CHAPTER III. 



PREVENTION AND ERADICATION OF WEEDS. 



Prevention. 



THE harm and loss caused by weeds is so fully recognised 

 that in many parts of the world legislation is in force to 

 control the occurrence and spread of weeds, the laws being 

 both preventive and remedial in nature. In many cases it 

 is an offence to deal in agricultural seeds which contain 

 more than a certain minimum percentage of specified weed 

 seeds, and, very frequently, certain weeds are regarded as 

 noxious and must be either eradicated or well kept under, in 

 default of which severe penalties are enforced. The Dominions 

 and several European countries are very active in this respect, 

 but up to the present little action has been taken in the British 

 Isles, though a certain amount of control is exercised in Ireland 

 and the Isle of Man. 



In those countries in which effective action is taken the 

 power of control conferred by legislation is very elastic. 

 Weeds definitely proclaimed as noxious have to be kept 

 down and in addition local authorities may proclaim other 

 weeds as circumstances arise. In the case of defaulters, 

 the authorities are given power to have the work carried 

 out and to claim the cost from 'the landowner or occupier, 

 as is done in the Transvaal, Canada, Australia, and else- 

 where. Further regulations ensure that the seed imported 

 from abroad shall be free from weed seeds. This is most 

 essential, as in parts of Australia the weed flora among the 

 arable crops on cleared land consists almost entirely of alien 

 weeds imported with the crop seeds, while the native vegeta- 

 tion has entirely died out. In Canada, too, many of the worst 

 weeds have arrived from Europe in the same way. So far no 

 regulations as to weed control are existent in this country, and 

 farmers have full liberty to present their neighbours with un- 

 limited supplies of the seeds of thistles, docks, and other evil 



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