RACE HATRED IN PLANT LIFE.

Bush Advocate, Volume VII, Issue 650, 16 July 1892, Page 5

RACE HATRED IN PLANT LIFE.

Inanarticlo on "The Greenwood Treo," a writorin " Blackwood " lately referred to the competition iv plant life. We admit that tho inforrnaticn published is full o£ inteicst to readers, hut, on tho othe>-' and, tho wiiter was unfortunate iv 1113 artr^ from hegining to end, his fleiluetion^ ueinjr stultified by bh references, and his reforeneos liy his deductions. The struggles in plant life, as Darwin puts it, ond'in the mrvival of ihejlltcst, aud this truth u| pies with equal force both to plants and men. Tho portion of the article referred to ia as follows: — " Tho men who try against one another for a clerkship, or a post in a gang of workmen, are just as surely taking away braid and butter out of their fellows' mouths for their own advuntngo as if they fought for it openly with IUIb or six-shootcrp. Tho whito man who oncloses the hunting grounds of tho Indian, and plants them with corn, ia just ai surely dooming that Imlim to doath as if he scalped or tomahawked him. And co too with tho unconscipua warfare of plant?. Tho daisy or tho plantain that spreads ita rosotto of leaves flat against the gl'oundia just na truly monopolising a doliimte space of land as tho noble owner of a Highland deer forest. No blado of grass can spring bonenth the shadow of those tightly pressed little mats of foliage : no fragment cf carbon, no ray of sunshine cm over penetrate below that closo fence of Hying greenstuff, "" Plants, in fact, compete with onn another all roßi.tl for everything they Btainl in nctd of. They compote for their food— carbonic! acid. Thoy compete for their energy — their fair share of Bunlight. They compoto for water, and their fijothold in the soil. They competo for (he favours of tho insects that fertiliso their ilowcrp. They competo for the good services of the binle or mammals that dieseuiinato their seeds in proper spots for gei initiation. And how rea this coicpetlon is wo can tee in a moment if we think of Ihedift'.cul et ies of human cultivation. There, weeds aio always hattling manfully with our crops or our flowers for mastery over tho field or garden. We nro obliged to root up with ceassless'toil thoso intiuativo competitoiß if w.o. wish to enjoy tho kindly fruits of the oarth in duo seafon. When we leave a garden to itself for a few short years we realise at once what effect the competition of hardy natives has upon our carofully teuded

and uustablo exotics. In a very brief time the J dahlias and phloxes and lilies have all dis- \ appeared, and in their plate the coarse-growing 1 docks ami nettles and thistles havo raised their i heads aloft to monopolise air aud spaoo aud eunsbiiie." Y>'c have said the writsr was unfortunate in lus arguments. Iv Iho first paragraph above we have proof of this assertion. There is, in spile of the inferouce of our informant, a vast difference between tho struggle which takes place between tho human worker or pioneer, and vegotablo populations. Tho strugglo of tho former tends to perfection ; every movement made is an (/(fi.Mcc.^ln Iho vegetable khiftAom tieffimratioH is tlio oulcomo of every victory secured by Nature. If she invades the fields of the fai mer it is but to reduce them to a state of unproductiveness and chaos. Bank, nauseous weeds take the placo of tho nutritious golden corn. But if in the life of nations the white man invades the hunting grounds of the Indian, in due coiti'so industry, prosperity, and pnaco ever follow in the wako of tho civilizer. Naturo does not aerato tho soil : man by culture does. Herein from the cursa of labour is ovolved the Messing. That -wo have good grounds for this line of argument is evidenced in tho last four lines, we quote above. The weeds, it is admitted, subdue and destroy the less hardy cultivated plauta and flowers ; the garden becomes a wilderness. In accordance with tho primeval cuioe, Nature aims at def/cneraiion ; slie liems man in witn liriars and thorns. It in man's work to thwart these ceaseless efforts on tho part of his antagonist. Instead of foraats and weed's and thorns we want to exact from the soil fruit and food products, by tho medium of the orchard, tho garden, and the farm. Too much has been madu of late years of thia so-called competition or struggle in plaut life. It is a natural pro- ] rc.s.s pure and simple, in spite of the sensational articles which appear from time to time in the