INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



MOST of the information contained in the following pages has appeared in 

 articles by the author in the Agricultural Gazette of New South Wales 

 during the last twenty-five years. It is now collected in this form in the 

 hope that it will be of use to farmers and all others interested in the preven- 

 tion of the spread of pests that annually rob them of thousands of pounds. 



In this country of wide, imperfectly occupied areas, with special liability 

 to attack by new weeds from the four quarters of the world, a moral obliga- 

 tion attaches to every citizen to do what he can to check the weed menace, 

 and he should bear in mind that the expenditure of a shilling in tackling a 

 weed when first observed, may perhaps be more efficacious than the expendi- 

 ture of a hundred pounds in the following year. 



When a weed gets into New South Wales (it may have come oversea in 

 spite of precautions, or it may have spread from one part of the State to 

 another, or have come from another State, for the States have no means of 

 self-defence at the boundaries), it shows itself by means of a plant, or group 

 of plants. Every plant which makes its appearance in a district should be 

 viewed with suspicion, and, unless the finder knows what it is, he should 

 pull one or more plants up by the roots, wrap them in paper, ard address 

 them (the postage is quite snrall) to " The Director, Botanic Gardens, Syd- 

 ney." If that officer can name it in the form in which it is sent, he will 

 promptly give advice, but if flowers have to be waited for before it can be 

 named, he will ask for them and defer his advice, for some weeds cannot be 

 named if only leaves be available. 



Whether the weed be deemed to be harmless or not, it is desirable that the 

 local Town Clerk or Shire Clerk be informed, in order that the proper 

 municipal or shire officer may keep an eye on the intruder, and, if necessary, 

 approach the local body with the view of suitable action being taken under 

 authority of the Local Government Department. 



Weed legislation is referred to at p. 18. As regards Commonwealth 

 legislation, large numbers of food-seeds, such as wheat, are examined for 

 weed-impurities, and seeds in general are tested similarly at the seed-testing 

 laboratory of the Department of Agriculture in the Botanic Gardens, Syd- 

 ney. The object of this is to protect New South Wales from weeds arriving 

 by sea, and also from seeds of useful and ornamental plants which have 

 lost their germinating power. 



