THISTLES AS FODDER PLANTS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2978, 12 April 1911, Page 17

THISTLES AS FODDER PLANTS.

The following notes on the possibilities of the wing thistle as a fodder-plant, supplied, by the Director of Fields and Experimental Farms, is published in the Journal of th<» Department of Agriculture : The trua winged thistle (Caraduus pycnooephalus) is plentiful throughout New Zealand, but is usually confined to waste places and grazing areas, and is not troublssomo on cultivated lands. In portions of the depleted areas in Central Otago and tha Mackenzie Country it constitutes a considerable and valuable food for stock, especially sheep, when no other vegetation is available and it undoubtedly has a high value under such conditions. Its cultivation as a. fodder-plant could not be advocated except on such country, and even there it would be displacing plants of much greater nutritive value which could otherwise occupy the same ground. It must be remembered that it lasts for only a portion of the year. The winged thistle must not be confused with the star thistle (Centaurea calcitrapa) or the yellow star thistle (Centaurea solstitialis), both of which are absolutely useless, the former being especially undesirable, aa it is armed with long, stiff, sharp spines, which inflict nasty festering wounds. In the South Island, however, the name star thistle is almost universally applied to tho true winged thistle.