HOW TO GROW GOOD GRASSES. 81 



2. Taking it for granted that grasses are for the 

 most part the best plants for pasturage and hay, it 

 follows that the plants of this list can only be weeds, 

 from their taking up space and living at the expense 

 of the wished-for crop, when, after all, the produce is 

 either useless, or so inferior that the whole product 

 of the field is vitiated by their presence. The best 

 way to eradicate these and other large-leaved and tall- 

 stemmed plants is to pull them early in the season — the 

 true theory being, that by the repeated destruction of 

 the leaves the rootstock ultimately decays. Close 

 depasturing also keeps them under for the same 

 reason, as the feet of horses and cattle so damage the 

 leaves as to ruin the growth and progress of the 

 other parts of the plant, which latter are requisite for 

 its continuance. 



3. Added to the evils just adverted to, this group 

 is injurious from its adverse mechanical appliances 

 in spinous leaves, stings, and the like. As regards 

 thistles in pasture, they certainly argue great neglect, 

 as they may be so readily spudded out, in which the 

 individual is destroyed, and all hope of its progeny. 

 It is, however, the fact that these plants are some- 

 times left to seed that makes the matter of destruction 

 appear so hopeless, as the winged seeds of thistles may 

 even find their way to a clean farm from a dirty one, 

 and roadsides and waste places are constant sources 

 of annoyance from this cause. 



So fast has the corn thistle increased in Tasmania, 

 as to make the people groan under a " plague of 

 thistles," for which they have invoked the aid of 

 special State legislation. 



The spud should be kept in active operation in the 

 field, so as to prevent these plants seeding, or indeed 



