160 STATES OF THE RIVER PLATE. 



and such men must either reduce their stock and holdings, 

 or devote a fractional part of them to the initiation of an 

 improvement which, in course of time, they may make 

 general ; and there can be no question whatever that 

 there must be tillage land on every well-regulated esta- 

 blishment, or material improvement cannot be hoped for. 



IX. 



THE ' THISTLE,' ' SEPO CABALLO,' ' ABROJO,' AND POISONOUS 



HERBS. 



The former of these has its advocates, who believe it 

 to be not only a proof of good ' campo,' but advantageous 

 in itself. Sheep, cattle, and horses feed on it at certain 

 stages of its growth, and its seeds furnish a certain quota 

 of highly nutritious and oleaginous food ; and it is noto- 

 rious that, at the season of the fall of the seed, all stock 

 get into good condition. The thistle seed and the seed 

 of the medick clover are eaten from off the ground on 

 which probably not so much as a blade of grass is to be 

 found ; but I do not hesitate to say that it is an unques- 

 tionable and an incalculable plague. The large spreading 

 leaves and dense growth usurp the space which would be 

 occupied by infinitely better fodder, and of nutritious 

 quality tenfold that furnished by the thistle. At a cer- 

 tain period of its growth, its early stage, it is unques- 

 tionably a debilitating and unwholesome food, producing 

 hove and scour and at that period of the year all stock 

 are lean and weak where the thistle prevails ; and there 

 is little doubt that, even at the period of the seed fall, 

 a very much greater number of animals could be main- 

 tained in equal condition on the ripe grasses which would 



