A CURE FOR THE THISTLE PLAGUE. 251 



grown with thistles swore at them awfully and most unpatrioti- 

 cally, too, you will say, for he was a Scotchman when I spoke to 

 him on the subject. I assure you it is a very serious matter, for 

 unless the obnoxious weed is somehow got rid of, many places 

 will soon be uninhabitable, and, as you can easily understand, the 

 evil is daily and rapidly becoming worse. The thistles are at 

 present ripe, with large heads like cauliflowers, and when a smart 

 breeze is blowing, where they are plentiful, the air is filled with 

 thistle-down like a heavy snow-storm. If you, who know so 

 many things, could only suggest some effectual way of ridding 

 ourselves of this pest, you would be doing us a very real service." 

 At home, too, thistles, if not more plentiful, are at least of. larger 

 growth than usual. In a corner of our own garden, for instance, 

 there is still growing at the present moment a splendid fellow, 

 nearly six feet in height, to which we pay a daily visit in admira- 

 tion of its lusty growth, and the rich emerald green of its imbri- 

 cated involucral leaves. "We have purposely preserved it unhurt 

 till now, as something of a curiosity, but in a day or two it must 

 be cut down, for the seeds are fast ripening, and it were unwise, 

 if not actually criminal, to allow them to escape on downy wings 

 only to fall and germinate after their kind, a very nuisance, 

 elsewhere. Most herbaceous plants will bleed to death if cut 

 down two years running, just as they have about attained half their 

 growth ; and we can only suggest to our New Zealand friends that 

 they should treat their thistle fields after a similar fashion. Let 

 them be mowed down when about half, or rather more than half- 

 grown, with the scythe for two consecutive seasons, and we believe 

 the roots will infallibly die and disappear. We have known bracken, 

 ragwort, and burr-dock, &c. very effectively disposed of in this 

 way^ and have some confidence that thistles, too, might be 

 thoroughly eradicated by a similar process of vital wounding at the 

 hastiest stage of growth. From our correspondent's description of 



