WARMING THE SNAKE IN ONE'S BOSOM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1864, 17 June 1884, Page 3

WARMING THE SNAKE IN ONE'S BOSOM.

TO THE EDITOR. Sill, — The other day I saw in a neighbour's trim little gaiden a root of the stinging nettle. I said to the lady of the house, " ])o you know what you have here ? '" She said, " Oh, yes. It ib not an old friend, and does it not remind you of old times ? " I bind, "If it is an old friend, pray choke him, for once let loose in the countiy he will prove the wor&t of enemies." She replied, " As to that, he is already let loose, for I don't know how many bits of root I have given away." Sir, my object in writing to you on the subject is to wain people who may be harbouring this or any similar "old friend" of the consequences nf, such folly. On a recent visit to Taurandi, I was looking over a fiiend'h faun (ana*Kns~Tme of the best, and best cultivated farms round Tauranga), when my friend said, " I have a terrible plague to contend with here, and I don't know how to deal with it. It is the very worst weed 1 eyer knew." It was the stinging nettle. It seems to have taken complete possession' of the land. It was growing through the^ turnips, the carrots, the green oats — every-" where, in fact, like sorrel. Well, it is a libel on sorrel to compare it to such a thing. The only weed I know at all like it is, I think, the Canada thistle. It spreads by both root and seed ; cultivation seems only to strengthen it ; you can neither dig it out nor choke it out. A root in a garden may look like an "old friend," but it is a very dangerous friend, and surely we have pests enough here without trying to add to their number. I remember many years ago a person pointing out to tne a root of the common daisy, and saying he thought more of it than anything else he had qn the place, and now it is one of the greatest of pests to the farmers in that neighbourhood. Sir, if any of your readers like to trifle with poison, or fire, or t dynamite let them do so by all means, but', pray, warn thorn against cultivating the stinging nettle. — I am, &c. f J. H. Mandeno. t Te Awamutu, June 7th, 1884. -

*■ Mr E. L. Jones, ..pianoforte , tuner, announces , that he has made his'permafient residence ' in' Waikato, and is now prepared to entSr into, yearly or quarterly agreements for tuninp.a? per' terms , given. Orders, inaj be |dft ,wi{ll ilr, Lennoxi Hamilton. ' - .. \ ', ' * * '-