122 THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



quantity during the dry weather; that he had left it in cock till the rains 

 came, when the sheep took to it, and have now eaten nearly all of it, which 

 leads him to believe that it would make excellent silage. The Chairman 

 stated that from observations he believed that the seed would be very suit- 

 able for poultry." (Journal Bureau Agric., S.A., i, 64, July, 1890.) 



The following account by a Kiverina grazier of its fodder value was 

 circulated in the press in September, 1911, and is instructive: 



My experience of Saffron Thistle is in direct opposition to those who consider 

 it a noxious weed. Until it runs up to a hard stein it is one of the sweetest of 

 grasses to be found. Its root is open and fibrous, and has the fertilising quali- 

 ties of rape, as it opens up the surface of the ground, and renders it mellow, 

 and allows the air and moisture to enter, which in grazing land is a very 

 necessary result to obtain. The thistle runs up to a long stem in the end of 

 October and November, when the grass has developed, and the thistle stalk pro- 

 tects the grass from blowing off in the winds of summer ; and between the cover 

 protected and the fertilising influence of the thistle roots, the first autumn rains 

 send up a coat of grass that is the principal food that the stock depend on for 

 Ihe winter, unless the rains are very plentiful, as the difference in a medium 

 dry autumn between the land protected by Saffron Thistle and the open bare 

 places on which it doesn't grow is most noticeable. I have seen the thistle 

 some years ago in the Goulburn Valley, and some of the sheep farmers are of 

 opinion that it was a great loss when it died out, which it does after a reason- 

 able time. As an objectionable weed it has no comparison with Cape weed or 

 cockspur. Both these weeds start with the first autumn rains, and smother 

 grass and crops where the seed has an opportunity of spreading, while the 

 Saffron Thistle only begins to grow up in October and November, w r hen the food 

 for stock is well advanced, and when wheat is nearly fit to cut for hay; and, as 

 far as cultivation is concerned, if land is well ploughed it will not come up 

 again until the land is allowed to go out of cultivation, and then the thistle has 

 the same effect as a crop of rape, as any farmer can prove by ploughing up a 

 paddock on which a good crop of thistle grew. His yield will always be a fail- 

 bit above the average. 



These are meritorious attempts to utilise a weed-pest. I would, however, 

 recommend that uncompromising war be waged against it; that it be 

 destroyed utterly. In cocking and carrying there is great danger of the 

 seeds flying about and infecting clean land. 



In Victoria there is in force a lengthy Act " To consolidate the law 

 relating to the Eradication of Thistles," No. MCXLV, 10th July, 1890. 

 Clause 3 gives a list of the thistles and allied plants included in its opera- 

 tion, but Carthamus lanatus is not included in the list. It is, however, de- 

 scribed and figured in the " Illustrated Description of Thistles, &c., included 

 within the Thistle Act of 1890 " (Department of Agriculture, Melbourne, 

 1893), so it has presumably been proclaimed a thistle under clause 3 of " An 

 Act to amend the Thistle Act, 1890" (No. 1,337, 6th November, 1893). 

 Landowners, lessees, or occupiers are, under these Acts, to destroy thistles 

 under a penalty not exceeding twenty pounds. 



In New South Wales it has been proclaimed (1919) by thirteen muni- 

 cipalities and thirty-two shires. 



Popular Description. A prickly plant, growing in bushy masses, and 

 attaining a height of 2 or 3 feet. The flowers are yellow, and are sur- 

 rounded with prickly clasping leaves almost of the same shape as those 

 which clasp the stem. The stem is a little furrowed and, in this State, 

 usually more or less silvery in appearance; plants growing in Europe are 



