THE THISTLES.

Waikato Times, Volume XV, Issue 1239, 8 June 1880, Page 2

THE THISTLES.

Just at this period of the year the thistles are rapidly decaying and bleaching in the faint gleams of snnt>hine ; and within the past few days we have been informed by more than one practical man that they are not altogether the pest which some imagine them to be. As the plants die and fall away they reveal little patches of snceulent clover, Avhich are more than usually acceptable to the cattle, by whom they would long ago have been eaten up bnt for the protection of the thistle. The question whether the good done in this way will compensate for the ground they occupy during the vernal season, to the exclusion of moio legitimate tenants of the meadow, however, still remains practically unsettled. A short time ago a gentleman engaged in farming in the neighborhood of Auckland, informs us that the thistle whicn formerly and for many yeai's successively infested his locality has entirely disappeared, and has not been on the land for several .seasons past. So for the experience of fanners in Waikato has been that the weed has entered into perpetual occupancy of the land. That the latter is improved in quality thereby seems to be generally admitted, but as this improvement has so far tended to the advantage of the thistles themselves, which have increased in size and luxuriance, it would be paradoxical to say that the owners of the soil have benefitted in any way. In default of anything more satisfactory, we suppose we must wait for time to settle the question for us.

Twekty Square Miles of "Wheat. — The poetry of the harvest field will have to be re-written. A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune, writing from Dalrymple farm, furnishes the rough mrterial for one canto. "Just think," he says, "of a sea of wheat containing 20 square miles — 13,000 acres — rich, ripe, golden j the winds ripple over it. As far as the eye can see there is the same golden sunset hue. Far away on the horizon you behold an army sweeping along in grand procession. Riding on to meet it you see a maiorgeneral on horseback — the superintendent; two brigadiers on horseback — repairers No swords flash in the sunlight, but their weapons are monkey wrenches and hammers, No brass band no drum-beat, or shrill note of the fife, but the army moves on — a solid phalanx of twenty-four self-binding reapers — to the music of its own machinery. At one sweep, in a twinkling, a swathe of 1 92 feet has been cut and bound — the reaper tossing- the bundles almost disdainfully in the air — each binder doing the work of six men. In all there are 115 self-binding reapers at work. During the harvest about 400 men are employed, and during- thrashing, 600, their wages being two dollars a day and board." "What plan," said one actor to another, ' ' shill I adopt to fill the house at my benefit?"" Invite your creditors" was the surly reply. Con. — Why should a Scotch spinster go out to India? — Because she is sure to find a mon-soon there. True to the Core,— The worm in the heart of an apple,