TEE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 61 



Paddy's Lucerne is, in a word, a pest, a noxious weed, and there is 110 

 doubt that northern land owners (and even Parliament, as being a matter 

 almost of a national character) would be willing to pay a very handsome sum 

 if its extermination could be guaranteed. In such a way is the Prickly Pear 

 (Opuntia} dealt with; but Paddy's Lucerne is not as useless a plant 

 as the Prickly Pear and the Bathurst Burr, for, as is well known, it contains 

 a really valuable fibre, besides having some value as a fodder, as already 

 indicated. There is no doubt of this, for its value has been proved over and 

 over again, and at the present time it actually forms one of the innumerable 

 so-called " hemps " sent from India to Europe. I had excellent fibre made 

 from New South Wales and Queensland plants in my keeping for years, and 

 the samples are as good as, and better than, those obtained from an Indian 

 source. The prospect thus presents itself: Can the double advantage be 

 reaped of ridding the land of a pest (or rather of keeping it within bounds), 

 and at the same time making a useful article of commerce out of it? The 

 tempting problem has been so often attacked but with failure, on account 

 of the costliness of the process employed that a man who attempts to tackle 

 it now starts with prejudice against him, and rightly so. 



Mechanical Irritants. Since the seeds of Paddy's Lucerne have been 

 known to cause the death of }'oung fowls owing to their prickly character, 

 it may be desirable to add a few notes in regard to other weeds with the 

 power to cause irritation through mechanical means. Dr. Howitt in 

 *" Two Years in Victoria," Vol. I, p. 150. speaks, during the earliest gold rush 

 of grass-seeds penetrating the skins and even the lungs of sheep. Mr. 

 (now Prof.) J. D. Stewart, has an interesting article in Agricultural 

 Gazette, New South Wales, vol. xii, 357 (1901), entitled "The Injurious 

 Effects of Certain Grass-seeds to Live-stock." 



Large numbers of these belong to the Daisy Family, and also to the 

 grasses. For example, in the Daisy Family we have the burrs of Calotis 

 cuneifolia, sometimes called Bindi-eye, and those of Bidens, which have 

 forked awns like little pitch-forks. Then we have the boring seeds, which 

 have already been referred to at page 9, and to which may be added 

 certain awned seeds belonging to the genera Hordeum (Barley), A vena 

 (Oats), Bromus, and also the Porcupine and Spinifex Grasses of the 

 interior, Triodia. 



Amongst Hordeum the principal miscreant in New South Wales is 

 H. murinum L., figured and described in the Agricultural Gazette for 

 October, 1909. Under Avena the principal pest is A. fatua L., the Wild 

 Oat or Black Oat, which in some districts is a great pest. The " Farmers' 

 Handbook," page 267, gives a good account of it. Under the genus 

 Bromus we have quite a number of grasses with long irritating awns, and 

 which seem to be increasing in New South Wales. 



All the grasses mentioned are useful as forage in the young stage, and 

 that is why they are tolerated, and become so bad later on. 



Paddy's Lucerne is a proclaimed weed in one shire and eleven munici- 

 palities : 



SHIRE. 

 Cessnock. 



MUNICIPALITIES. 



Ashfield Concord Manly Rockdale 



Botany Hunter's Hill Maitland East Waratah. 



Bimvood Kogarah Mosman 



t 64225-C 



