The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1575.

Evening Star, Issue 3754, 5 March 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1575.

Theories are easily formed by interested persons to prove what suits their convenience or justifies their indolence. Every man’s experience will supply him with instances in point, and when they only concern an individual, indulgence in them may be regarded as a mere whim, not likely to do harm to anyone but himself. Unfortunately there are theoretical whims that become sources of expense and annoyance to a whole community when adopted as guides for action or inaction. One of the latest quackeries is that Thistles benefit the land on which they grow ; that they die out in two years; and that, therefore, it is not necessary to extirpate them.” Whether this excuse for laziness influences the Piovincial Government or not, we cannot tell, for Executive theories do not often creep into public notice. Outsiders are left to judge by results, and as non-cultivators of the soil are apt to defer to “ practical men ” and accept their dicta, as authoritative, most probably one practical farmer may, in that respect, be dictator of Otago so far as thistles are concerned. As against this theory we may observe that to painstaking farmers and graziers thistles are an intolerable nuisance, and judging by what took place last year, -they are likely to become masters of the lands of the Province if their spread is not checked. At this seasoa of the year the thistle-down, moving ” is met with in clouds, wafted by every breath of wind, and spreading over vast tracts of country. Of course they who hold

that the plants benefit the soil must contend that these seeds settling down over wide and nnnvndlv increasing areas are conferring immense benefits upon the .Province; we have therefore endeavored to understand in what respect they are such messengers for good. The answers wc receive arc that, being taprooted, they penetrate the soil, loosen it, and thus prepare it for the growth of other crops. Thus it appears that what is contended for is the result of a mechanical process, requiring two years to complete, which any farmer would do much move etleetually in ns many days, without annoyance to his neighbors, or putting them to Urn expense of difficult weeding of their crops. Tho ‘ Penny Cyclopaedia, ’ no mean authority on such matters, says :

Considered as a weed in our fields, our principal object is to eradicate it (the thistle), which, iu consequence of tho ready dispersion of the seeds by tho wind, is not easily done, as a slovenly farmer may seed the whole country round ; and where tho thistles are not eradicated from the hedges and sides of the roads and paths, it is impossible to destroy them entirely ; wherever tho soil is newly turned up, especially where 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,” The source of the evil in Otago is what may be termed “no man’s land.” Government reserves, the road sides, and large breadths of unoccupied land in the most fertile parts of the country abound in thistles, which in many places form formidable belts, gradually increasing in area and not dying down even in two years in compliance with the theory : for although the old plants may have fulfilled their functions in that time, they have successors claiming a right to two years’ existence like their progenitors. Thistles, whether (( a benefit to the soil ” or not, where its use is not wanted, can never be otherwise than a source of expense and loss to agriculturists. The authority we have quoted says :

Ir is chiefly in arable land that thistles are the 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.

May not our theorists have fallen into the logical sophism, Ccmsam assignarS' quee causa non esU Is it not possible that they may have assigned a mechanical condition of the soil to thistle growth that pre-existed, and really tended to the germination of the seed 1 If so, which is more than probable, the sooner so mischievous a theory is exploded the better. There is an idea that because the provisions of the Thistle Ordinance are not enforced it has been repealed. At any rate, practically all effort has ceased to check the nuisance. We think it would be the best dealt with by District Road Boards, which should have power to compel owners of land to destroy thistles and to extirpate them on public reserves. As to pastoral lands, lessees should be bound by the conditions of their leases to eradicate all weeds likely to become noxious to their neighbors. Even if it be true that thistle-growing does good to waste lands, it is not just that they should be improved at the cost of farmers, whose efforts to keep their cornfields clean may be frustrated by the existence of a thistle bed fifty miles away from them.