CALIFORNIAN THISTLE.

Waipa Post, Volume I, Issue 9, 16 May 1911, Page 4

CALIFORNIAN THISTLE.

The Californian thistle is such a burning question (writes tfie travelling correspondent of a contemporary) that! have taken a considerable amount of evidence from farmers up the .Main Trunk line, a district which is from all appearances one of the worst affected in the Wellington province, probably in the North Island. With none had I a more interesting chat than Mr T. F. Studholme, of Ruanui station. As I told Mr Studholme, I was desirous to know what his experience and methods of dealing with the pest had been, and to obtain suggestions as to its eradication, these remarks may be taken as the opinion of a gentleman who has given the subject considerable though*. EFFECT OF CUTTING.

Mr .Studholme is of the opinion that the present system of cutting is entirely wrong —that is where the thistle is only cut once in the season. In this he is borne out by many other farmer's in all parts of the province, with whom I have talked on this question. Their opinion is that cutting only once really ends in the direction of caustng the plant to gi'ow stronger. Where the thistle can be, and has been, cut, as in the Taihape and other districts, several times in a season, this plan must certainly get rid of it, and Mr Studholme frankly said that on the smaller properties, where the area of thistle is much smaller, it is the best method to adopt. But when you come to a big station the one cutting is all that can be • accomplished. Mr Studholme says he considers the large sum of money now spent in wages to thistle-cutters is misspent, not that he grudges the money bv any means. As a mat ter of fact he said if he was relieved from the compulsory cutting, he would gladly devote the money which it had cost him this season-annually to the Taihape hospital,or to any other charitable purpose, until a more satisfactory method of dealing with the thistle is discovered.

lii spite of all the work done and money spent under present conditions, the pest is increasing. In too mhny cases the Government lands and native lands are not only full of the pest, but very little effort js made to do even one cutting.' I mat mention one case on the railway line; an attempt had been made at cutting, but I saw any amount of plants in bloom. THE LABOUR ASPECT.

Another reason why Mr Studholme is against the present system is that it takes away a lot of labour which would be more usefully and certainly more satisfactorily employed on regular farm work. So scarce have men been this season that some farmers have been unable to obtain help. Thistle-cutting comes at a most awkward time, as there is so much regular farm work to be done.

Mr Studholme told me that the Californian thistle will die out naturallv. When it has exhausted the particular plant food requisite to its growth in any'locality, it grows weaker, arid at last ceases altogether, but it moves on in search of other plant food, and where a patch has started it there grows thinner each’ year, but throws out at ever-widening area of plants. So that it is dying out and extending at the same time, and when its particular plant food is exhausted the thistle will have gone, and will have left the soil in better condition. As a

proof we went to see a patch which four years ago was waist high. It had not been cut since then, purely as an experiment, and in one out-of-the-way part of the run, we failed to find a single plant. It had quite gone, but it had moved on to where four years ago thei'e was no thistle. SOME SUGGESTIONS.

In a dry season like this the best feed is found among the thinner patches, and when the frosts set in, causing the thistle to disappear, there is found the best feed. What Mr Studholme advocates is that in place of the present method athoroughly competent man should be found, whose duties would be to take evidence and receive suggestions from farmers in all parts of the Dominion ; or the appointment of a commission, which would work on similar lines. By these means valuable information would be gained and turned to good use. There is no doubt that a dry season is adverse to the thistle,as I have noticed wherever I go that the patches are very much thinner than they were last year.