IMPROVEMENT OF GRASS LAND 189 



Chief Veterinarian, concluded that if Ragwort does not 

 monopolise the ground sheep may, with few ex- 

 ceptions, eat it daily without suffering any ill effects, 

 and prove a decided check upon its growth, if they 

 do not lead to its almost complete eradication. 

 Cattle and horses avoided it when possible. In 

 South Africa, also, the Molteno Cattle Sickness (also 

 cirrhosis of the liver) has been traced to a weed of 

 the Ragwort variety (Senecio latifolius), and from speci- 

 mens examined at the Imperial Institute two new 

 crystalline alkaloids (senecifoline and senecifolidine) 

 have been isolated, 1.20 per cent being present in the 

 plant before flowering, and 0.49 per cent after flower- 

 ing. No disease of this character appears to have been 

 observed in the United Kingdom, and, the conditions 

 being different from those prevailing in Canada and 

 New Zealand, it is doubtful whether the plant is likely 

 to prove injurious here. It is, however, a worthless 

 weed in grass land, replacing better herbage, and should 

 be eradicated. 



The best plan of dealing with Ragwort consists in 

 feeding it off with sheep in spring and early summer, 

 thus weakening the plants and preventing seeding. 

 Where the flowering plants are seen they may be 

 readily pulled up after rain. In Canada there is good 

 evidence that where it has been mowed systematically 

 it has in a short time disappeared. M'Alpine and 

 Wright state that " the best method is, when cutting 

 off the heads, to leave a sufficient length of the lower 

 part of the stem untouched. In the autumn, when the 

 ground has been softened by rain and the roots have 

 shrunk and hardened, they may be quite easily pulled 

 out by hand." "The simplest means of exterminat- 

 ing the Ragwort is, however, to graze the land with 

 sheep in the early summer. . . . On land regularly 



