THE CALIFORNIAN THISTLE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1197, 8 February 1895, Page 5

THE CALIFORNIAN THISTLE.

We have heard a good deal within the last few years of the Californian thistle, says the Ashburton Guardian, and repeated warnings have been given in these columns of allowing it to obtain a hold upon good land. At last County meeting the engineer reported the existence of a considerable patch on a reserve at Valetta,,and from various parts of the county we learn that small patches exist. The engineer was requested to see to the extirpation of the patch that had come under his notice, and farmers who have any upon their lands should take time by the forelock and get rid of it. We draw attention to this subject prompted by cases that were tried last month in Victoria under the Shire Thistle Act. The defendants were heavily fined for failing to deal with the pest. Messrs G. E. and G. S. Armytage, of Colac, were charged by the inspector with failing to suppress the Californian thistle on their land, and the local paper gives the following report of the case :—“Mr Hancock stated that the case had been heard about a month ago but had been dismissed upon a technical objection, viz., through the notice being undated. An order absolute had been granted by f the Supreme Court, setting aside the justices* decision and providing for the re-hearing of the case. The inspector deposed that Messrs Armytage were the occupiers of Turkeith station. The notice was served on the 27 th September. In his opinion reasonable means had not been adopted to destroy the thistles ; in fact it would take hundreds of men to effectually eradicate them. The bench inflicted a fine of L 5 with L 3 2s 6d costs.” We desire to draw attention to the inspector’s remarks that it would take hundreds of men to effectually eradicate the thistles, In the other

cases reported the evidence is equally strong, all tending to show that once land has been given over to the Californian thistle the work of eradication is more expensive than cultivation, and to remove the pest more costly and difficult than to remove a hilt deep mortgage. Twitch is bad enough, but it is a fool to the thistle, and if we would be wise in time we ought to spare no effort to fight the Californian. And he must be fought thoroughly. Every scrap of root will grow with far more certainty than a potato set, so that a farmer must be careful wheu digging out a plant to see that every string of the root has been secured, and, when dry, burned. In Tasmania, thousands of acres of what was once good fertile land have been abandoned as worthless, owing to the fact that the thistle has the soil in its ruinous clutch, and the work of clearing would be more than the freehold is worth.