regarding weeds : Clean farming is the very foundation of good farming, because the weeds of nature are ever struggling for existence with the cultivated plants. The labor and supervision of man keep down the wild plants while the cultivated crops are growing; but immediately that the cultivated crops are removed, the wild plants spread with immensely augmented energy, and strive to obtain ascendancy over the soil. Weeds are the insidious enemies of agriculture, aud it is to their subtle growth that we ascribe much of the inattention to their extermination. That slovenliness is too often the rule is attested by the state of too many farms. For want of the expenditure of a sixpence whole acres are over run and rendered redeemable only by the outlay of many pounds. Manure is lavished; whereas by an unremitting attention to the autumn stubble, the task of keeping a clean soil is comparatively easy, and the gain wUI be made apparent by the ameliorated condition of the soil, whereby it requires the less cultivation, and yields greater crops of superior quality.
Although much that we have quoted is of general rather than special application, it is valuable as indicating principles. But we think the pernicious fallacy that thistles are to b& let alone, as they will die out themsely.es, ami that, therefore, reserves are not to be cleared of them, should not pass unnoticed. It is based upon what is said t6 be the practice in Victoria, where they have ceased to do battle with the thistle nuisance. But we would put it to those better acquainted with the subject than ourselves :—ls it not possible that a course of action which succeeds in a dry soil and climate like that of Victoria, may be uhsuited to the more fertile land of Otago? Referring to our first quotation, stating the condi-
tions under which the seed most readily germinates, it is plain that under the burning sun and on the parched ground of yictoria the thistle may not take root, while it may yet find a genial soil on the more fertile downs of this Province; and ; there is reason to think that this is really the case; quackery is as dangerous in farming as in medicine : there can be no universal curative in either. The physician who depends on one elixir for the cure of all diseases, and the farmer who cannot vary his practice t© suit soil and climate, will alike fail. We are not of those who consider that the Government should be asked to do for farmers what they ought to do for themselves; but two thiugs they ought to do—First, keep'their own reserves in order ; and secondly—lf prosecuted bya neighboror road board, to render it more expensive for a 'farmer to allow thistles to grow on his land than to eradicate them. The writer first quoted says ; . When a field has been long infested with thistles, the best way of clearing it is to watch when the thistle is in full bloom and the seed just forming : if it be then cut off at the root it will die. Thus in two years a field may be entirely cleared of thistles.
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Evening Star, Issue 3473, 10 April 1874, Page 2
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1,223The Evening Star FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 1874 Evening Star, Issue 3473, 10 April 1874, Page 2
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