Final Thistle Warning By Ellesmere County

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28490, 21 January 1958, Page 12

Final Thistle Warning By Ellesmere County

The Ellesmere County Council debated yesterday whether it should take legal action against land occupiers who are not taking satisfactory action against the spread of nodding thistles. The council instructed its noxious weeds inspector (Mr R. W. MacKenzie) to issue final Warnings to offenders, and to report to the next council meeting where there is failure to comply with these instructions. During the discussions Mr MacKenzie said that if the thistles were left unchecked for another two years they would be as bad in Ellesmere county as in Ashburton county. Reviewing the thistle problem in the county Mr A. Anderson, the county chairman, said that most farmers had done some work on them, but not as much as the council would have liked them to do. Some of them had been halfhearted about it. Mr Anderson said that last year he had said that the council would not hesitate to take offenders to Court, but on giving this matter further thought it was his feeling that farmers had to be educated in eradication of the thistle. Some farmers had left the spraying of the thistle too late so that they had not had the success that was hoped for. In these circumstances s’ome were inclined to say that spraying was no good simply because they had done H at the wrong time. Others could have made rather more use of manual labour, he said. List of Farms The thistles were unquestionably spreading, said Mr Anderson The council had a list of farms - where thistles were growing. His farm was on that list. Last year he had found five thistles on 25 acres. About two months ago he

had grubbed out 106 plants and the other day he had found another 26. “That is what we have got to aim at getting farmers to do,” he continued. “They have got to keep going back over their land looking for these thistles.” Spraying was the coming thing but it had to be done when the thistles were in the rosette stage, said Mr MacKenzie. A lot of farmers left it until the thistles were in bud or flower before spraying and where this was the case part of the plant was still in flower Where up to £5 an acre had been spent in spraying, he said, follow up procedures to deal with remaining plants had not been taken. “I feel that if we do not ds something we will get nowhere,” said Mr MacKenzie. “The thistles are getting dotted around the county ” Cr. H H. Heslop said that if there were bad offenders and it could be proved that they had done nothing, they should be brought before the court this year Cr. D. Marshall said that offenders should be interviewed again by the inspector and given a final chance. Some farmers must have made a fair attempt to control the thistles on their properties, and it might be advisable to wait a year to see whether what they had done had been done in vain or not, said Cr W E Walker. If the thistle was left alone and allowed to get into agricultural land "we will have a devil’s job to make a living on it,” said Mr Anderson.

Accident Reported.— The driver of the small car which was involved in a collision at the corner of England and Cashel streets in which a cyclist was slightly injured, reported the accident to the police yesterday.