THISTLES AND GOLDFINCHES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 98, 10 March 1862, Page 3

THISTLES AND GOLDFINCHES.

A correspondent of the Argus, signing himself "Goldfinch," writes as follows :— The Government pay a large sum annually for their destruction, hut everyone who lives, as 1 do in a neighborhood where they grow knows full well that a freater swindle on the pnbhc purse is not perpetrated in the colony. To begin, the loafers who have the job rarely commence operations till the plants are seeding, and we all are aware that thistles ripen their seed after they are cut just as well as if they were left standing. Then, if the Beed be not matured, they cut the plant oil sufficiently high above ground to insure three or tour shoots growing in the place of the severed stem, thus guaranteeing, either way, a good crop next year. Who ever heard of a ratcatcher clearing out all the rats'! Of course, he leaves some to brped, for, otherwise, what would become of the ratcatchers! Just so with the thistle-cutters; to destroy the thistles would be to destroy a very flourishing trade. Now if one year's pay were to bs devoted to the importation of the goldfinch, the brown linnet the redpole, and the German siskin, all of which birds live on the thistle seed during the season, I venture to assert that more good would be done than is now done, or would be done during the next ten years, by all the lazy vagabonds who are employed, ostensibly, in destroying thistles throughout the colony Besides, we should insure a means ot checking this fearful scourge in proportion to its increasing ravages 5 for it is a well-kown fact that animals multiply in proportion to the abundance of the supply of that food which is especially adapted to their wants. ■ . ~, I throw out this hint for the consideration ot the Acclimatisation Society, who would be doing an incalculable good to the colony should they succeed in checking an evil which, if allowed to progress at its present rate, will prove utterly destructive to agriculture, and render land, otherwise valuable, perfectly valueless. ___________